Cherry Pie Recipe

 

I love fresh cherries!  On my university summer holidays, I worked at a large department store and every lunch break I’d walk across to the supermarket for cherries.  When I was dreaming up this desert, I couldn’t bear the thought of cooking these beautiful American cherries so I’ve prepared a fresh cherry pie instead.

We have just got back from the USA and cherries were so cheap compared to Australia. It’s funny the little things you notice that are different. The serving sizes in the USA are huge and there’s lots of flags on every street. But there’s no meat pies, no lemon lime and bitters, the bread is sweeter and I struggled to find a healthy breakfast cereal. Even the original Special K has zero fibre and one morning I tried a box of what looked like Sultana Bran but the sultanas were white – covered in sugar. I do have a sweet tooth but I like my main meals to be healthy.

 

To make this fresh cherry pie recipe you will need:

Makes 1 tart, my pie tin is 35cm (13.78 inches) x 13cm (5.12 inches)

Pastry
120g (4.23 ounces) or 1/2 cup plus 1Tbsp unsalted butter
95g (3.35 ounces) or 3/4 cup of icing or powdered sugar
zest of one lime or lemon
1 egg
35g (1.23 ounces) or 1/3 cup almond meal
240g (8.47 ounces) or 1 1/2 cups of plain or all purpose flour

Preheat your oven to 180C (356 degrees Fahrenheit). Whisk together the zest, butter and sugar until creamy. Add the egg and whisk some more. Mix in the almond meal and then finally the flour. Mix until is just starts to all clump together. Press to form a ball then place between two sheets of plastic wrap. Roll it out to be slightly bigger than the size of your tin. Place in the tin and blind bake for approx 13 minutes, remove the baking weight and bake for a further 3 minutes. Note that baking times may vary from oven to oven.

Filling
225g (7.94 ounces) or 1 cup minus 2 tablespoons of block cream cheese
35g (1.23 ounces) or 2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons caster or superfine sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
240millilitres (8.12 fluid ounces) or 1 cup minus 1 tablespoon of cream

Whip together the cream cheese and sugar until smooth and creamy. Add in the vanilla and half the cream. Whisk well. Add the remaining cream and whisk until thick and smooth.

Topping
1.3 kg (2.87 pounds) fresh cherries, pitted
79g (2.79 ounces) or 1/4 cup seedless red jam (US: jelly, UK: conserve)

Resource: howtocookthat