If you cheat (which I did), and buy shop-bought pastry, I think it might actually be possible to “bake cherry pie as quick as a cat can wink its eye” (Puff the Magic Dragon)! Ok, I exaggerate, but it is really easy, and it’s delicious, so you really should give it a go.
I have made various versions of sweet pastry on many occasions before this though, and I think it would be perfect for this pie; there are literally millions of recipes for this online.
To serve 6-8 (with almond ice cream).
My pie dish is approximately 25cm in diameter.
The ingredients:
Cherries – 2 kg
Caster sugar – 4 tablespoons
Shop-bought, ready-to-roll shortcrust pastry – 500g block
The recipe:
- Preheat your oven to 180°C / gas 4.
- Cut a third off your block of pastry, wrap in cling film and reserve.
- Roll out the remaining pastry on a lightly floured surface.
- Grease and line your pie dish with the rolled out pastry.
- Pit your cherries*, filling the pie dish as you go.
- Sprinkle 3 tablespoons of the sugar over the fruit.
- Roll out the leftover third of pastry and use it to top your pie.
- Any pastry trimmings can be used to make pretty cherry decorations to top the pie with.
- Sprinkle the remaining sugar over the top of the pie.
- Make a small hole in the top of the pie, so the steam escapes (you’ll get soggy pastry if you don’t).
- Bake for approximately 30 minutes, until the pie is golden.
*Pitting cherries is an exceedingly lengthy and boring task, but this is exactly what makes it good for an eat-together. This is because pitting cherries is the sort of task that requires only enough concentration to prevent stones ending up in your pie (very little), so can be done having an equally lengthy chat with your eat-together chums, washed down with a (few) glass(es) of wine.
eight potatoes 