Rustic Cherry Pie Recipe

What is your favourite treat? The perfect treat for me is something home baked. A cake, pie, cookies. There is nothing better than the house filled with a lovely aroma of fresh baking at any time of the day. Cinnamon rolls, sugar buns, poppy seed roll, chewy oaty cookies, french loaf, stromboli, apple pie... Oh, this list can go on and on. Baking for me is like a good therapy session really, especially the part when we all get together to enjoy a slice of baked goodness with a cup of tea.

While creating the slice of the cherry pie on my latest ATC, I thought it would be a nice idea to share my favourite recipe with all of you my dear readers. I hope you might find some time for baking and enjoy a piece of this delicious pie, while still warm, topped with some cream or ice cream. I was going to take a step-by-step photos, but my baking nowadays is done late at night and the light is not good for photo taking at all, but it's a really easy recipe that you don't really need any visual assistance for. So here we go.

Ingredients:

4 cups frozen pitted cherries (cut in half if too big)
1tsp Vanilla Extract
50g + 150g cold butter
2tbs + 2 cups plain flour
1/2 cup + 2tbs sugar
2tbs milk

Method:

1. Make pastry. Place flour in a bowl, roll the block of butter in flour and grate straight into the flour on a large grater. Add 2tbs sugar and mix gently with your fingers until the mixture resembles large crumbs. Add 5-7 tbs cold water. Mix it gently until it just all comes together (but still quite lumpy/flaky). Form a flat round and put it in a plastic bag. Refrigerate for an hour or overnight.

2. When you are ready to bake, preheat oven to 200°C.

3. In a large bowl mix together cherries, 1/2 cup sugar, vanilla and 2tbs flour. Stir well.

4. Roll pastry into a large round about 0.5-0.8cm thick. Prick with a fork. Top with cherries, spread well leaving a 3-5cm border. Fold in the edges, brush with milk. Dot with remaining butter (this is optional).

5. Bake for about 40 minutes until golden brown. Serve with cream or ice cream and a cup of tea. Enjoy!

Important Note: Make sure that you do not put too much water and do not over mix the dough. It has to be quite dry and lumpy (flaky).

One more note: You can use any fruit or berries (fresh or frozen) for the topping really. In summer I like sliced peaches with vanilla bean paste.