Granny’s Vintage Cherry Pie

The combination of Cream Cheese crust with the sweetness

of the cherries is simply Yum!

Summer is halfway!

Oh how i love cherries! I can not get enough of them, so i decided to make a second cherry Pie this summer. And that all from scratch. This time i made a crust of Cream Cheese from THIS BOOK.

It had more flavor than the other one i made recently. Though i find them both delicious.

The difference of the 2 pies i made are in the crust >> The other one had more a more crumble crust and this one is more fuller and cheese cookie like taste.

Up to your taste you can make it with this cream cheese crust or from THIS CHERRY PIE i made.

Take some time to make the crust before, it needs chilling in the fridge. You can do that easily in the morning and in the afternoon you make the filling and bake the pie. Perfect to do so with a rainy day. Don’t make this pie when it’s hot outside, since the dough will become very sticky and hard to handle. I must say that this cream cheese pastry is the best one for me to work with so far. No cracks, no difficulties with rolling out. Just simple and smooth.

TIP : I use vegetable shortening to have it more crunchy and it leaves less water with baking.

Though you can do it perfectly with butter from the fridge.

Let’s get started!

INGREDIENTS for the pastry : 

3 Cups of all purpose flour

1/2 tsp of salt

2 tbsp of Stevia powder or sugar

1/4 tsp of Mixed spice (which you can find at stone manor in BE)

1/2 cup of vegetable shortening or butter

113 gr of Cream cheese (i used Philadelphia)

1/2 cup of ice cold water

RECIPE : 

Take your Food processor out with the dough blade and start using it now :)
Why i use a food processor for making dough? It has the best results in comparisation to “hand made”. Smooth like it should be, it makes it easier to work with the dough.

1. Put the flour, mixed spice, salt and Stevia in your biggest bowl and mix with the pulse. Just a couple of times. 

2. Now add the shortening and cream cheese + some ice cold water >> don’t add all the water in one time. Look at your dough while pulsing a couple of times and then use speed 1. 

3. Continue to watch how the ingredients are forming a dough. Add more water if necessary. Let the food processor do it’s work. It will take about 1 minute. 

4. When everything is mixed, stop the machine and pull out the dough. It may not stick anymore, otherwise add some more flour and continue kneading at speed 1. All the flour has to be absorbed in the machine. 

5. Work with feeling in the kitchen, it will give the best results.

Divide in 2 pieces, one a bit larger then the other. The bigger one is for the bottom. The smaller one for decoration on top. Wrap both in clingfilm and let it cool in the fridge........

INGREDIENTS for the filling : 

1,4 kg of Cherries freshly pitted

50 ml of coconut blossom nectar (syrup)

50 gr of coconut blossom sugar (that is brown)

1/2 tsp of almond extract

1/4 tsp mixed spice

2 tbsp of Cornflour

2 tbsp cold water

1 egg (beaten at the end for the glaze)

RECIPE : 

1. In the afternoon pit the cherries with your cherry pitter >> I use one by OXO. I have been pitting cherries in the garden on a beautiful summers day.

Don’t pit them the day before, since they will become very watery and it will ruin the pie.

2. Put the cherries in a pan and add the Coconutblossom nectar and sugar. Also add the almond extract and mixed spice. Heat up the cherries and stir regulary. Leave the cherries some time to become warmer. Don’t let it cook really. 

3. When you notice they become softer, start mixing the cornflour with 2 tbsp of water so it becomes a paste. Add this to the cherries while stirring.

Keep stirring and let the mixture become thicker. It will become like a syrup cause of the cornflour. This does not take long.

4. Then turn off the heat and let it cool down a bit in the pan.

FINISHING TOUCH : 

1. Take out your biggest disc of dough and start rolling it out on a (Click next) LARGE PASTRY MAT which has circles for your convenience, with your rolling pin. Otherwise place your pie dish upside down and make sure you have enough to cover the edges of the pie dish as well. Roll out more if this is not the case. 

2. Now roll it over your rolling pin and cover the pie dish with the dough. This goes so easily......

Make sure you tighten it up at the edges with your fingers. Take a fork and add mark some holes in it.

Put the pie dish with pastry in it back into the fridge for cooling again. This is important!

3. Now Pre-heat your oven at 225°c.

4. Roll out the other disc about the same thickness as the bottom you just rolled out. Use a pasta wheel or anything else you have to cut out some stripes for decoration. Make sure they are long enough to cover the whole pie width or decorate as you like. I decided to go in vintage style like grandmas use to decorate ;-)

4. So this is ready for use. Now it’s time to add the filling to the pie dish. Take out the pie dish from the fridge,  it will have cooled down by now which is necessary so the dough does not start sweating and sticking together. 

5. Pour the cooled down cherry filling into the pie dish and start decorating the top to own desire.

Make sure you combine the stripes with the bottom dough. So they become one.

6. For the glaze, simply beat 1 egg and brush it out over the pie (not on the cherries).

You don’t have to add butter inside like many recipes tell you. Simply put it like this in the middle of the oven. Use a wire rack, not a baking plate.

7. Bake for 15 minutes and then cover the pie with aluminium foil to prevent it to bake too hard on top. The foil will make sure it does not color the top anymore.

Bake for another 25 minutes at this temperature.

8. When ready, remove the foil from the pie and let cool down on a rack. Don’t remove the pie from the dish. Simply let cool down just like that. It will take at least 5 to 6 hours before it’s cooled down hehe. Now it’s waiting to taste......Oh so difficult to wait now.....sigh.

Taste and enjoy!

In Pictures

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