Sweet sugar free Cherry Pie

If there is anything i wanted to make since last cherry season,

than it’s this cherry pie!

Happy 4th of July!!!!

Time to celebrate with a sweet pie and be grateful for independence day. And with this i don’t mean the new independence day in the UK. I regret they are not part of the European Union anymore.

But who knows, they might come back to us again, when they see this cherry pie :)

I admit, last year i tried to make a cherry pie, but it failed. It was completely watery and i tried to figure out what i did wrong. However this time i knew exactly what to do cause i got some instructions from stone manor in Everberg.

I used Cornflour for binding and this time i mixed it with a liquid and warmed up the cherries in the pan. All the water got absorbed and my swimming pool cherries were dry this time! yay!

This is really not hard to make when you have enough time. Just give yourself a free afternoon for making this pie, it will be so worth it.

MAGICAL INGREDIENTS needed for the Flaky Crust :

Since you need a double batch of pie dough, follow the amounts below.

3 cups of all purpose flour (340 gr)

1/4 tsp of salt

220 gr vegetable shortening mixed with ice cold butter (i think i used 120 butter and 100 shortening)

* the more shortening, the more flaky your crust will be

So you can make this completely with shortening only, then use 190 gr.

7 to 8 tbsp of ice cold water

RECIPE :

Combine the flour and salt in a food processor with the dough knife and pulse a couple of times to combine..

Then add the shortening and butter in small pieces. Pulse a couple of times again. Until you get a crumble actually, then you know your butter is small enough to work further on.

Now add a little water at a time through the feed tube, while the machine is running on setting 1. The dough will become more heavier and give your machine time to put it all together. If necessary add more water, but be careful and be patience. After a minute or so, your dough will be ready. if it’s still too sticky, add a bit more flour. that’s the advantage of using a food processor, you can add ingredients any time. It may not stick and should be in 1 piece now. Your machine did it’s work well.

my hands stayed clean :)

Now, divide the dough in 2 and make flat disks. wrap in plastic wrap and put it in the fridge. So you have 2 disks in 2 wraps. Let cool for at least 1 hour.

TIP : Chilling the pastry all the time while working on the pie makes the dough able to relax and so minimizes the changes of it shrinking during cooking + it will be more crunchy this way.

INGREDIENTS FOR THE FILLING : 

1200 gr of pitted good quality cherries (i used cherries from turkey)

100 gr of date syrup

2 tsp of cherry liquor or almond extract

1/4 tsp of mixed spice (you can find this at stone manor)

2 tbsp of Cornflour (cornstarch for usa, or you can use tapioca too)

2 tbsp of water

Some butter cubes for finishing.

RECIPE : 

1. Pit the cherries, but do it not long before you start to make this pie. Cause when the stone is removed, the cherries start to loose their freshness and loose liquid also, you need strong cherries for this pie.

2. Take 1 dough disk from the fridge and start rolling it out in desired size. Make sure you do this quickly, cause the warmer the dough get’s, the harder it is to work with it and it will become very sticky. Cut some holes with a fork on the bottom of your pie and put the dish in the fridge for cooling again. Yes the whole pie dish :)

3. Now you can start heating up the cherries in a pan together with the date syrup. Bring to a simmer and stir in the cherry liquor or almond extract and mixed spice. Let cook a bit.

4. In a small bowl combine the cornflour with water and add it to the cherries. You will see that it starts to thicken. That is the point. When you get some kind of syrup, turn of the heat and let cool a bit in the pan.

Pre heat your oven at 220°C.

5. In the meanwhile you can take out the second dough disk and roll out too.

TIP ; if you want to make some cuttings in it, i suggest you do that after the dough is on the pie. I tried before and the dough completely fell appart and i could not get it on the pie dish.

So, now you can take out your cooled pie dish again + you have your top dough rolled out already too.

6. Fill the pie with the slightly cooled cherry mixture and add some butter cubes in-between the cherries, let’s say about 8 pieces of 0,5 cm?

7. Gently lay the other dough part on top of the pie dish and cut out your desired shapes. Or use a pie bird for letting some air out of the dish. Make sure the edges are well pressed together, so that it all becomes 1 piece of pie.

8. You can also glaze the top with beaten egg, but then cover it with aluminium foil or so, cause it will start to brown too quickly. 

9. Put in the pre heated oven for about 40 minutes. You can check the pie when it bakes so it does not get too brown on top. Then remove from the oven and let it cool completely in the dish. You will see the pie set once it’s cooling. IN NO CASE remove the pie from the dish when it’s still warm! You would ruin it.....

Then when you managed to wait that long....i would say ENJOY!

TOOLS USED :

* The dough i made with my KitchenAid food processor and i find the consistency perfect.

* Pitting the cherries i did with OXO cherry pitter. It took a bit, but it did it’s job well.

* I used a pie dish from Emile Henry which i find so beautiful heart shaped!

32,5 x 28 cm (12,8 x 11 inches) are the sizes.

* I also have a new pastry mat for rolling out my dough in the desired diameter. It just came in time and you can find it HERE. Very fast shipping i must say :)

* Recently i also got myself a new dough roller and it’s so handy and sturdy. It’s from Jamie Oliver.

* United states flag i already had from my photo shootings and was perfect for today.

In Pictures

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