Cherry Pie with Almond Shortcrust

It has been a long time since I have posted (again) but here goes - hopefully I will be posting more regularly this year. Little Miss C has just turned 2 and is now at an age where we can do a little bit of baking together, and I can actually enjoy some time in the kitchen by myself without being constantly interrupted (provided Playschool or Peppa Pig are on TV!). That said, we are very excited to be expecting baby number two so I can see myself becoming very time poor again in the not too distant future!

This recipe is one that I first baked for Little Miss C's first birthday party (it was actually her second first birthday party because Daddy missed the first one!) - a hungry caterpillar themed party.



I made each of the foods that the little hungry caterpillar eats his way through as he grows into a big fat caterpillar.





One of those things is a piece of cherry pie, and when the theme for the first Pudding Club of the year was fruit, my thoughts immediately went to the hungry caterpillar munching his way through some cherry pie. We read that book a lot...



Cherries would have to be my favourite fruit, and this pie is pretty easy - filled with a deliciously jammy cherry and apple filling covered with a crispy almond shortcrust; you can't really go wrong. My only apology is that I only took one photo - I totally forgot to take photos as I was cooking!

Enjoy, little caterpillars!
Frankie xox

Cherry Pie with Almond Shortcrust

Ingredients

Pastry
1 3/4 cups (235g) plain flour
1/3 cups (40g) icing sugar
3/4 cups (80g) almond meal
180g cold butter, cubed


Pie Filling
3 Granny Smith apples
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons caster sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 lemon
670g jar pitted Morello cherries
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Put plain flour, icing sugar, almond meal, and butter in food processor
Process until mix starts to come together
Tip onto floured board and bring together into a ball
Wrap in glad wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes

Peel, core, and dice apples
Melt butter in saucepan over medium heat
Add apples, caster sugar, cinnamon
Finely grate lemon rind and juice lemon and add to the apple mixture
Stir until sugar is dissolved then simmer for 10 minutes
Strain jar of cherries and save juice
Add cherries, 3 tablespoons of cherry juice, and vanilla extract to apple mixture
Continue to simmer for 20 minutes, stirring intermittently
Remove from heat and set aside to cool completely

Preheat oven to 180C
Split pastry dough and put 1/3 back in refrigerator
Roll out 2/3 of dough to 2mm thick and place in greased and floured pie tin
Weigh down with pie weights and bake for 15 minutes
Remove pie weights and bake for further 5 minutes then allow to cool completely

Spread filling in pie shell when both are completely cooled
Roll out remaining 1/3 of dough to 2mm thick and cut into thin strips
Lattice strips over pie and bake at 180C for 25 minutes

Serve hot or cold with icecream or whipped cream