Cherry Pie

I guess you can tell which ingredient is in season, second blog to feature this tasty fruit. We had the wonderful bounty of 4 members of the family working for the same company and each received a box of gorgeous Australian cherries as their Christmas bonus. After distributing as many to friends and family we still had some leftover, they were too delicious to waste. So after spending half an hour pipping the little deep red Christmas baubles, they were ready to bake in to a pie. Thanks to Jamie Oliver for the inspiration.

Ingredients

600 g pitted cherries
30 g butter
1 lemon
1 Tablespoon plain flour
1 1/2 Tablespoon cornflour
150 g caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 large free range/organic egg
6 Tablespoons milk

Pastry

255 g cold butter, diced
500 g plain flour (extra for dusting)
150 g icing sugar
6 large free range/organic egg yolks

Method

Pastry
Combine in the food processor, butter, flour and icing sugar, whizz until it looks like fine breadcrumbs.
Add the egg yolks, one at a time and wiz, add 1 to 2 tablespoons of chilled water until the mixture becomes a ball.
Knead on a lightly floured board for 30 seconds. Divide into 2 and wrap in plastic warp and refrigerate for a minimum of 1 hour.
Lightly grease a 22 cm pie dish with butter.
Remove one of the pastry dough's from the fridge and and roll out on a lightly floured surface to form a 30 cm circle approximately 4 - 7 mm thick.
Chill the pastry case whilst making the filling.

Filling
Preheat oven to Celsius 200 degrees
Place pipped cherries in a bowl with lemon zest and juice, flour, cornflour, sugar and vanilla extract. Mix well. Leave at room temperature for 10 minutes.
Remove pie dish form the fridge and spoon filling into pastry shell, Dot with diced butter.
Roll out remaining pastry, drape over the rolling pin and place on top of the pie. Press edges together to seal.
Cut 3 slashes on the top to let hot air escape during cooking. Beat the egg with milk and brush over the pastry.
Bake for 10 minutes then lower the heat to 180 degrees Celsius for an additional 40 minutes or until browned.

Serve with Ice cream or cream.

Very Yum!
Mamma Marmalade