Cherry Pie Easy Recipe 455

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil. Place bottom pie crust into a 9-inch pie pan; made pricks along the bottom with a fork.
• Bake in the preheated oven until pie crust is lightly browned, about 8 minutes. Remove crust from oven and cool for 5 minutes.
• Combine cherries, sugar, cornstarch, and almond extract together in a bowl. Pour cherry mixture into the prepared pie pan; dot with butter. Cover with top crusts, crimp the edges to seal, and cut vents into the top with a sharp knife. Place the pie on a foil-covered baking sheet.
• Bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes. If it is browning too fast cover the pie with an aluminum foil tent. Continue baking until crust is golden brown and filling is bubbly, 10 to 20 minutes. Place on a wire rack to cool, about 15 minutes.

Steps:

• First, make the pastry. Tip the flour, 50g almonds, butter, sugar and ¼ tsp salt into a food processor. Blend until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Beat the egg yolks with 2 tbsp cold water, drizzle over the flour and butter mixture and blend again until the dough starts to clump together. Tip onto a work surface and knead briefly to bring everything together into a smooth dough. Divide into two pieces and shape each lump into a puck shape. Wrap and chill for 30 mins. Will keep, wrapped and chilled, for up to two days.
• Remove the stones from the cherries - either cut them in half and pop out each stone, or use a cherry stoner. Toss the cherries with the jam, sugar and cornflour until there are no floury patches.
• If the pastry has been chilled for longer than 30 mins, bring it out of the fridge 20 mins or so before rolling, as it will be very firm. Heat the oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6. Dust a surface with a little flour, then unwrap one piece of pastry. Carefully roll it out until it's large enough to line the base and sides of a 25cm pie dish, skillet pan or cake tin. The pastry will be very delicate, if any cracks appear when rolling, squash them back together and keep going. Lift the pastry over the rolling pin and into the dish - don't worry if it breaks, just patch it up by pushing it into the corners and up the sides and closing any holes. There should be a little overhang around the edges. Sprinkle the reserved 2 tbsp almonds over the base, then spread the cherries on top to fill the pie in an even layer.
• Roll out the remaining pastry so it's large enough to cover the pie. Brush a little beaten egg white around the pastry edge. Top the pie with the pastry lid as it is (piercing a hole in the centre for the steam to escape), or make a lattice topping. To do this, cut the pastry into strips, however wide you like. Arrange half the strips in one direction over the pie, leaving a few centimetres gap between each. Weave the remaining strips under and over these in the opposite direction, creating a lattice pattern. Squash the pastry together around the edge, then trim the excess with a sharp knife.
• Crimp the edge for a neat finish, or use any pastry scraps to make shapes to run around the edge - we used a piping nozzle to cut small circles. Stick them on with a little more egg wash, then brush the whole pie with a thin layer of egg wash. Sprinkle over a little caster sugar. Bake for 55 mins-1 hr, checking the pie after 40 mins. The edges may brown more quickly than the centre, if this happens, wrap a little kitchen foil around the edge to protect it.
• Remove from the oven and leave to cool for 1 hr. If you cut it too soon, the fruit juice will be very runny and flood the pie. Best served just warm with cream or ice cream.

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 425.
• Pit and halve cherries, set aside.
• In a separate bowl stir together flour and salt, stir in the sugar, add the cherries and almond extract. Then mix in the cold, cubed butter. Place mixture in the fridge to keep the butter from melting.
• To make the crust stir together flour and salt.
• Add the 3/4 cup of butter flavor Crisco and cut in shortening with a fork, 2 knives or pastry cutter until shortening is the size of small peas.
• Add water, a tablespoon at a time, and mix with fork until the dough starts to form a ball.
• Work dough into one large ball then separate into two. (If doing a lattice top, or using a deep dish pie pan, I normally make the ball for the bottom pie crust a little larger, gives you more to work with when rolling out the dough).
• You can either roll out the dough between 2 sheets of wax paper, or a floured surface. I prefer rolling it out on a floured surface, sprinkling a little flour on top of the crust and my rolling pin, rolling it out until about 1/8 inch thickness. Then rolling the crust onto my rolling pin and placing it on the pie plate. Make the crust a little larger then your pie pan.
• Prick bottom crust with a fork.
• Add the cherry filling into the crust.
• If making a solid top, again roll out another pie crust and add to the top, crimp edges with a fork that's been dipped in flour, and cut slits into the pie.
• I like to add a small amount of melted butter brushed over the top and a sprinkling of white sugar to give the crust a little sweetness, but this is of course optional.
• Place pie on a cookie sheet in center of oven and bake at 425 for 40 minutes, or if you're in high altitudes, bake at 400, until golden brown.
• Note: if the edges of the crust are browning too quickly, wrap edges in aluminum foil.