How to make a deep-dish cherry pie that looks every bit as good as it tastes
- With 2kg of fruit, this flaky pastry pie is practically impossible to cut into small slivers
- But when it is this appetising, no one will even notice the plated presentation
I love cherries, especially the vividly coloured sour cherries that make the best sorbets and pies. Unfortunately, sour cherries are difficult to find outside areas where they are grown, because they are softer than black cherries.
But black cherries are delicious for eating out of hand, and they can also make really good pies. I bake them into a deep-dish pie that takes 2kg of fruit. It’s difficult to cut the pie into tidy wedges – this much fruit means that each slice collapses onto the plate – but it’s still delicious.
Deep-dish cherry pie with flaky pastry
This flaky pastry isn’t the same as puff pastry, but it uses the same technique of repeatedly rolling or patting out the dough and folding it, to create airy layers.
It can be difficult to get the correct amount of thickener (in this case, cornstarch) so that the filling has a sauce that oozes gently, instead of being runny. If the fruit you buy is very juicy, or if you want a thicker filling, use the larger amount of cornstarch.
For the crust:
360 grams plain (all-purpose) flour, plus extra for rolling the dough
¾ tsp fine-grained sea salt
1 tsp granulated sugar
250 grams unsalted butter, chilled
80ml iced water
1 egg, for brushing the dough
For the filling:
2kg fresh black cherries
About 200 grams granulated sugar, plus more for sprinkling
½ tsp fine sea salt
100-125 grams cornstarch
2 tsp almond extract
60ml fresh lemon juice