Cherry is not only a delicious fruit that is loved by young and old alike, but it is also a superfood full of benefits for our bodies and mind. That’s why at El Ciruelo we are convinced that including it in our daily routine, while it’s still in season, is a very wise decision, and we bring you delicious recipes to make it easier and more fun to eat them.
Cherry Pie Yankee Style
Cherry Pie is an iconic American recipe that we’ve all seen in American movies and TV series while our mouths are watering. It may seem a complex recipe due to its juicy interior and its surface decorated with the classic honeycomb of puff pastry lozenges, but the truth is that it is a fairly simple recipe and ideal for cooking more with fruit, an option that improves our health and takes us away from processed and industrial sweets. With El Ciruelo cherries, this recipe can’t go wrong. We will have all the benefits of this fruit in a delicious dessert ideal for both hot and cold days.
This recipe will surprise you with its simplicity, the filling has no more than 4 ingredients, the preparation of the base consists of mixing all its components and then kneading it well and stretching it, and the cooking of the cake is done in the oven without the need to cook it in parts or other worries. This is also an ideal recipe for those who are not “little cooks” but want to start learning about the world of baking.
A key element in this recipe is patience, leaving the fruit to macerate for the necessary time with the sugar, baking without rushing so that it is cooked slowly… We are aware that it can be a nightmare if we think about the final result, but the wait is worth it, we guarantee it.
Ingredients for this Cherry Pie recipe:
For the filling we will need:
-1 kg. of El Ciruelo cherries.
-200 g. white sugar.
-30 g. flour or corn starch (Maizena).
-1 vanilla pod (this element can be omitted or replaced with 2 drops of vanilla essence).
For the cake dough:
-500 g. all-purpose wheat flour
-250 g. unsalted butter
-50 g. white sugar (if it can be icing sugar, it is better, but it is fine if it is the same as the one used for the filling).
-Juice of half a lemon
-100 ml of water
-A pinch of salt
For baking:
-1 egg for painting
-23 cm ø baking tin
Preparation, how to make the Cherry Pie step by step:
Making the filling:
- Wash the El Ciruelo cherries very well and pit them in half, put them all in a bowl and add the 200g of sugar, stirring well for 5 minutes. Don’t be afraid to crush them a little with the spoon and pastry tongue you are using, as the aim of this process is to mix the sugar and the fruit well so that they macerate well. Keep the bowl with the mixture in the fridge for 8 to 12 hours.
- Once this resting period has passed, the fruit will have macerated wonderfully with the sugar and we will have to add the inside of the vanilla pod and the cornstarch, stirring once again for 2 minutes with enveloping movements. Once we have reached this step, we will prepare the dough while the fruit cream is cooling down outside the fridge.
Preparation of the dough:
- Cut the unsalted butter into small cubes, take it straight from the fridge, and place it in a bowl with the 500 grams of flour, the 50 g of white sugar and the pinch of salt. Stir with a whisk or by hand, without flattening the dough, until you get a loose, earthy texture.
- Add 100 ml of water and lemon juice to this mixture and knead until the mixture is as homogeneous as possible. We recommend adding the water little by little to achieve a malleable but firm consistency that sticks slightly to your hands.
- We must divide our dough into 3 thirds as evenly as possible. Once formed, we will join 2 of these 3 parts, cover it with cling film and leave it to rest for an hour in the fridge, and we have the dough for the base. With the remaining third we will do the same, this will be for the diamond-shaped cover of our tart.
Preparation of the cherry pie:
- We take the bowl with the dough for the base and stretch it well until we make sure that it covers the whole base of the mold. If it breaks, try as many times as necessary, always trying to leave the thickness as homogeneous as possible. It is very useful to put the dough between 2 baking papers and use the rolling pin there to prevent the dough from sticking when rolling it out.
- Line our 23cm mold with baking paper to make it easier to unmould. Take your time for this, it is important that there are no cracks, if necessary put more than one layer. Once lined, we take our dough to the mold very carefully, making sure that there are no bubbles underneath and making a few punctures with a fork in the central part.
- Cut off the excess dough from the edges, but leave about 0.5 cm over the edge. Once this point has been reached, pour in the filling, which should be at room temperature. Take the remaining third of the dough and flatten it with a rolling pin until it is the same thickness as the base or even a little less thick and cut it into ten 1 cm wide strips.
- Place the strips of dough on top of the filling, 5 in one direction and the remaining 5 perpendicular to the first ones. This will give the lattice-like appearance that is so appealing in this recipe. Paint the surface of the tart with the beaten egg.
- Now we have the cake all assembled, we only have to put it in the oven preheated to 190º C and bake it for the first 15 minutes with heat only from below. Once this period has elapsed, apply heat from above and below at the same temperature for 45 minutes. If during baking the surface becomes too toasted, we can cover it with aluminum foil to prevent it from burning, but we must not lower the temperature or the dough will be raw.
Once this time is up, we will have our cake ready, we will take it out of the oven and unmould it quickly to prevent it from sweating and softening, we will leave it to cool on a rack such as an oven or the microwave to prevent it from keeping humidity. Once it has cooled down a little we can enjoy it (if it is a cold day), if, on the other hand, it is a hot day we recommend serving it with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on the side.
To preserve it, we recommend keeping it in the fridge, in a round cake tin where it retains all its properties and flavor. Ideally, it should be consumed within the next 5 days to prevent it from spoiling. Enjoy!
Don’t forget to share with us how your recipe turned out on our social networks @elciruelofruits!
