Sour Cherry Pie

Start by making the pastry base. Cut the cold butter into small 2cm pieces and set aside. Add the flour, salt and sugar to the bowl of a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, and stir to combine.

Add the butter and beat very gently, just enough to coat the flour with the butter, until mostly pea-sized pieces of butter remain; they can be a little uneven in size but no huge bits. Don’t over-beat the mixture. If doing by hand, work quickly with cold, dry hands, rubbing the butter into the flour mix between thumb and fingers.

Combine the water, vinegar and ice in a small bowl. Gradually add this to the flour mix, a tbsp at a time, with the mixer on low, until it just comes together into a ball.

Split the dough into two pieces, flatten each into a disk, wrap in clingfilm and rest in the fridge for an hour (or preferably overnight – it will last for 3 days if wrapped airtight).

Once rested, remove ½ the pastry from the fridge and leave for about 5 mins or until it’s just soft enough to roll, but still very firm. Roll the piece out on a clean floured surface until it’s large enough to line a 25 cm pie dish then carefully lift the pastry over the rolling pin and into the dish. Return the lined pan to the fridge to rest for at least another hour.

Meanwhile, make the filling. Add the cherries, lemon juice, granulated sugar, brown sugar, cornflour, mixed spice, salt to a large mixing bowl and stir to combine. Set aside to soak for 1hr. Then, strain the mixture through a sieve into a saucepan and set the sieve of cherries aisde. Set the saucepan with the cherry liquid over a medium heat and cook until the liquid becomes thick and starts bubbling, 5-6 mins. Remove from the heat, let cool down to room temperature and whisk ½ the eggs in.

When the pastry has almost finished resting, heat the oven to 190°C.

To make the lattice pastry top, remove the remaining chilled dough from the fridge and roll it out to a 12 inch circle on a lightly floured surface. Cut the dough into ½ inch strips using a sharp knife (12 strips per pie).

Fill the rested pastry-lined pie dish with the filling.

Arrange ½ the dough strips across the pie top, leaving about a ½ inch of space between each strip.
Now weave the strips: place the remaining strips perpendicular to the first set, weaving them over and under the existing strips. Try to keep the strips evenly spaced so you have a symmetrical pattern.
Trim any excess dough and press the edges of the lattice strips to the sides of the bottom crust, sealing them together.


Whisk the remaining egg with the water to make an egg wash. Brush the pastry with the egg wash and dust with the demerara sugar.

Bake in the preheated oven, on the lowest shelf for 50-60 mins, or until the crust is golden brown and the filling is bubbling.

Serve warm with vanilla ice cream or at room temperature with cream.