Cherry American Pie

We will start by preparing the dough: Mix the flour with salt, sugar and lemon zest. Then add the cold butter, the cold water, the vanilla extract and the egg yolk – put all of them in a food processor so it will be faster and easier for you. 🙂

Divide the resulted dough into two unequal parts (three quarters and one quarter) and form two balls of dough that would be good to be flattened, wrap them in food foil and put them in the fridge for an hour (or overnight).

Stretch the bigger ball of dough into a disk with a diameter larger than the pie pan used. Stretch the dough into the pan and put it in the refrigerator for 15 minutes. We will stretch also the second ball and cut it in strips of 1-1.5 cm thick. Place them on a plate covered with food foil and put them in the refrigerator. (do not forget to sprinkle a little flour on the surface when stretching the dough)

For the filling we will put the cherries in a bowl with the sugar, the starch, the salt, the lemon juice, the vanilla extract and the kirsch (or liqueur) – we will mix gently all of them so as to cover the fruit with the rest of the ingredients. Next we’ll let them stand for 30 minutes to blend flavors.

We will pour the filling into the prepared pan with the dough and we will sprinkle the butter cut into small pieces over it. Brush the edges of the pie with the beaten egg and cover with the strips of dough. You should try to form a kind of braiding of the strips to cover the pie. Finally brush the surface with the egg and sprinkle over a little brown sugar.

Put the pie in preheated oven at 200C and leave it for 15 minutes, then reduce the heat to 180C and leave it in the oven for another 30 minutes until the dough is golden brown and the cherry mixture begins to boil.

When it’s done, let it cool for at least an hour before slicing it.

A slice of cherry pie, served with vanilla ice cream will be a delight in any moment of the day.

Enjoy it!