Sour Cherries Pie

Yesterday we enjoyed the sour cherries harvest and I had to prepare something delicious and beautiful. Investing a little more time for decoration I weaved the cover with dough stripes and pressed it lightly together before placing it on the filling.

I converted the remaining of the sour cherries in jam, next time I will prepare this pie with some of the sour cherries, but I will add more fruits (apples?) as a pure jam filling would be too sweet for me.

You need:

Pastry

o    3 cups (375 g)  flour

o    3 tablespoons sugar, optional

o    2 sticks (226 g) butter or margarine, cold

o    1 pinch salt

o    1 teaspoon bitter almond extract

o    6 – 7 tablespoons water, cold

Filling

o    1 kg ripe sour cherries

o    150 g sugar, to taste

o    3 tablespoons cornstarch

o    1 large egg, lightly beaten

o    sugarfor toppping

Procedure:

1. Combine the flour, sugar and salt in a bowl. Using a fork, cut the cold butter into the flour until the size of small peas. Add the almond extract and mix briefly. Gradually add the water one tablespoon at a time until the dough holds together when pressed between two fingers. There should still be chunks of butter. Do not over mix!  Wrap in plastic and chill for at least 1 hour.
2. Meanwhile, wash and pit the sour cherries.
3. Dived the dough into 2 portions one portion should be lightly bigger than the other (about 2/3 + 1/3) and roll out the bigger portion and place the disk on a prepared 8-10 inch mold.
4. In a bowls combine sour cherries with sugar, cornstarch as well as half of the beaten egg.
5. Pour into the prepared crust.
6. Roll out the smaller portions as you like.
7. Use the half beaten egg to seal and to glaze the cover. Sprinkle with sugar
8. Preheat the oven to 200°C / 400°F.
9. Bake for about 45 more minutes, until the fruit is bubbling. Remove from oven and let cool down.
10. Remove the mold using a spatula using a spatula to separate from the borders and serve it warm or at room temperature.