We celebrated our one-year anniversary here in the shop yesterday, and of course we celebrated with pie! As you can see from the picture above of the tiny little bit of it left, the crowd favorite seemed to be the cherry-with-almond-topping. So I thought I’d pass along the recipe. Enjoy!
Crust:
- 2 1/2 cups (12 1/2 ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon table salt
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/4-inch slices
- 1/2 cup cold vegetable shortening, cut into 4 pieces
- 1/4 cup cold vodka
- 1/4 cup cold water
- Process 1 1/2 cups flour, salt, and sugar in food processor until combined, about 2 one-second pulses. Add butter and shortening and process until homogeneous dough just starts to collect in uneven clumps, about 15 seconds (dough will resemble cottage cheese curds and there should be no uncoated flour). Scrape bowl with rubber spatula and redistribute dough evenly around processor blade. Add remaining cup flour and pulse until mixture is evenly distributed around bowl and mass of dough has been broken up, 4 to 6 quick pulses. Empty mixture into medium bowl.
- Sprinkle vodka and water over mixture. With rubber spatula, use folding motion to mix, pressing down on dough until dough is slightly tacky and sticks together. Divide dough into two even balls and flatten each into 4-inch disk. Wrap each in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 45 minutes or up to 2 days. (This recipe makes enough for 1 2-crust pie, so you’ll only need half of it, obviously, if use the crumb topping).
Filling:
- 4 cups sweet cherries, pitted (I used frozen, but I’m sure fresh would be even more wonderful)
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 cup sugar juice and zest from one lemon
- 4 tablespoon cornstarch
- Whisk together salt, sugar, and cornstarch. Add lemon juice and whisk into a thick paste, then toss with cherries until they are coated.
Topping:
- 1 cup almonds
- 1/2 cup flour
- 1/2 cup brown or raw turbinado sugar
- 6 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes or thick slices
- Chop almonds in food processor until they are they are fine but not powder. Add flour and sugar and pulse until combined. Dump out of food processor into mixing bowl.
- Work the butter in to the almond mixture using a pastry cutter or (my preference) your fingers. The mixture should stick togethere when pinched but not be too moist, add more flour if it seems too buttery.
Pie:
- Roll out the dough and place it in a pie pan, crimping or pinching the edge in whichever decorative manner you’d like. Put the cherry filling in using a slotted spoon so that the excess liquid stays in the mixing bowl. Sprinkle the topping evenly over the filling in an even and relatively thick layer.
- Bake the assembled pie at 375˚ for 30-40 minutes, until inside is bubbling slightly and topping is browned (you may need to cover the edges of the crust in foil for the last 15 minutes or so, so that they don’t burn while the topping is browning).