Sour Cherry Pie with Rye Flour Pastry
Sponsored by Doves Farm

Pie season is well and truly here, and nothing quite beats a slice of warm pie made with a super flaky crust. One of my all-time favourites is a sour cherry pie but, here in the UK, finding fresh sour cherries is nigh on impossible but thankfully there is a solution, frozen berries. One of my favourite ingredients to have in the freezer is bags of frozen sour cherries which you can buy from many organic or eastern European supermarkets (this is the brand I buy). The difference between a pie made with sweet cherries versus a pie made with sour cherries is huge, the sour cherries have that tang, that brightness, that almost Bakewell flavour with just a hint of almond to them. Sweet cherries can be amazing but I find a pie made with them can be a little one dimensional. Thankfully this recipe is pretty adaptive, and should cherries not be your thing, it would be equally delicious made with a bag of frozen black forest fruits or any other favourite frozen berry. The only thing to remember is that sour cherries are particularly tart and with other berries, you may want to reduce the sugar slightly to avoid overpowering the flavour of the fruit.

The method below works great for frozen berries because as they defrost they tend to release a lot of juice and we all know that a soggy pastry is not what we are looking for. By pre-cooking the filling, you lessen the chances of a soggy bottom. It also happens to be a great element to prepare ahead. 

You’ve got a delicious filling, the next step is a flaky and fully flavoured pie crust. Flaky, we will get to, but fully flavoured is easy. You can make amazing pastry with plain flour, especially when made with good quality organic flour, like Doves Farm. Buying organic flour can make a big difference to your baking and it doesn’t just have to be for the month of Organic September, the flavour improvements alone can be more than enough but one of the main reasons I prefer to use organic flour is it’s better for us. In the UK over 300 pesticides can be used in non-organic farming but only 15 are licensed for organic farming. Defra found that 60% of supermarket wholemeal bread had traces of 3 of the UK’s leading pesticides. Buying organic flour and baking your own bread means you know exactly what you are eating. Talking of bread organic flour is also better for making sourdough as the microbial activity needed for sourdough starters is much higher in organic flour, it’s a no brainer as far as I am concerned. In pie crust, the flavour will often come mainly from the butter, but to add another layer of flavour and make a much more interesting pastry I love to add some Doves Farm Organic Wholemeal Rye Flour. Rye has such a wonderful depth of flavour that makes a rich nutty pastry that is a great foil to the fruit filling. For the flour I use 2/3 plain flour and 1/3 rye flour, this ratio makes for a pastry that is easy to handle but has all the benefits of flavour that comes with using rye flour.

Making a flaky pastry isn’t hard but you do need to keep some simple things in mind, mainly the temperature and size of the butter pieces. If you are someone that worries about hot hands you can make a great head start by chilling everything, the flour, the butter, the bowl and the water. Also, don’t worry about throwing the mixture back in the fridge if you’re worried about it warming up, the pastry will wait for you. It is always better to take your time than to rush the process. When it comes to the butter, the key thing to remember is the bigger the butter pieces are at the start the more flaky the pastry will be at the end. When you initially add the butter, resist the urge to rub it together with the flour to make a breadcrumb texture, that will eliminate any potential flakiness and this pastry is all about the flakiness. 

Doves Farm Organic Plain White Flour is available from Sainsbury’s, Ocado and dovesfarm.co.uk and Organic Wholemeal Rye Flour is available from Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Ocado and dovesfarm.co.uk.

Flaky Rye Pie Dough
200g Doves Farm Plain Flour, plus extra for dusting
100g Doves Farm Wholemeal Rye Flour
2 tbsp caster sugar 
250g unsalted butter, diced into 1cm pieces
2 tbsp vodka
1 large egg, for glazing
demerara sugar for sprinkling

Sour Cherry Filling
1kg frozen sour cherries
200g caster sugar
3 tbsp cornflour
1/2 tsp almond extract 

For the sour cherry filling place the cherries and the sugar into a large saucepan and heat over medium heat until the fruit has released its juice but the fruit is still whole. Pour the contents of the pan through a fine-mesh sieve into a bowl and set aside for a few minutes until all the juice has drained into the bowl. Pour the liquid back into the pan and whisk in the cornflour. Cook on medium-high heat until the mixture is reduced and thickened to a gel-like consistency. Scrape into the bowl with the fruit and stir gently to combine. Cover the bowl and refrigerate until needed.

For the pastry place the Doves Farm Plain Flour and Doves Farm Wholemeal Rye Flour, sugar and salt into a large bowl and mix together. Add the butter and toss in the flour to coat and, using your fingers, press each piece of butter flat. Put the bowl into the freezer for 10 minutes for the butter to firm up.

Remove from the freezer and mix the vodka with 6 tbsp of ice-cold water. Pour over the dough and, using a spatula, stir gently together until a shaggy dough is formed. Tip this mixture onto the worksurface and use your hands to bring together. On a lightly floured work surface roll out into a square roughly 30x30cm. Cut into 4 smaller squares and stack them together. Flatten with a rolling pin and wrap in clingfilm and refrigerate for an hour. 

Once the dough is chilled roll into a rectangle roughly 20x40cm and roll up like a Swiss roll. Cut into two pieces, one slightly larger than the other. Press the larger piece into a rectangle and the smaller into a round, wrap both in clingfilm and refrigerate for at least an hour before using, but preferably overnight. 

Remove the smaller piece of dough from the fridge and, on a lightly floured worksurface, roll out until 2-3mm thick and about 5cm wider than the pie plate (I use a deep 9-inch plate). Roll the dough onto the rolling pin and carefully unroll it into the pie plate, trimming the overhang to about 2.5cm. Chill. Remove the second piece of dough and roll out into a rectangle as thick as before. Cut into strips (the width is up to you but I find strips about 2.5cm wide are easier to work with and look a little more modern).

Remove the pie tin from the fridge and sprinkle the ground almonds into the base of the pie, spreading so it covers the base evenly (this helps to soak up excess juices and ensure a crisp base) and scrape in the cherry filling, spreading into an even layer.

Now it’s time for the lattice crust and, thankfully, it’s easier than it looks. Lay enough strips vertically onto the pie to cover and fold every other strip back on themselves. Add a strip perpendicular to the first batch, on top of the unfolded strips. Unfold the folded strips – they should now run over the top of the piece you’ve just put in, and fold back the opposite horizontal pieces, that weren’t folded back last time. Repeat this process until the whole pie is covered.

Trim the lattice crust so the strips of pastry end sat on the rim of the pie plate. Roll up the overhanging dough into a thin sausage, that sits on the rim of the pie plate. Use the thumb and forefinger of one hand and the forefinger of the other to crimp the pie. Brush the pie with the beaten egg and sprinkle liberally with demerara sugar. Chill for 30 minutes or until the pastry is firm.

Heat the oven to 200ºC (180ºC Fan). Bake on a baking tray for 15 minutes then reduce the temperature to 180ºC (160ºC Fan) and bake for 1 hour or until the pastry is a deep golden brown and the filling is bubbling. Allow to cool fully before serving.