I do not know about you, but I love dessert before dinner. For Easter this year I decided to make a cherry pie for my mom and when I brought it over, we could not wait until after dinner to eat some. We dove right in! I was going to do a traditional pie crust but I wanted to mix it up a bit. My mom loves anything almond, so I decided to incorporate ground almonds into the pie crust. It turned out buttery and flake and nutty. Perfect combination!
Ingredients: (1 9 inch round pie)
Pie Crust
2 Cups flour
1/2 Cup ground raw almonds
1 Cup unsalted butter, cubed and cold
1 teaspoon salt
1 Tablespoon brown sugar
8 Tablespoon ice water
Filling
2 cans cherry pie filling
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Butter and flour a 9 inch pie pan.
In a large bowl, mix together flour, almonds, salt, and brown sugar.
Add in cubed butter. Using a pastry blender or your hands, rub together mixture until it resembles coarse crumbs.
Add half of the ice water to your mixture and start mixing to bind the dough. Add the rest. You dough should be able to stick together but you still want it to be a little crumbly.
Pour dough out onto floured surface and start to knead until a ball forms. Cut 1/3 of the ball off and set aside for the top. Roll larger part of dough ball into a circle with a thickness of 1/4 inch and larger than 9 inches so there is some excess.
Shape into the bottom of the pan leaving some excess around the edges. Fill with 2 cans of cherry pie filling.
Roll out the rest of the dough into a circle with a thickness of 1/4 inch and larger than 9 inches. Place on top of the pie. Using a fork or your fingers, you are going to want to pinch the edge close. If it is left open, the cherry filling will bubble out. (I know from experience)
Using some milk, lightly brush the top of the crust and sprinkle with sugar to give it a little extra sweetness.
Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes. The edges of the crust will start to brown. When this is done, line edged with foil to prevent burning for the rest of the baking.
Lower temperature to 350 degrees and bake for 15-20 minutes until top is golden brown.
Serve warm or cold with some vanilla ice cream (As my dad likes it) and ENJOY!
