Cherry Crumb Pie

Roll the pastry out as you would, press it lightly into a pie plate, trim the edges (but generously, the shell will shrink as it cooks), pleat the dough with a thumb and forefinger for a pretty edge, poke it all over with a fork and then refrigerate for at least a half hour.  Preheat the oven to 350, remove the pie shell from the fridge and line with a sheet of parchment.  Fill with pie weights and blind bake for 30 minutes or until light brown on all of the bits that you can see.  Remove from the oven and allow to rest on a rack.  When the weights have cooled down, remove them and the parchment and leave the shell to cool completely.

For the butter crumbs – leave the oven on at 350 and line a large baking sheet with parchment.  In a small bowl, whisk together the 6 dry ingredients and then drizzle on the butter.  Combine, squish and mix with a sturdy spatula (or your hands) until most of the mix comes together in clumps.  Spread the crumbs and clumps on your prepared baking sheet and bake for about 15 minutes – or until bits barely start to turn brown.  Remove from the oven and set aside to cool.

For the filling – combine all ingredients in a large bowl and toss well to combine.  Scrape all of the filling into your pre-baked pie shell, lightly press down on the cherries if you need to to make it all fit, and then generously and evenly sprinkle on the cooled butter crumbs.  Place the pie on a parchment lined baking sheet and bake at 350 for about an hour.  I baked mine for 45 minutes, then lightly placed a sheet of foil on top and baked for another 20 minutes.  Give the pie time to cool completely if you’d like to be able to dish up actual slices!