Cherry Pie
A lattice-topped cherry pie with flaky butter pastry and a filling thickened on the stove first, so every slice stands up glossy and red. Fresh, frozen or jarred sour cherries.
Deep red and glossy under a golden lattice, and it holds its shape when you cut it.
Recipe inspiration
December, when Australian cherries are piled high and cheap by the kilo, and you need a dessert that looks like Christmas without a pudding steamed for hours. It's the centrepiece for a summer lunch, a long table, the last day before everyone goes home.
Out of season, a jar of sour cherries from the supermarket makes a pie just as good, and arguably better. The lattice looks like hard work. It's ten minutes of weaving, and it's the bit everyone photographs.
About this dish
Cherry pie is English first. The first one on record was baked for Elizabeth I. In North America it became a summer pie: cherries ripen in time for Canada Day and the Fourth of July, and the pie is tied to Washington's Birthday through the story of young George and the cherry tree. Most American cherry pies use sour cherries, Morellos among them; the sweet cherries we eat from the bag make a gentler, darker pie.
Done right, it's three textures: shattering pastry on top, a crisp base, and whole cherries in a thick, clear, ruby syrup that tastes of the fruit, sharp and sweet, with a hint of almond. Cherries and almonds are family (both stone fruit), which is why a few drops of almond extract make cherries taste more like themselves.
Additions & substitutions
- Jarred sour cherries: 2 jars (about 680 g each) of pitted Morellos, drained. Use 250 ml of the jar syrup in place of the drawn juice in step 4, cut the sugar to 100 g and skip the resting. Tart, bright and cheap all year.
- Frozen cherries: thaw in a colander over a bowl and use the thawed juice as the drawn juice. Bake 10 minutes longer.
- Half and half: half sweet, half sour cherries is the best of both. Use 150 g sugar.
- Flavour: swap the almond extract for 1 tsp vanilla, the zest of an orange, or 2 tbsp kirsch stirred into the cooled syrup.
- Crumble lid: skip the lattice and scatter 100 g flour, 75 g brown sugar, 75 g cold butter and 50 g almonds, flaked, rubbed together.
- Thickener: 45 g tapioca flour instead of the cornflour gives an even clearer gel.
- Vegan: a firm plant-based baking block in place of butter, weighed the same and kept very cold. Brush the lattice with plant milk and 1 tsp maple syrup.
Expert tips
Shopping
- Buy 1.2 kg whole cherries for 1 kg pitted. Firm, dark and shiny, with green stems. Soft or split ones go to the cook.
- A cherry pitter pays for itself on the first kilo. No pitter? Push a chopstick or a sturdy straw through the stem end, over a bowl.
- Use a metal pie dish, 23 cm and about 4 to 5 cm deep. Metal crisps the base; glass leaves it pale.
Preparing
- Pit in the sink and wear an apron. Cherry juice stains wood, tea towels and white tops.
- Cold pastry, pea-sized lumps of butter. The lumps melt into steam in the oven and the steam makes the flakes.
- Boil the syrup until it turns clear. It goes cloudy and pink when you add the cornflour, then clear, thick and glossy as it boils. Clear means it's set.
- Cool the filling before it meets the pastry. Warm syrup melts the butter in the base.
- Lattice strips go in the fridge until you need them. Warm strips stretch and tear.
Make ahead, or for a crowd
- The pastry keeps 3 days in the fridge or 3 months in the freezer. The cooked filling keeps 3 days in the fridge.
- Bake the day before. A cherry pie is better at room temperature the next day: the filling has fully set.
- Keeps 2 days covered on the bench, or 4 in the fridge.
- For 16, bake two pies, not one bigger one.
Serving suggestions
- At room temperature with vanilla ice cream or thick cream. A spoon of plain yogurt cuts the sweetness.
- After sticky ribs at a summer lunch.
- For a Christmas dessert table, beside apple pie, a lava cake and a jug of mulled wine.
Cherry Pie
Published 2 Oct 2026 · Updated 3 Oct 2026
Ingredients
Pastry
- 330 g plain flour (2 ¼ cups), plus extra for rolling
- 1 tbsp caster sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- 225 g cold unsalted butter, cubed (1 cup)
- 120 to 150 ml iced water (½ to ⅔ cup)
Filling
- 1 kg pitted sweet cherries (about 1.2 kg whole, 6 cups pitted)
- 170 g caster sugar (¾ cup)
- ¼ tsp salt
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- 40 g cornflour (⅓ cup)
- ¼ tsp almond extract
- 15 g butter (1 tbsp)
To finish
You need a 23 cm (9 inch) metal pie dish, about 4 to 5 cm deep.
Method
- Make the pastry. Whisk the flour, sugar and salt in a big bowl. Rub in the butter with your fingertips until it looks like coarse crumbs with some pea-sized lumps left.
- Bring it together. Drizzle in 120 ml iced water and toss with a fork. Squeeze a handful: if it holds, stop. If it crumbles, add water a tablespoon at a time. Shaggy, not smooth.
- Rest. Split the dough in two, one piece slightly bigger. Flatten into discs, wrap and chill at least 1 hour, so the pastry won't shrink in the oven.
- Draw the juice. Toss the cherries with the sugar, salt and lemon juice and leave 30 minutes, stirring once. The sugar dissolves and a pool of red juice gathers, about 250 ml.
- Set the syrup. Tip the cherries into a colander over a saucepan. Whisk the cornflour into the juice until smooth, then bring to the boil over medium heat, whisking. It turns cloudy, then thick, clear and glossy in 1 to 2 minutes. Boil 30 seconds more, then take it off the heat and stir in the almond extract and butter.
- Cool. Fold the cherries through the syrup and spread on a tray. Cool completely, about 30 minutes, or 15 in the fridge. It sets to a soft jelly; that's right.
- Heat the oven. Heat to 220°C (200°C fan) with a baking tray on the lowest shelf. The hot tray crisps the base.
- Line the dish. Roll the bigger disc on a floured bench to a 32 cm circle, about 3 mm thick, giving it a quarter turn every few rolls. Ease it into the dish without stretching and leave the edge hanging over. Chill.
- Cut the lattice. Roll the second disc to 28 cm and cut 10 to 12 strips, 2 to 3 cm wide. Chill them on a tray for 10 minutes.
- Fill and weave. Spoon in the cold filling. Lay half the strips across one way, 2 cm apart. Fold back every second strip, lay a strip across the other way, fold them back down, and repeat with the alternate strips. Trim, fold the bottom edge up over the strip ends and crimp.
- Glaze and chill. Brush the lattice with egg wash and sprinkle with the raw sugar. Chill 15 minutes.
- Bake. Set the pie on the hot tray and bake 20 minutes. Drop to 190°C (170°C fan) and bake 45 to 55 minutes more, until the pastry is deep golden and the filling bubbles slowly in the centre, not just at the edges. Cover the rim with foil if it browns early.
- Cool. Leave on a rack at least 4 hours. It slices cleanest the next day.
Notes
- Runny when cut? It was cut warm, or the syrup never boiled clear. Let it cool fully; it usually sets. Runny cherry filling is still a great ice-cream sauce.
- Syrup lumpy? The cornflour went into hot juice. Whisk it into the juice cold, before heating. Push lumps through a sieve.
- Juice bubbling over? Normal. That's what the tray is for.
- Lattice strips tearing? They're too warm. Back in the fridge for 10 minutes.
- Soggy base? A glass dish, no hot tray or warm filling. Put the cut pie back on the hot tray at 200°C for 10 minutes.
- Too sweet? Sweet cherries vary. Taste one before you start; if it's very sweet, cut the sugar to 140 g and add another tablespoon of lemon juice.
Sources
- "Cherry pie", Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherry_pie
- "Cherry Pie", Sally's Baking Addiction (Sally McKenney), https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/2017/07/01/cherry-pie/
- "Fresh Sweet Cherry Pie", King Arthur Baking, https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/cherry-pie-recipe
