Cherry Pie

This was my first time making and eating cherry pie (ever!). The pie was easy to make, although i would recommend using a cherry pitter if you own one. I do not own one and consequently had to use a chopstick to poke through 2-3lbs of cherries, which ended up leaving my hands quite sore and my kitchen looking like a crime scene (red cherry juice everywhere!). 

I used a recipe from joyofbaking.com, which I made some adjustments to. (See the recipe here: http://www.joyofbaking.com/CherryPie.html). 


Cherry Pie
Pate Brisee: 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1 cup unsalted butter, chilled and cut into 1 inch pieces
1/3 to 1/2 cup ice water


For the dough, mix the flour and salt together. Mix in the butter using your hands, until the butter resembles a pea-like consistency. Add water and mix gently until the dough has just come together. Split the dough in two. Roll out the bottom and fit into pie plate, then place in fridge to chill until filling is made. Roll out the top and cut into long strips to make a lattice topping. 


Filling: 
4 cups pitted fresh cherries
3/4 cup white sugar
2 1/2 tbsp cornstarch
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 tbsp unsalted butter 


Once cherries have been washed, stemmed and pitted, mix in a bowl with the sugar and cornstarch. Add the salt and vanilla extract. Place in chilled pie plate and add dabs of butter overtop filling before weaving lattice dough overtop. 


Glaze: 
egg yolk
white sugar


Brush with beat egg yolk and sprinkle with white sugar. Bake for 15 minutes at 425 degrees C, then lower to 350 degrees C and bake for another 30 minutes, or until crust is golden brown and the fruit filling is bubbling. 


Enjoy! 

England + Scotland + Ireland

My boyfriend and I recently took a trip to the UK - England, Scotland and Ireland. In the two weeks we were there, we traveled from London to Liverpool to York to Edinburgh, then across the water to Dublin and the West coast of Ireland. The UK is a lovely place to visit - lots of lively music, beautiful landscapes, and of course, delicious food and beer!

Here are some highlights of our trip:

Sunday Afternoon roast dinner at Toby Carvery in South Croydon (outside of London). Yorkshire pudding, ham, gambon, turkey, roast beef, roasted potatoes, mashed potatoes, peas, carrots, broccoli, swede, stuffing, cauliflower, turnips... all washed down with a pint of London's Pride.

Thai food at the Travel Joy Hostel in London.

Bold Street Coffee in Liverpool. http://www.boldstreetcoffee.co.uk/

Lunch at the Bistro Franc in Liverpool. http://www.bistrofranc.com/

Dinner at the Egg in Liverpool - an all vegetarian restaurant! http://www.eggcafe.co.uk/

Cornish Pasty! They have pasty shops at all the train stations in the UK - it's hard to walk by one and resist the temptation.... if only they had pie shops here in Canada!

 High Tea the the Earl Grey Tea Rooms in York. http://www.earlgreytearooms.co.uk/

We each got a three tier assortment of cucumber sandwiches, cranberry scones with clotted cream and raspberry jam, and cake! All accompaigned with a hot cup of black tea.

Rekorderlig Cider in Edinburgh.

Lovecrumbs in Edinburgh. http://www.lovecrumbs.co.uk/ I absolutely loved this cafe - everything about it is perfectly dainty and sweet. The decor is very antique, with a beautiful old wood wardrobe that holds the cakes, and old vintage tables and chairs (they even have a piano that they use as a table for customers as well!). This cafe is owned by two women - one does all the barista-ing and one does all the baking. The baking is fantastic - I tried out one of the cheese scones, while Thomas had a brownie and a slice of cake!

 

Raspberry White Chocolate Cake at Lovecrumbs.

Homemade dinner at our Dublin hostel - mushroom pot pie with mashed carrots and swede, and a salad.