Valentine's cherry pie

I'm not really into the Valentine's Day - me and my husband celebrate it on a daily basis ;) - but since 14th February is inevitably approaching, I decided to try a recipe that I had found a looong time ago in KUCHNIA magazine. Valentine's cherry pie... I can still remember the first time I saw it. It enchanted me so much that I simply had to buy a heart-shaped tin :) Wonderful sweetcrust pastry and exquisite cherry mixture   - perfect for your very special someone. Perfect on any occasion.

Since the recipe is presumably for a bigger tin than mine, I ended up having some extra dough which I eventually used for some simple-but-special heart-shaped biscuits :) I baked them for 15 min. in 180ºC/350ºF.

Makes about 10 servings. Preparation: 37 min. (+ 30 min. refrigeration). Baking: 50 min.

Utensils:
- bowl,
- baking tin,
- rolling pin,
- cling film.

Ingredients:
* dough
- 2,5 cup flour,
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar,
- 250g butter,
- 2-3 tbsp vanilla sugar,
- 5-6 tbsp ice water,
- pinch of salt.

* cherry filling
- 450g cherries (either fresh or tinned),
- 1/2 cup brown sugar,
- 3 tbsp potato starch,
- 2 tbsp vanilla sugar,
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon.

Method:

Put the flour, sugar, cold butter, and salt 1) either into a bowl - and, using your fingertips, rub the ingredients together 2) or into a food processor and pulse it until the mixture resembles crumbs. Gradually pour in the water until the crumbs come together as a dough. Form the pastry into a ball, cover it with cling film, and put it in the fridge for 30 min.

Grease the tin with a bit of butter. Roll out half of the pastry and line the tin with it, making sure that about 2,5-3cm of it overhangs the tin. (Since my heart-shaped beauty turned out to be too high on the sides, the pastry didn't overhang ;)  and I just secured the excess of the pastry).

Preheat your oven to 200ºC/390ºF.

Gently mix the cherries with the rest of the filling ingredients and place the mixture onto the layer of pastry.

Roll out the rest of the dough and cut stripes, as many as you need to form a checked pattern (or make a lettice crust if you want). Fold the overhanging excess of the pastry onto the stripes and press it with a fork.

Bake for 20 min. at 200ºC/390ºF, then lower the temperature to 160ºC/320ºF and keep baking for another 30min.

Let it cool and sprinkle it with powdered sugar.

Bon apetit! ;)