Recipe: Berry, rose and cherry lattice pie with cream cheese pastry

1 hr 15 mins + 30 mins, to chill

THE FLAVOUR COMBINATIONS

PASTRY

160g butter, at room temperature and cubed

240g block cream cheese, at room temperature

110g double-thick cream

500g cake flour + extra, to dust

30ml (2 tbsp) castor sugar

5ml (1 tsp) salt

FILLING

1kg mixed frozen berries

250g butter

15ml (1 tbsp) vanilla essence

15ml (1 tbsp) rose water

pinch salt

200g muscovado sugar

juice of ½ lemon

60ml (¼ cup) cornflour, sieved and mixed with enough boiling water to create a smooth paste

2 x 425g tins black cherries, drained

1 beaten egg, to brush

roses, to garnish (optional)

strawberry plant leaves, to garnish (optional)

HOW TO DO IT

1 For the pastry, blitz the 160g cubed butter, cream cheese and cream in a blender until all of the ingredients are combined and smooth. Pulse in the cake flour, castor sugar and salt until the pastry comes together. Turn it out on to a floured surface and bring the dough together with your hands. Shape it into a disc, wrap in cling film and refrigerate, 30 minutes.

2 For the filling, while the pastry chills, combine the berries, the 250g butter, the vanilla essence, rose water, salt, muscovado sugar and lemon juice in a pot and bring to a simmer, 30 minutes. Strain the mixture to remove most, but not all, of the liquid. Refrigerate and reserve this to serve over ice cream. Return the berries to the pot. Add the cornflour mixture and bring the filling to a boil, 5 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in the cherries. Set the filling aside to cool (place the filling in a bowl in the freezer if you’d like to speed up the cooling process).

3  To assemble the pie, preheat the oven to 190˚C. Lightly grease a 25cm pie dish. Divide your pastry into 2 pieces – two-thirds for the base and the other third for the lattice topping. Roll out the bigger piece of pastry on a floured surface to a 32cm disc, 0.5cm thick. Carefully line the base of the pie dish with the pastry disc and trim off any pastry overhang. Fill the pastry case with the cooled berry mixture. Roll out the smaller disc of pastry to a rectangle of 0.5cm thickness and cut the pastry into 3cm strips. If desired, cut any extra pastry into decorative shapes with a cookie cutter. Arrange the strips in a lattice pattern over the pastry filling and decorate the edges with the cookie cutouts, if desired. Brush the pastry with the beaten egg and bake in the preheated oven until the pastry is golden and crisp, 35 – 45 minutes.

4 To serve, decorate with roses and strawberry plant leaves, if desired.

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