Hungary · 95 min · Vegetarian · Baking · For confident cooks
Meggyes pite
In German: Sauerkirschkuchen · In English: Sour cherry pie
For 8 servings · US units
A tender tray bake with tart cherries, cinnamon and a snowfall of powdered sugar
This sour cherry cake comes down to us as a family recipe handed on by an aunt, and it's exactly the kind of thing that lives in a baking tin all summer long. Short, buttery pastry, tart cherries warmed with cinnamon, a lattice or a forked-over lid on top, and powdered sugar at the end. The pastry stays soft and crumbly, so you cut it straight in the tin and eat it from there.
Ingredients
- 14⅛ ozflourfor the dough
- 7 ozbuttercold, diced; lard or margarine as alternative
- 6⅓ ozsugarfor dough and cherries
- 2eggto bind the dough
- ⅓ ozbaking powder
- 1 pinchsalt
- ⅓ ozSugar flavoured with vanilla or vanillin, usually sold in small sachets.Substitute: For one sachet, use about a heaped teaspoon of sugar and half a teaspoon of vanilla extract, which makes little difference in doughs and creams. Extract is not suitable for dusting, because it makes the sugar damp. For that, leave scraped-out vanilla pods in a jar of sugar for a few days.Read more
- 1⅛ lbpitted; fresh or jarred, well drainedSmall, dark red cherries with a distinctly tart, aromatic flavour, usually cooked or baked rather than eaten raw.Substitute: Sweet cherries with a little lemon juice come close, though they taste softer and less aromatic. With jarred cherries, drain off the syrup and use less sugar where needed.Read more
- 2 tbspsprinkled on the base to absorb cherry juiceCoarsely ground wheat that swells and binds when cooked, used for dumplings, porridge and bakes.Substitute: Durum semolina works but absorbs more liquid and gives denser, grainier dumplings; let the mixture rest a little longer and add a spoonful of liquid if needed.Read more
- 1 tspcinnamonfor the cherries
- 3⅓ tbspmilkonly if the dough will not come together (optional)
- 2¾ ozto thicken the cherry filling (optional)Cornflour flavoured with vanilla and usually tinted yellow, which sets into a pudding or cream when boiled with milk and sugar.Substitute: Custard powder swaps in directly, as does about 35 g of cornflour with vanilla seeds or extract per sachet, minus the yellow colour; American instant pudding mix does not work, because it sets differently and is already sweetened.Read more
- 1¼ cupswaterto mix the custard powder (optional)
- 1 tbspjamdiluted with water to brush the lattice (optional)
- 1lemongrated zest for the dough (optional)
- powdered sugarfor dusting the cooled cake (optional)
Method
- Knead the flour, baking powder, sugar, salt, cold diced butter and eggs into a short pastry. If it won't come together, add a little milk bit by bit; grate in some lemon zest if you like.
- Shape the dough into a ball, press it flat, cover it and let it rest somewhere cool for about 30 minutes.
- Meanwhile, pit the sour cherries, or drain jarred cherries really well.
- For a set filling, heat the cherries with sugar, vanilla sugar and cinnamon, stir the vanilla custard powder smoothly into the water, mix it in and let the whole thing cool completely.
- Grease and flour the tin, roll out the larger piece of dough and line the base with it, pulling the pastry up the sides if you need to. Scatter the semolina over the base — it soaks up the cherry juice.
- Spread the raw cherries evenly over the semolina and sprinkle them with sugar and cinnamon — if you made the cooked, thickened filling, simply spread it over the base once cooled and do not add more sugar.
- Roll out the second piece of dough, lay it on top, press the edges together and prick the surface all over with a fork — or cut the dough into strips and lay them on as a lattice.
- Bake in a preheated oven at about 355 °F for 20 to 30 minutes. If you've made a lattice, brush it after 20 minutes with the jam thinned with a little water.
- Let the cake cool completely, ideally chilling it for a few hours or overnight, then dust with powdered sugar and cut it into squares straight in the tin.
Tips and variations
The fat is up to you: butter, lard, margarine or oil all work. If the dough feels dry, a spoonful of sour cream or a splash of milk brings it back. Instead of short pastry you can whisk up a pourable batter of flour, sugar, milk, oil, eggs and lemon zest and scatter the drained fruit over it. The cherries can go in raw with just semolina and sugar, or precooked and thickened with custard powder; a little semolina over the fruit as well keeps the top layer from going soggy. Apricots or plums stand in nicely for the cherries. Serve it well chilled, freshly dusted with powdered sugar and cut into squares.
Allergens
Contains: Eggs, Cereals containing gluten, Milk (including lactose)
Not every ingredient in this recipe has been checked, so nothing is promised as free from.
These notes follow from this recipe's ingredient list. Ready-made products and brands may contain further allergens — please check the packaging yourself.
Something not right?
This recipe was put together from independent sources and checked before publishing. Even so, a mistake can slip through — an amount that does not add up, a step that does not work as written. If you spot something, write to us: we will look into it and put it right.
