Cherry Pie with Chocolate Almond Streusel for the Pi Day of the Century

March 14, 2015

As I mentioned last year, I get ridiculously excited about Pi day. Perhaps it is because I grew up reading math fiction with my dad (like this book. Kind of like science fiction, but about mathematical concepts). It could also just be that I like fun word plays, or I just like any excuse to make a pie. No matter what the reason is, I try to make a pie every March 14th, 3.14.

But this year is so much more than that. Because it is the pi day of the century. The day that pi is not only the first three digits of pi but can be celebrated up to 10 digits, if you have a second hand on your clock. So in honor of that I am sharing this amazing pie. Because I observe Shabbat, the Jewish day of rest, I do not use my computer on Saturdays. But I was so excited about the time stamp on this post having as many digits of pi as possible I wrote it in advance and scheduled it to show up right on time. It is probably the one and only time you will see something posted from this blog on a Saturday, but since I could schedule it in advance, it was doable and here it is.

But enough about the math. It is time to talk actual pie. Not the number, the sweet delicious kind worth savoring at the end of a meal. And this pie is truly worth savoring. Sweet cherries baked in a flaky crust and topped with a crunchy almond chocolate streusel, it might be my favorite pie of all time. There are some flavors that just work perfectly together, and the combination of cherries, almonds, and chocolate is just magical. The streusel gives this pie a wonderful crunch, and it makes it truly special.

Since it is not yet cherry season I used frozen sweet cherries which are fantastic, but I look forward to making this again when cherry season comes around.

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Ingredients & Quantities

For pie

  • 1 recipe pie crust for a 9 inch single crust pie
  • 2 pounds frozen, pitted, sweet cherries
  • 1/2 cup (3.75 oz or 105 g) sugar
  • 5 tablespoons (1.5 oz or 40 g) corn starch
  • 2 tablespoons (1 oz or 28g) water
  • pinch salt
  • 1 tablespoon (.5 oz or 14g) lemon juice
  • 1 teaspoon (5g) vanilla extract
  • 1/4 teaspoon almond extract

For strussel topping

  • 1/2 cup (2.15 oz or 60g) oat flour
  • 1/2 cup (2.25 oz or 65 g) all purpose flour
  • 1/2 cup (3.75 oz or 105 g) sugar
  • 3/4 cup (3 oz or 85g) sliced almonds
  • 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 3 oz coarsley chopped dark chocolate
  • 1/2 cup (4 oz or 112g) salted margarine, softened and cut into 8 pieces

Preparation Instructions

Preheat the oven to 400. Roll out the crust between two lightly floured pieces of parchment paper to 1/4 inch thick. Peel off the top piece of parchment place the pie pan upside down over the circle of dough and invert the pan and parchment with dough. Peel off parchment and settle the dough into the pan. (If it cracks a bit just use your fingers to press the dough back together. You can also use extra dough to patch holes if necessary.) Trim the edges. Line the crust with foil and fill with pie weights. Bake for ten minutes. Remove the foil from the top of the crust and continue baking until light golden brown, 5-10 more minutes. Remove from the oven. Turn the oven down to 350.

While the crust is baking make the filling.

Combine the cherries, sugar, corn starch, water and salt in a medium sauce pan. Cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, until the cherries soften and the liquid thickens. The liquid should no longer look cloudy. Stir in the lemon juice, vanilla extract, and almond extract. Scoop the cherry mixture into the prepared crust.

Make the Streusel topping:

Combine all the ingredients except for the margarine in a large bowl. Add the margarine and work the mixture together with your hands until it comes together and forms clumps. Make sure there are no large clumps of unmixed margarine remaining. Sprinkle the streusel over the cherry filling. Return the pie to the oven and bake until the streusel is golden brown and the cherries are bubbling, approximately 25-30 minutes.

Let the pie cool until room temperature or just barely warm before slicing.

Recipe Times

Prep

20 Minutes

Cook

45 Minutes

Total

1 Hour 10 Minutes

Recipe Yield

8 servings

Recipe Categories

2 Comments

  1. Shavua tov. Just wanted to suggest that there’s no halachic problem with posting on Saturdays, as long as shabbat is over. (And 3/14/15 at 9:26:53 also came at night.)

    • That is true. Since there is also no halachic problem with scheduling a post I decided to do it that way since I am in California and I knew it wouldn’t be pi day in most of the country by the time I posted it here. I mentioned the shabbat issues so that people wouldn’t think I was actually on my computer and posting over shabbat.

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