Cherry Pie (from our photo archives)

Brushing with water and sprinkling a little demerara sugar on the pie just before cooking  gives a nice brown, crispy finish.

I found these pictures on my laptop, which I took back in August 2012. My daughter doesn't like cake, so for her birthday she usually asks for a sweet pie of some sort. (The year before, she asked for pear and emmental pie.) Unfortunately, I didn't note down my recipe at the time, but I can remember that I made white shortcrust pastry using vegan margarine as the shortening. I used cherry pie filling from a jar (ooooh cheat!) supplemented by some stoned and halved fresh cherries. As it was a special occasion I made an effort to make it look pretty, hence the pastry decoration of cherries and leaves on the top- see pictures below. A glaze of demerara sugar and water before baking finished it off.