8 ounces plain flour
1 pinch salt
2 teaspoons icing sugar
1 ounce cornflour
4 ounces lard 2 ounces margarine,
mixed with the lard 1 egg yolk 2 tablespoons cold water

Filling
1 lb black cherries, stoned (or pitted if you prefer)
4 ounces icing sugar
2 eggs
3 ounces ground almonds, finely ground
3 to 5 drops almond essence

1 Set oven to 400F or gas Mark 6.
2 Make the pastry- Sift the flour, salt, cornflour and icing sugar into a bowl.
3 Rub in the mixed lard/margarine and bind into a dough with the egg yolk and water.
4 Knead the pastry lightly and roll out.
5 Grease a 9 inch pie dish and line with the rolled out pastry.
6 Bake blind for 15 minutes.
7 Reduce oven temperature to 325F or gas Mark 3.
8 Remove pie shell from oven.
9 Arrange cherries in the pastry case.
10 Mix the sugar, eggs and almonds together with the almost essence.
11 Pour the mixture over the cherries.
12 Bake for 50- 60 minutes until firm and golden.
13 Serve hot or cold with cream and/or ice cream.
14 NB Baking blind is to place s piece of baking paper in the shell, then fill the shell with split peas (or other appropriate filling).
15 The peas and paper are removed when the shell is cooked.
16 This causes an even heat to be distributed and at the same time prevents the bottom and the sides of the shell from expanding too much and appearing'lumpy'.
17 It also helps give the shell a pale colour so that when it is baked later with a filling it does not go black.