Cherry pie with a lattice crust

I couldn't let the cherry season go by without making a cherry pie, this year, and when I saw the sugar crust pies featured on the front of July's Martha Stewart Living magazine (I no longer subscribe but I keep finding the odd copy in WHSmith - I can only link you to a very tiny picture because Martha has become scrupulous about protecting her images) I knew I wanted to do something creative with the pastry crust.

The ones in the magazine were all stars and stripes for independence day but that didn't seem quite fitting so I decided to have a go at something I've never been brave enough to try before - lattice pie crust.
Of course I was aware that it was just a basic weave but I couldn't quite visualise how that could be achieved on top of a pie - especially ones with bright colours, like cherries - without making a big mess or breaking the pastry!

I searched on youtube for video tutorials and ended up using the technique from this one, which was so simple and I made it even simpler for myself by making my lattice strips quite wide.

Et voila! A gorgeous cherry pie (if I do say so myself!).



Not only did the pie look the way I wanted, it tasted really good. I used this recipe and the pastry was exceptionally good - I have bookmarked it for future use, which is quite a compliment because I don't really do recipes, as a rule, and the shortcrust recipe I usually use gets a lot of compliments.