Free-Form Cherry Pie with Hazelnut Crust

Into the bowl of a KitchenAid mixer or food processor, add the hazelnut meal, starch and salt. While mixing, slowly add in the grapeseed oil a tablespoon at a time. The hazelnut meal should now look a little chunky and moist. Add the chilled water a tablespoon at a time. Mix on high until a dough comes together. If desired, add honey. Turn the dough out onto a sheet of plastic wrap. Form the dough into a disk, wrap it tightly and refrigerate at least 2 hours.

Pit your cherries. Some people have a really cool cherry pitter. I do not, so I used a paring knife to slice them in half and used my thumbs to pop out the pits. It’s a little tedious but soooo worth the work. Set cherry halves aside in a bowl.

Preheat the oven to 400 F.

Take the hazelnut meal pie dough out of the refrigerator. This is a no-knead pie crust, so when you are ready, simply remove the plastic wrap and using your fingers, press the dough into a circle shape right onto a lightly oiled cookie sheet. Form edges about 1.5” high. You don’t need to use a rolling pin, but if you’d like to, you certainly can.

Dump the cherry halves into the center of the crust and distribute them evenly over the pie crust. Fold the edges of the crust down over the cherries so that it’s hugging the fruit in (the center will remain open—see photo).

Cover the whole pie with foil and bake in the oven for 25 minutes. Remove the foil and bake an additional 5 to 7 minutes, just until crust has browned and is slightly crispy. Remove from the oven and allow it to cool 20 minutes.

While the pie is cooling, feel free to drizzle a tablespoon of honey on top of the cherries. Carefully work a flat knife (I used a spreading knife) underneath the pie to loosen it from the cookie sheet. Once the whole bottom of the pie is free from the cookie sheet, slide a long spatula all the way underneath the pie and carefully place it on a serving plate. Cut generous slices and serve as breakfast or dessert with a scoop of vanilla ice cream!