Name: Crazy for Coco Cherry Pie with a Bailey's Chocolate-Coffee Drizzle Topping
Prep time: 110 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 140 min
Yield: 8
Ingredients: 2 cups flour (sifted); 2/3 cup frozen butter (grated, salted); 1 tablespoon vinegar; 6 tablespoons to 10 ice cold water; 6-8 cups de-seeded cherries (Brook (Bing, Rainer-I used 6.5 cups Brook cherries in an 8-inch pie pan)); 3/4 cup honey; 2 tablespoons strongly brewed coffee; 1 teaspoon coco powder; 1/4 cup Bailey's with a Hint of Creme Caramel; 10 oz bittersweet chocolate (broken into pieces, 70% cocoa solids); 6 tablespoons sweet butter (unsalted); 3/4 cup heavy cream; 2 tablespoons strongly brewed coffee; 2 tablespoons Bailey's with a Hint of Creme Caramel

Crazy for Coco Cherry Pie with a Bailey's Chocolate-Coffee Drizzle Sauce

I’m usually a traditionalist when it comes to pies. I like them simple with very little embellishments. But I decided to mess with tradition by adding some coco, coffee, and Bailey’s into the filling and topping the pie off with a Bailey’s Chocolate-Coffee Drizzle Topping.

Coco, Coffee, and Bailey’s are the not so secret special ingredients for this pie.

I ended up loving the results and the pie disappeared way too fast. But before moving on to the instructions, I have a couple of disclaimers to add.

First, while I am providing SCD legal alternatives, I have gone back to eating small amounts of food with grains, gluten, and lactose. With moderation, these three do not give me any problems. My general health and energy levels seem a lot higher during this post ulcerative colitis flare than last time. While there could be many factors (my running every morning, the iron infusions, the medication combination), I’m sticking with what works.

Of course this means that I got to treat myself (and my family) to the old pie crusts I used to make with regular flour. While almond flour crusts are very good, without the gluten you can’t really get a strong but flaky crust that is able to be easily manipulated into different shapes.

With that being said, let’s move on to how to make this Crazy for Coco Cherry Pie with a Bailey’s Chocolate-Coffee Drizzle Topping.

Filling

Freshly washed cherries from the farmers market. Yum!!

De-seed 6 to 8 cups cherries. I say 6 to 8 because I used 6.5 cups for this recipe. Ideally, I would have liked 8 cups though. I used an 8-inch pie tin which resulted in the filling being very thin, almost more like a tart. The only thing I would change next time around would be either using a smaller pie tin or using more cherries.

Anyway, to de-seed the cherries, I place one in the lip of a Coke or beer bottle and stick a chop-stick in the cherry. This pushes the seed out, leaving you with an intact cherry.

Use a chopstick and a beer bottle as a cheap and easy way to remove the cherry pits.

Freshly de-seeded cherries

Place 3/4 cups honey, 2 tablespoons strongly brewed coffee, and 1 teaspoon coco powder in a large saucepan and whisk together on low heat until smooth. Add the cherries. Turn up heat to medium-high and bring to a boil.

Bring the mixture to a boil and then reduce the heat to low-medium and let it simmer until it is thick.

Turn down the heat to low-medium and simmer for 30 minutes to an hour, or until the filling is thick. Near the end add 1/4 cup Bailey’s with a Hint of Creme Caramel (it’s the Bailey’s I had in the adult beverage cabinet) and simmer for another 10 minutes. Take off the heat and let the filling cool.

Thickened cherry filling. Leaving it to rest in the fridge overnight really lets the flavors soak in.

If you have enough patience, let the cherries set overnight for the flavors to really sink in.

Filling Modifications

If you are interested in making this strictly SCD, then you can leave out the coco, Bailey’s, and coffee and opt for a more traditional flavor profile. Keep the same amount of honey and add 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice. Follow the same steps and you will have a delicious traditional cherry pie.

Also it is cherry season right now so I opted for farm fresh cherries. However, I have made cherry pies with frozen sweet dark cherries before and the pies have come out very good as well. If you don’t want to spend time de-seeding cherries, feel free to use frozen de-seeded cherries, no one will judge (especially if you’re making them pie).

Crust

Sift two cups of flour into a large bowl.

Sifting flour into a large bowl-this makes the crust extra flaky

Grate 2/3 cups frozen butter into the bowl.

Grate the frozen butter into the shifted flour-this also contributes to the crust's flakiness.

Grate the frozen butter into the sifted flour-this also contributes to the crust’s flakiness.

Using two forks, cut the butter into the flour until the consistency is very fine, like corn meal.

cutting the butter into the shifted flour

Cutting the butter into the sifted flour.

Add a tablespoon of vinegar and toss to combine (yet another tactic to make the crust extra flaky). Add, a tablespoon at a time, ice cold water, tossing and cutting it into the dough each time. How many tablespoons you need will depend on the weather, but keep adding until the dough sticks together but isn’t soggy.

Separate the dough into two balls and wrap in plastic wrap. Put them in the fridge for 15 minutes.

Texture of the pie dough before it goes into the fridge for a little while, making it easier to roll out.

Crust Modifications

Again, if you want a strict SCD legal pie, you will find a SCD legal pie crust recipe alongside this one. If you would like more step-by-step instructions (with pictures) then take a look at my Apple Pie post.

Apple Pie with an SCD legal pie crust

Pie Assembly

Preheat oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit. Take out one of the balls of dough and roll it out into a circle on a lightly floured surface. Make sure it is slightly larger than an 8-inch pie tin.

Rolled out pie dough

Carefully place the rolled out crust into the pie tin. Put in the oven for 10 minutes. Make sure you poke some holes in it with a fork.

Poke the crust with a fork before you put it in the oven to prevent the dough from exploding.

I always forget to do this and then panic when I open the oven door and see an expanding ballon of pie crust. I then have to stab it dramatically to prevent it from exploding. Take it out, let it cool and then put in the cherry filling.

Place the cherry pie filling on top of the cooled pie crust.

Roll out the other ball of dough and cut it into equal sized strips.

Rolled out pie dough cut into equal sized strips for the woven crust.

Place strips of dough vertically on top of the pie. Make sure you save half of the longer strips for the horizontal direction. For the horizontal strips, weave each (over, under, etc.,) with the vertical strips of dough. Repeat until finished.

Woven crust with a braided boarder.

You can stop here if you want. I went on and braided some dough to place along the edges to hide jagged and ugly bits. I did however have to make more dough for this. Normally I don’t care how good the crust looks because I just care about eating the pie. But I thought I would dress it up a bit for the camera, make it all beautiful. Place in the oven for 15 to 20 minutes or until the crust is a pretty golden-brown color and looks crisp.

While in the oven, prepare the Bailey’s Chocolate-Coffee Drizzle Topping.

Bailey’s Chocolate-Coffee Drizzle Topping

Unfortunately, I didn’t take pictures for these instructions. Chocolate can be kind of mean if you don’t give it a hundred percent of your attention. But it really is easy-you just have to stir constantly until everything is melted and smooth.

Combine 3/4 cups heavy cream, 2 tablespoons strongly brewed coffee, and 2 tablespoons Bailey’s with a Hint of Creme Caramel in a medium sized saucepan. Stir over low-medium heat until well combined.

Add 10 oz of bittersweet chocolate (70% cocoa solids) broken into pieces and 6 tablespoons sweet butter (aka unsalted butter). Stir constantly. This is important and if you don’t, your sauce can split (like oil and water). Once the sauce is smooth and glossy, pour into a serving container.

Bailey’s Chocolate-Coffee Drizzle Topping

After you have let the pie cool for at least 30 minutes (to let the filling solidify), portion out the slices.

Taking a slice out of the pie

Scoop up some vanilla ice cream if desired (I desired that big time but I really wanted to get the photoshoot over with and eat. Ice cream is horrible to take pictures of-but trust me-I scooped some up for this pie). Pour the Bailey’s Chocolate-Coffee Drizzle Topping onto the pie and ice cream and eat eat eat!!!

Pour the Bailey’s Chocolate-Coffee Drizzle Topping onto the slices of pie and some vanilla ice cream.

I hope you enjoy this as much as I did. I was very proud of myself for messing with tradition and changing things up a bit and my tastebuds were rewarded!