Halloween Blood Clot Severed Finger Pie Recipe

One of my favourite Halloween pie ingredients is cherries because they give pies a deep, dark, bloody look but taste heavenly. I like to use sour cherries in this "blood clot" pie if I can find them but regular tinned or frozen cherries will do.

Blood Clot Severed Finger Pie

An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott

Preparation time: 30 minutes plus chilling time

Cooking time: 55 minutes

For crust

• 1.5 teaspoons salt
• 150g/5ozs. butter, cold and cut into pieces
• 150/5ozs. solid vegetable shortening, cold and cut into pieces
• 3/4 cup iced water

For filling

• 1.36kgs/3lbs morello or sour cherries (2x680g jars)
• 1 1/4 cups/275g/9.7ozs sugar
• 3 tablespoons tapioca flour or cornstarch
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• zest of half a lemon

• 1 egg yolk, for glazing

• Fake fingers and faux cockroaches for decoration

Step 1 - Place the flour and salt in a food processor and pulse for 10 seconds. Add the butter and shortening and pulse again until the mixture resembles cornmeal. Add the iced water slowly until it starts to come together. Empty out onto a clean bench and knead for a minute or two. Divide dough into two balls, one slightly bigger than the other and wrap in cling film. Refrigerate for 2 hours.

Step 2 - While you are waiting, drain the cherries well (reserve the juice to make gummy worms above!) and place in a bowl with the sugar, half of the tapioca flour or cornstarch, the vanilla and the lemon zest and mix until flour is distributed.

Step 3 - Take a pie dish and roll out the larger disc into large circle big enough to line the dish. Sprinkle the other half of the tapioca flour or cornstarch on the base of the pastry and fill with the cherry filling. Roll out the other portion of pastry and cut strips and place in a lattice pattern. I use a ruler to be more precise (although you can't really tell). Using the tines of a fork to give the crust edge a pattern. Brush with egg yolk and place in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Step 4 - Preheat oven to 190C/380F. Place the pie on a tray in case of overflow and then bake for 45-55 minutes. When cool, insert fingers into the lattice holes.