This Delightful Low Sugar Cherry Pie Will Make You Smile
This low sugar cherry pie slices into beautiful bars and tastes amazing! Bonus: it has less than 1 tsp sugar per serve, is made with just 8 ingredients, including the 1-minute wholegrain pastry, and is packed with melatonin-inducing cherries for a good night’s sleep!
I remember vividly the day a friend very kindly offered my daughter, who was quite little at the time, a slice of shop-bought cherry pie. She’d barely had any sugar before in her life at this point, but we saved sugar for exactly that kind of occasion as a special treat, so I said yes.
A huge slice of crystal-topped, jam-oozing pie was placed in front of her, steam still rising off its golden crust.
I gulped inwardly, but resolved to let her enjoy it.
And then I tucked into my own, and realised just how mouth-cloyingly sweet it was.
Oops.
Yep, within an hour, that little curly-blonde head was a blur of activity as she, quite literally, bounced off the walls. For a solid hour, she screamed and whooped and shouted, she jumped and leapt and ran, she rolled and fell and cried.
I may have cried a little, too. Exhaustion was very real by this point.
And then the crash… literal crash. Ouch.
Needless to say, while we still let her have some sugar as a treat at the weekend or special occasions, we’ve tried not to give her the sheer volume of the stuff she consumed in that one sitting too often since then.
But that doesn’t mean we haven’t had cherry pie.
Oh no, we’ve had plenty. Only it has been a delicious low sugar cherry pie recipe that has been tweaked and twisted and perfected over time.
And the funny thing is? She eats it just as happily as she did the sugary version. In fact, she’s even happier eating it, especially if she’s helped make it.
After all, it’s a simple pie that is:
- 8 ingredients, including the 1-minute blender pastry
- less than 1 tsp sugar per serve
- packed full of fresh (or frozen), whole cherries
But the best bit? This isn’t just low sugar cherry pie with a wholegrain pastry – it is actually more likely to make kids sleepy than excited! Seriously… did you know that cherries are melatonin-inducing? Which means, they help us sleep better!
Told you this pie would make you smile. 🙂
And to make them smile? Get them involved in baking it with you! They can:
- add measured-out ingredients to the food processor and push the buttons
- flatten out the pastry and wrap for the fridge
- mix the filling ingredients together
- fill the pastry case with the filling
So make sure that when your family next asks for pie, you give this one a go. Because this low sugar cherry pie won’t just fill bellies and bring out smiles, it will stop the cherry-stained child bouncing off the walls, and prepare them for the bedtime routine instead.
- 500 g (3 1/2 cups) wholegrain spelt or wholewheat flour
- 220 g (2 sticks) unsalted butter
- a decent pinch of sea salt
- 2 medium eggs, beaten
- a little cold water, if needed
- 750 g fresh or 1kg frozen pitted cherries (if using frozen, defrost thoroughly and drain the excess cherry juice by pushing gently through a sieve so you don’t end up with too much liquid in your pie and a soggy bottom on your pastry)
- juice of 1/2 lemon
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar or coconut sugar
- 1 tablespoon xylitol (or more sugar if you don’t mind adding a little extra)
- 2 heaped tablespoons cornflour (cornstarch)
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Pulse flour and butter with salt in a food processor until the butter is worked into the flour but there are still small clumps. Add eggs and pulse to combine, then turn on the food processor and slowly add a splash of water at a time until the dough just starts to come together. Bring together with your hands and separate into two balls. Flatten them down into discs and wrap in foil or cling film. Chill in the fridge while you make the filling and preheat the oven to 225C/450F/gas 8.
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Mix everything together. Roll out first pastry disc into a thin rectangle large enough to fit comfortably into a lightly greased 10in/25cm casserole dish (a square baking tin or large pie dish works fine if you don’t have one). Press gently into the dish, then pour in the filling. Roll out the other pastry disc and make a lattice top (see video below in Notes*, or just roll out and make a simple double-crust pie without lattice top if you prefer). Layer onto the pie, then brush with a little milk, egg or melted butter and bake in the preheated oven for 30-40 minutes, until pastry is golden and filling is bubbling. Allow to cool completely before cutting into bars.
*Lattice video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwQYd2ljw-4
Find more low sugar dessert recipes over here.
