I found an American Originals Pie Maker in a skip which looked brand new, totally unused. I took it home and my mum and I decided to try it out. We went the supermarket and bought some ready-rolled shortcrust pastry and  two punnets of yummy cherries  to make  a yummycherry pie!This is how we made it:

First we made the cherry filling, using:

• 2 punnets of cherries (about ½ kg)
• 3 Tbsp muscovado sugar (or more, if you like)
• 2 Tbsp cornflour (cornstarch)
• 1 lemon
• 1 tsp vanilla paste

Then:

• We pitted the cherries and put them in a sauce pan, then added the sugar and juice of the lemon. Then we gently heated it up and waited until the cherries released their juices. Then we took out a few spoonful of juice into a small ball and mixed it with the cornflour. We put this smooth mixture into the pan and stirred the cherries until we got a thick, sticky jam-like sauce around them. We turned off the heat, stirred in the zest of the lemon and the vanilla paste then let the cherries cool to room temperature.

This is how we made the cherry pie:

1. We unrolled the pastry onto a chopping board. Using a plate, we cut out the circular shape to fit in the base of the pie maker, allowing extra pastry around the edge.
2. We lined the base with the pastry, covered it with baking paper, then filled it with baking beans.
3. We closed the lid, switched on the Pie Maker, and cooked the pastry for 10 minutes.
4. My mum carefully removed the baking paper and beans from the pastry.
5. Then I filled the pastry base with the cooled cherry filling. Meanwhile my mum rolled out the leftover pastry and cut out a circular shape to fit on the top.
6. She covered the filled pastry base with the pastry top and closed the Pie Maker lid.
7. We cooked the pie for a further 30 minutes until the pastry looked golden brown.
8. We switched off the pie maker and let the pie cool there for a while, then my mum carefully moved it to a plate.
9. When it was completely cool, I dusted it with icing sugar before we sliced it up.

Tips

• If you don’t have baking beans, just use rice or dried beans.
• You can make this recipe using homemade shortcrust pastry, dairy-free pastry  (like I used) or even gluten-free pastry.
• The online user guide suggested to cook the pie for 15 minutes –  but we thought it needed more time because our pie looked still uncooked after 15 minutes.
• If you have a sweet tooth, add more sugar to the filling.
• You can eat this pie warm or cold. Serve it warm, as a pudding,with vanilla custard or your favourite ice-cream. The coldcherry pieslices go really well with a cup of tea or coffee.