Ingredients
Crust
1 ¼ cup all purpose flour
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup cold lard, cut into pieces
3-4 tablespoons cold water
Filling
4 cups sour cherries
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons cornstarch
¼ teaspoon almond extract
Almond Crunch Topping
½ cup almond paste
1 ½ cups confectioners€™ sugar
2 tablespoons light Karo Syrup
1 cup all purpose flour
¼ cup granulated sugar
½ cup butter
¼ cup almond slices
Directions
Crust
Mix flour and salt. Cut in lard. With fingers, rub lard into flour until small pieces form. Sprinkle with water. Form a disk and refrigerate. Roll out and place in pan dish. Line crust with parchment paper and pie weights. Prebake at 375 degrees until crust is lightly browned, about 15 minutes. Cool.
Filling
Mix together sugar and cornstarch and add to it 4 cups of cherries. Place in heavy saucepan and cook,
stirring until thickened. Add almond extract and cool.
Almond Crunch Topping
In a large mixing bowl, place almond paste and cut in confectioners sugar. Add Karo Syrup. Mix well. Combine flour in sugar. Cut in butter until mixture forms coarse crumbles. Add flour crumb mixture to the almond paste mixture and mix well.
Put almond slices in pan and roast at 350 degrees for 5 minutes.
Spread cherry filling into the prebaked crust. Top with ½ of the almond crunch topping. Add toasted almond slices. Cover with remaining almond crunch topping. Bake in 350 oven for 10-15 minutes until topping begins to brown and resembles crunchy crumbs.