Make-a-grown-man-cry cherry pie

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F). Roll out the pastry and line a pie dish approximately 30cm in diameter.

2. In a mixing bowl, fold the vanilla sugar, brown sugar, lemon zest and a generous shake of the spices into the cherries. (Depending on how tart your cherries are, you may need to add more or less sugar.)

3. Crush the biscuits (about 5 Tennis biscuits - you need two large handfuls of crumbs) and fold into the cherries. (You need to use fairly soft biscuits so that they'll crumble easily. Tennis biscuits work well because of the coconut flavour they have, which complements the dessicated coconut.)

4. Line the pastry with a layer of dessicated coconut. This does two things: Absorb the excess juice the cherries will release when cooking, so the pastry doesn't get soggy; and add an extra element of tastiness.

5. Spoon the cherries into the pastry shell and spread them out evenly. You want enough cherries to fill it up completely, and then a little more, as they'll shrink while cooking. Avoid pouring the cherries into the shell as they will have released a lot of juice while you were mixing the other ingredients in, and you don't want to pour that onto the pastry. Set it aside for later.

6. Cook for 30-40 minutes. About 5-10 minutes before it's done, cover the pie in flaked almonds and put back in the oven until time is up. (Alternatively, if you have leftover pastry, you can make crumble with the pastry, chopped almonds, and coconut and use that.) Remove from oven and dust with brown sugar.

7. Serve with a side of mascarpone and cream mixed together, with the leftover cherry juice drizzled over the top.