Cherry and Cheese Torte

This is a cheese biscuit dough used as a pie shell rather than a true torte batter. The dough comes together fast and dislikes handling, which is the main thing to get right.

• Handle it like biscuits"Toss on floured board" means a few quick folds and a single roll, not kneading. Overworking develops gluten and the crust turns tough and bready under the fruit.
• The cheeseGrated cheese here most likely means a firm dry American or store cheddar, grated fine so it cuts into the flour like extra fat. A moist young cheese, or pre-shredded cheese treated with anti-caking agents, can make the dough sticky; grate your own and keep it cold.
• ShorteningIn American recipes of this sort shortening usually meant lard or hydrogenated vegetable fat. Modern solid shortening or cold butter both work; butter gives better flavour, and at 1 1/2 tablespoons for 1 1/4 cups flour the dough leans dry either way, so add the milk gradually.
• The panA layer cake pan of the era is 8 or 9 inches with straight sides about 1 1/2 inches deep. Line the bottom and sides as you would for pie; there is no top crust.
• The filling is not givenThe recipe simply calls for cherry filling, presumably one given elsewhere in the book or made to taste. Reckon on about 2 cups of pitted sour cherries with roughly 3/4 cup sugar and a tablespoon or so of cornstarch or flour, cooked or at least tossed together before it goes in, or use a can of prepared cherry pie filling.
• Oven and timeModerate is 350F, as the recipe states. Forty-five minutes is generous for a shallow single crust: start checking at 30 minutes and pull it when the edges are set and browned and the fruit bubbles at the centre.
• YieldOne 8- or 9-inch torte, six to eight small wedges. It is best warm, cut with a serrated knife, and it does not keep well past the day it is made.