summer fruit pie

Inspiration for this came from fellow blogger Domenica, who makes a strawberry-apricot pie. So I took a favorite recipe of mine for peach-raspberry pie and switched the fruit. You can try any combination of sunny summer fruits (apricots, nectarines or peaches) and colorful berries (straw-, rasp-, even black-). Whatever you come up with, it will be insanely good.

ingredients

dough
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 ounces (1-1/2 sticks) cold unsalted butter, diced
1/2 cup ice water

filling
4 cups diced apricots or peeled ripe peaches (about 2-1/2 lbs fruit)
4 cups hulled, quartered strawberries (about 2 lbs) or raspberries
1/2 cup sugar*
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon almond extract
pinch salt
1 egg, lightly beaten
demerara (coarse) sugar, optional

*for a sweeter pie, use 1 cup sugar

directions

To make the dough, stir together the 2 cups flour and 1/2 tsp salt in a bowl. Scatter the cold butter pieces over the flour, then cut in with a pastry blender, or rub in with your fingers, or pulse all together in a food processor. Keep working in the butter until it is the size of oatmeal flakes.

With a measuring spoon, sprinkle 6 tablespoons of ice water over dough and stir with a fork. If still too dry, sprinkle dough with 1 or 2 more tablespoons of water; dough should hold together when you squeeze a clump in your hand to test. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and press the dough with the heel of your hand until it just holds together. Wrap the dough in plastic and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes or up to overnight.

When ready to roll dough, preheat an oven to 375°F. Mix the fruits for the filling together in a bowl and place the sugar, flour, almond extract and salt alongside. Let the egg come to room temperature while you work.

Remove dough from the refrigerator and lop off about a third of it for the top; rewrap smaller amount with the plastic and put it back in the refrigerator. On a lightly floured work surface, press the larger piece into a disk. With a floured rolling pin, roll it to a circle about 11 inches wide, lifting and turning the dough as needed to keep the circle even. Wrap the dough around the rolling pin, then transfer it to a 9-inch pie pan and unroll it. Ease dough into pie pan.

Stir the sugar, flour, almond extract and salt into the fruit, then pour the fruit into the dough-lined pie pan.

Remove the other ball of dough from fridge and roll it to a 10-inch circle. With a pastry wheel or a knife, cut into 1-inch-wide strips. One by one, arrange strips on the pie in a lattice pattern. Or leave circle whole and lay over pie pan as a top crust. Either way, press together the edges of the top dough or the lattice strips with the lower dough and trim or crimp all around. Brush the top with the beaten egg. If using a solid top, pierce a few holes in the center to let steam escape. If desired, sprinkle top or lattice with a little coarse sugar.

Transfer pie to middle rack of the oven, place a baking sheet on bottom rack to catch drips, and bake until the crust is golden and the filling is bubbly, about 50 minutes. Remove and let cool completely on a rack before slicing into wedges.