Jul
Hi there! I haven’t posted recipes for too long and to be honest I miss it a lot. I’ve had an amazing holiday and now I feel like I might post recipes every single day. The first thing that I wanted to cook after returning was a pie. Flavour homemade pie filled with no matter what, but with crumble crust, and certainly sweet. As apricots are in season and I feel so “over-berried” now I decided to make an apricot pie. I made it with wholegrain crust and added some cinnamon to the filling. Frankly I don’t know what pie could be more cosy.
As I told we were on our countryside summer holiday. After busy days in London it was such a great idea! What could be better to escape from the big city and change industrial noise to sheep bleating and sea breeze? We spent a long time at Dorset walking, breathing, laughing and feeling absolutely happy. I’m in love with London, but there is no place where I feel better then in the english countryside. After returning I was still thinking about those lovely people, amazing fresh smells, cute fluffy sheep, Dorset cream tea tradition and decided to make a countryside inspired homemade pie. As for me it always means crusty crust, homemade grown fruits and berries and certainly top lattice… and love to baking of course. I also decided to make the pie dough with wholegrain flour which I like very much and which I think matches well to fruit fillings such as apricots (or peaches).
Whole Wheat Apricot Lattice Pie
(24 cm in diameter) SHORTCRUST DOUGH: 280 g wholegrain flour 130 g cold butter 40 ml ice water 1 egg yolk 65 g powdered sugar pinch of sea salt APRICOT FILLING: 24 medium-sized (700 -800g) ripe apricots 2-3 tbsp soft brown sugar (or honey) 1 tbsp cinnamon GLAZING: 1 egg yolk 1 tbsp milk
Cut the cold butter into small cubes. Sift the flour, salt and powdered sugar onto the working surface, then rub it in the butter with the knife until the mixture becomes crumbly. Add egg yolk and ice water gradually. Knead the soft dough very quickly for not very long time. Split it into 2 pieces. You will need one for the pie base and one for top lace. Put into the fridge for 1 hour.
After that, place the the first part of the dough between two sheets of parchment paper and roll out. Paper makes this step much more easy because shortcrust dough is very delicate. If the paper slides on the table, sprinkle a little flour under it, it should help. Cut a circle from dough and gently place it to the floured baking pan. This dough is fat enough, so you shouldn’t grease the pan, just sprinkle with flour.
Take from the fridge the second part of the dough. Roll it out and cut thick strips about 2 cm in wide and 26 cm in length using a pizza cutter or sharp knife. Set aside.
Prepare the filling. Wash the apricots, remove kernels and cut into pieces. Place into a big bowl. Sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon. Set aside for 5-10 minutes.
Place apricots on the dough base and smooth out with a spoon a bit.
Make the top lattice. Lay half of the strips horizontally across the pie filling. Place the strips a little apart from each other. Gently fold back every next strip (2, 4, 6 etc.). Take another strip of dough, put it vertically to the other strips. Lay the folded strips back and fold the other ones (1, 2, 5 etc.). Put another strip of the dough vertically. Repeat the process until you are satisfied with your pie lattice. I’ve made this pic to help you with this process.
Beat the egg yolk with tbsp of milk. Grease the top of the pie.
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees and bake the pie for 40 minute or until the top lattice will be golden brown and the apricot filling start bubbling. Let the pie chill for about ten minutes and serve warm.
I recommend to do it with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream, pouring with cream or just by itself.
