Traditional Apricot Pie: These fuzzy golden globes are now in season
Vanja loves a good fruit pie and I love Vanja, so this equation is rather straightforward: Traditional Apricot Pie!
But, who doesn’t love a good fruit pie? I have never met a person who has said, “I don’t care for pies.” Most people love them.
Yet, few people make them.
Their mothers don’t make them, either, anymore. I learned how to make a good pastry from my grade 7 Home Economics teacher, Judy O’Brian. (She became a close friend much later in life.) Once you know how to make a really good pastry, making a pie is one of the easiest desserts you will make. The pastry is key and best made in advance.
I make big batches and freeze them.
For years, mom made pastry for me. I would have frozen discs of it in my deep freeze. I definitely knew how to make it, but it was never easy for me. I use my Thermomix to make pastry now and it is slick as slick.
I had mom over for a day, a few years back, to make a slideshow of her handmade process with notes. I make a couple of batches at a time, freeze the pastry in pie crust disc sizes and thaw what I need. It enables pie making to be the pure joy it truly is.
When any fresh fruit is in season, the ultimate dessert is almost always a pie. I couldn’t wait for the case of apricots that I ordered to come in from British Columbia so I could immerse myself in apricots for a week.
Eating them fresh is an absolute pleasure. The little ones have the most complex flavour, but I have yet to do a tasting of the newly available varietals, so I don’t know which is my favourite. The ones I have were very tart when baked. Usually, apricots are tart, but Vanja didn’t care for these at all. “There’s something wrong with those apricots.” was his mournful mantra as he eyed them longingly, wishing for the sweet meaty ones from home in the former Yugoslavia.
I thought the apricots were deadly delicious as they exploded with flavour and fragrance at first bite.
Sadly, Vanja didn’t like the Traditional Apricot Pie. I have come to learn, over time, that apple pie is the only pie I need bother to make for Vanja. However, Ragan and I really enjoyed this Traditional Apricot Pie. It was scrumptious.
Vanja’s disdain thwarted my plans for making a couple more to freeze for Winter. I was looking forward to that. We gave 1/2 the case to mom and made jam with the rest.
Traditional Apricot Pie: Preparing the Filling
Macerate the fruit in sugar for 30 minutes.
Traditional Apricot Pie: Preparing the Crust
Traditional Apricot Pie: Filling the Pie
Traditional Apricot Pie: Topping with Pastry and Crimping the Edges
Traditional Apricot Pie: Brush with Egg and Sparking Sugar
No woman added a sparkly sugar to the crust of any pie when I was a child. No one had any sparkly sugar. I am addicted to the crystal sweet crunch a smattering of Demerara Sugar adds to the texture of each flakey bite.
Traditional Apricot Pie: Baking the Pie
Not to mention how purdy a pie looks with sparkles dusted over the top crust.
Traditional Apricot Pie: Serving the Pie
Ah, summer… this is not a cool and refreshing summer sweet. It is a tradition and a taste memory etched into the very being of one that lives even 900 kilometres away from the closest apricot tree.
Traditional Apricot Pie
Ingredients
Ingredients for Filing
- 24 small apricots, pitted and halved
- 1-11/2 cups sugar, depending upon how tart fruit is
- 1/4 cup flour
- 2 - 3 tablespoons butter
Ingredients for Crust
- 2 discs of homemade pie crust*
- sparkling sugar (Demerara) and egg yolk for garnishing the crust
Instructions
Instructions for Filling
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Cover bottom of oven with foil to catch any spill from the pie
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Add sugar and flour to apricots, set aside for 30 minutes to macerate
Instructions for Crust
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Pre-heat oven to 425 F
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Roll out bottom crust pie pastry; place in 9 inch pie plate, edges hanging over lip
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Roll out top crust pie pastry; and rest while filling bottom
Instructions for Filling the Pie
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Carefully fill pastry with apricot mixture; top with dabs of butter
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Carefully place top crust over fruit; edges hanging over lip of pan
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Gently roll edges of pastry together resting on edge of pie pan to form an ample ridge to crimp; crimp edges
Baking the Pie
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Brush top with beaten egg yolk; sprinkle liberally with sparkling sugar
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Slash top pastry to allow steam to escape
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Please in hot oven; turn heat to 350 F after first 15 minutes and bake for another hour until bubbly, golden, fragrant and completely irresistible
Recipe Notes
Remember to watch the browning of the pastry as you may need to cover with foil 30 to 45 minutes into the baking process so that the pie doesn't continue to brown,
Wow! Great recipe. And the photos, too, make me want to eat them! Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. FruitandCake!
🙂
V
How do you keep bottom crust from getting soggy. I had to hold pie over sick & let water drain out. What did I do wrong
I have no idea. It has never happened to me and you can see in the chat all are happy with the recipe.
Sorry I cannot help
Valerie
If using canned fruit it needs to be drained so all the excess juice isn’t in the pie.
Absolutely. I have never used canned fruit, but imagine it would work! No extra juices, for sure!
🙂
Valerie
poke the bottom crust with a fork all around before adding the filling and be sure to bake in the lower rack. That should help.
Thank you, Dan!
Oh how scrumptious…. bring on the summer already!
Lizzy
What is your favourite apricot recipe?
🙂
V
In the oven right now! Can’t wait to taste it. Overflowing with apricots from our backyard. A pie seemed fitting 🙂
Mary – you must live in the opposite side of the world from me! I would love to have my kitchen full of apricots, but at least, the fruit trees are blooming! Let me know how it turns out. Anything apricot is scrumptious!
🙂
Valerie
Thank you. I am cooking for my family in Adelaide, Australia who leave for Canada tomorrow. Dec 20th. I found your recipe so decided to set them off with Canadian pie. Thank you
Wonderful , Jennifer!
Please let me know how it works for you!
🙂
Valerie
Hello there. I am in Adelaide too! I was looking for a traditional apricotpie recipe but dont know how to make the best pastry. Have i missed the pastry instructions because thats the special bit
Greetings, Morag!
Of course, the pastry is important. I did have a link to it within the post – which is there again now. I have written a separate post about it as I make many different kinds of pies. There is a search window on the sidebar of almost all websites, and if you are missing a recipe as important as this, just plop it into the search window, and you are likely to find it. Now, you can simply select the link within the recipe, as well. Let me know how it turns out for you and thank you for letting me know the link was missing!
Sincerely,
Valerie
Thank you for this wonderful pie! Just got it from the oven! 🙂 Marta from Hungary
OOOOOH! I wish I could see a picture, Marta! And right now, we are next door, visiting relatives in the former Yugoslavia. We long Hungary!
OXXO
Thank you so much for chiming in!
Valerie
This is the very best fruit pie. I made it four times last year. I took one to a painting day where there were 20 people. Once the first person had tasted it, they had to make sure everyone had a piece, so the pieces were smaller, but they all had some and they all wanted to know the receipe. Just got apricots this year and I have a pie in the oven right now. I am practicing for what could be a lot of baking over the next month. It is unbelievably good. Do try it. It will make you famous!
Lesley Gore
Well, this is a happy message to open today, Lesley!
Tickled you love the pie as much as we do!
Did you give the recipe 5 stars?
Hugs,
Valerie
I forgot to add the butter. It’s in the oven now. How will it effect the pie without it? Thanks for a great recipe nonetheless.
Butter always adds richness to the filling. It will still be tasty, Janet, was it – but adding butter moves that meter to the right… meaning from tasty to DELICIOUS!!!
Let me know how it tasted!
🙂
Valerie
The pie looks delicious I can’t find apricot pie filling have no apricots. fresh can I use fruit in can and pre pare it some how
You can use canned fruit, but it would not taste like a homemade pie.
I suggest frozen berries if you don’t have them fresh, but otherwise – to make a pie – you need fresh apples, fresh peaches and fresh apricots.
You can use frozen rhubarb, too.
🙂
V
I made this pie for Thanksgiving, (America) so I looked for fresh/frozen apricots, and of course nothing, so I took a big risk, I used canned. I drained them well, rinsed them and drained them again, and used EVERY BIT of the flour called for in the filling. I turned out great! I used 6 cans. I also saved the juice and made cocktails!! No wasting anything here!
Great to hear, Genevieve!
Happy Holidays to you.
🙂
V
With my husband asking me every 5 minutes what I was going to do with all the fruit on our apricot tree, I went out and picked 20 or so earlier today. The pastry is made, the apricots are macerating – what a great word – and I have high hopes for dessert tonight!
Wonderful! Cannot wait to hear how it turns out, Catherine!
MMMM!
🙂
Valerie
I just made this delicious pie last night. I used the Martha Stewart Perfect Pie Crust recipe since I don’t eat lard, which your crust recipe calls for. I increased the crust recipe by a quarter so there would be a little extra thickness so the crust wouldn’t get soggy. I cut the apricots the day before so when I used them last night there was extra juice. I had put in the flour but I still had to use 6 teaspoons of corn starch (2 tsp per 4 oz.). I was afraid it would be too thick but it turned out okay, just not quite as juicy as I’m sure it can be. Next time I will use the fruit immediately. But the flavor is delicious! Also, I added a scant bit of fresh grated nutmeg and 1/4 teaspoon of almond extract. Wow!
Lovely, Patricia!
Sounds yummy and thank you for taking the time to comment. So appreciated. This is one of our favourite recipes and the apricot jam is a winner too!
Let me know if you try it.
Hugs,
Valerie
well today is the 3rd time we have used this recipe. We have scored a bunch of apricots recently.
Yummy.
Not any complaints about the recipe but it could read a bit more clearly for those who are newbies and skim speed read things.
#1 you should state an exact amount of apricots needed ( ex, 4 cups) as 24 apricots can vary in volume greatly. We had Some giant ones on our first tree that we hi for pie #1&2. t. The last batch today are from a different tree and are really smaller than store-bought ones. They do taste better dehydrated so we have great hopes for this pie.
#2 the cooking time could be spelled out in one sentence and not in different paragraphs.
Cook time: total time 1:15mins
Bake at 425 for the first 15 mins then turn oven down to 350 and bake for an additional 30 mins. at about 45 mins into the baking check for top brownness and cover with foil if needed for 15-25 of the last 30 minutes of baking time. Experiment with uncovering for the last 5-10 mins if you like crispy crusts..
Thanks, Randy
Glad you are enjoying the recipe!
🙂
Valerie