APRICOT AND NECTARINE PIE

Hey everyone! It’s summer in Oman, but honestly, when is it not! You get to see lot of stone fruits in supermarkets, so I picked up these luscious golden apricots and juicy nectarines, and made this quick rustic pie for my friend’s farewell lunch. It’s super simple, easy, quick and very delicious.

Serve it with a generous scoop of ice cream and you will love the perfect marriage of those piquant tangy sweet fruits and creamy sweetness of vanilla ice cream! I was almost gonna put the scoops of ice-cream on top to take a shot but my pie was still quite warm to hold the shape of scoops intact. I just couldn’t wait any longer for it to cool down completely to take that perfect shot of pie topped with ice-cream as the sun was going down rapidly and was almost getting dusky and I didn’t want to lose that perfect lighting from the sun for my photo shoot. So here’s my virtual treat for you guys.

SERVES: 8-10

PREP TIME: 30 minutes

BAKING TIME: 40 minutes

TOTAL TIME: 1 hours

INGREDIENTS

For Pastry:

1 1/4 cup plain flour
1/2 cup/ 115g cold unsalted butter, diced
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp caster sugar

For Filling:

4-5 apricots
2-3 nectarines
4 tbsp caster sugar
3-4 tbsp cold unsalted butter, diced
1 egg

METHOD

To make pastry, in an electric mixer bowl, add flour, salt, sugar and butter, blend with a paddle attachment until the mixture resembles wet sand; add cold water, starting with 3 tbsp, pulse for few seconds until the dough combines together and forms a ball along the side of blender bowl, if it’s still not combined together add additional tablespoon of water.
Now, take pastry dough out on a floured surface and gently roll it into a ball, take care not to over work the dough. Tightly close it in plastic wrap, refrigerate for 30 minutes.
Preheat oven to 180°C, line the large baking tray with parchment paper.
Remove pastry dough from fridge, unwrap and roll it down on a floured surface into 12” circle, place rolled dough on a prepared tray, slightly make a mark by very gently pressing a 9” pastry pan into the center of the dough to make the indentation for you to know how far you need to spread the fruit slices.
Wash and dry the apricots and nectarines, cut them into 1cm thick slices, arrange the slices by slightly overlapping each other and cover the whole marked surface of pastry, leaving the edges blank.
Sprinkle sugar over apricot and nectarine slices and place small knobs of butter all over. Lift the blank pastry on top of the sliced fruit, and fold the pastry every 3-4 inches as you go around to secure the filling inside.
Lightly beat the egg and brush the bare edges of the pastry and bake it in the oven for 35-40 minutes until edges turn golden brown. Let it rest to cool before transferring to the serving platter. Serve it with vanilla ice-cream.