Two-Toned Nectarine Peach Pie

"What?" you ask, "A mouth watering nectarine peach pie at this time of year?" Oh, yes, I can reassure you it is true! You see, my sister-in-law has a small orchard of trees in her backyard. The home belonged to my late mother-in-law, and she spent years planting gardens, flowers, and a wide variety of trees. Now, her daughter has the privilege of living there, and the rest of the family can continue to enjoy the fruits of my mother-in-law's labor. Over the summer, when the children and I visited her, my sister-in-law invited us to pick as much fruit as we could handle. I didn't realize until then how many trees of nectarines and peaches we were talking about, but there had to be six or eight of them. Full of fruit! I call this a two-toned pie because she had both white and orange flesh of both nectarines and peaches. We were in heaven. She gave us the biggest box she could fine and was more than happy to see some of this fruit get picked. When we got home from his sister's, G was quite surprised to see such a haul come back with us. We started eating them right away, but they were so ripe that we knew we were going to have to preserve them. Unfortunately, I was leaving with the children the next day for three days with my parents at Lake Tahoe. So, G took it upon himself while we were gone to peel, slice, sugar and freeze all of those nectarines and peaches! I came back to a freezer full of goodness. So, yes, we had a fantastic pie, and if you have access to super fresh summer fruit, I encourage you to freeze it, so you can enjoy their sweetness months later.

A couple of tips:

If you have frozen fruit, definitely drain the juice after thawing it, even taking a spoon and stirring the fruit in a colander to release more juice. In the past I've made the mistake of just partially draining the juice, but the juice made the crust so wet, that it was hard to seal the top to the bottom. Also, more juices are released during baking, so that pie became a big juicy mess, albeit a tasty one. I wouldn't rinse the fruit, though; for some reason it seems like you'd be rinsing away flavor. If you are using fresh fruit, you shouldn't have to worry about draining. Also, you normally want to pre-bake a bottom crust when the filling is a wet one, like this one. I usually line the unbaked shell with wax paper and top it with dried beans to weigh it down. This time, I didn't have dried beans handy (I know!), so I just pre-baked it without any weights. It actually turned out fine. To see how to pre-bake a crust with bean weights, I explain it in my recipe for my Pecan Raisin Tart. After you lay the top crust on the fruit, take a small, sharp knife and trim off any big edges. If there are gaps where more crust is needed, take some of the extra dough and pinch it to the crust where you need it. You can see in the picture below that is what I had to do in one spot. It doesn't make for an absolutely picture-perfect pie, but it still eats the same. I actually probably had too much crust around the edges, and my crust baked over the rim of the pie pan. If that happens to you, just carefully crack the edges off, munch on them before the kids can grab them, and slice as usual.

Two-Toned Nectarine Peach Pie

A slice of this sweet pie! You can see how the fruit is still very juicy, even after being drained.

Two-Toned Nectarine Peach Pie

Ingredients:

For the crust:

Makes enough dough for a double-crust pie

2 and 1/2 cups flour
5 Tbs. vegan or raw sugar
1 Tbs. EnerG Egg Replacer
14 Tbs. chilled vegan margarine, cubed
6 Tbs. cold water

For the filling:

4 cups of frozen white and orange flesh nectarines and peaches, thawed and drained
1 cup of vegan or raw sugar

Directions:

For the crust: In a food processor with the pastry blade, pulse together the flour, sugar, and Egg Replacer. Add the margarine and process until the it becomes grainy. Add the water through the feeding tube and process until dough lumps up into a ball. If you are doing it by hand, whisk together the dry ingredients. Use a pastry cutter or fork to blend the margarine in. Add the water and continue mixing, using your hands if necessary. Divide the dough in half, shape into disks, wrap in wax paper and chill for 20 minutes. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Take one of the disks, and roll it out on a floured surface to a round that will cover the bottom and sides of your pie pan. Lay crust in pan, making sure edges are gently pressed down. Use a fork to poke holes all over the bottom of the crust. Bake for 20 minutes. Cool on a rack.

For the filling and rest of pie: When the bottom crust is cooled, roll out the top crust into a round large enough to cover the top of the pie, plus an inch or so more to compensate for the fruit. Mix the sugar and fruit together and pour onto the bottom crust. Lay the top crust on top. Cut away large, extra edges. Pinch the two crusts together to create a scalloped edge. Use a sharp knife to make several slits on top. Adorn with dough fruit, if you wish. You can attach this adornment with a dab of water on the back before putting on the top crust. Bake for 45 minutes, making sure the crust is nice and golden. Delicious. Feeds five hungry vegans for a couple of days.