Thursday, December 9, 2010

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.

14 comments:

  1. Nectarine and peach works really well together. In the summer , when both are really plentiful here, I have made crumbles with the two combined. What a treat to have these fresh as we move into the winter months !

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  2. Peach and nectarine pie is a luxury this time of year, and must be a cheerful reminder of summer! So wonderful that your sister-in-law is keeping up her mom's tradition and has such bounty to share! Nothing better than tree-ripe fruit...off the tree and into the mouth!...or into a pie, it looks so juicy and delicious!

    Question about freezing the peaches: do you use a splash of lemon juice or similar when you get them ready to freeze so they don't start to brown as they thaw?

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  3. Hi, Di, it was a treat definitely! :-)

    Yes, Rose, it is so nice to keep the family home up and that she's willing to share the bounty from the trees. She's even called us to come down and help thin out her garden, so how can we refuse? About the freezing - G did it and said he just added some sugar. I didn't notice any browning, but he freezed them quickly, and as soon as they were thawed, I started preparing them for the pie. I don't think they had much time to sit out and get brown, if you know what I mean.

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  4. Thanks for the frozen fruit tip. I would have never thought to drain it, and I would have been the one to have the big juicy mess. :o)
    This sounds so good and your pie crust is beautiful!

    I didn't freeze any fruit this year...didn't even think about it, but I will next year.

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  5. i love the story in the first part of this post. how G prepared and froze all those peaches. that was very nice of him! i like to freeze fruit, i need an extra fridge though so i can do more stuff like this. the egg replacer is so that the pie can brown a little right? i made two batches of cookies and the one with egg replacer got browned while the other did not. it doesnt seem to work as well as id like as a binder. my cakes are always so frail and crumbly. it looks like swans on top of the pie:)

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  6. Michelle at LLV, Oh, we live and learn, don't we? But, we still ate my big, juicy mess, don't forget that! Thanks for the compliment on the crust. :-)

    Michelle at DD, G can surprise me sometimes, that's for sure. I actually added the Egg Replacer for binding. I find your cookie experiment very tantalizing, though. Do you have enough liquid in your cakes? Lets try to figure out the crumbling problem; I know we can fix it!

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  7. That sounds so good! I wish I could find some peaches this time of year. I must try this recipe when summer rolls around : ]

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  8. Jacklyn, I think you will make a delicious pie. I hope you will post your version!

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  9. Nectarine Peach Pie sounds wonderful. I love the source of the fruit. Thanks for the pie tips. I don't know if I've ever made a fruit pie...surely, I have years ago?

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  10. Nectarines are my favourite fruit and the thought of being able to pick them off a tree.... Words fail me! John's trying to grow a nectarine tree in the polytunnel for me, but I'm not too optimistic.
    Your pie looks lusciously yummy!
    Penny

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  11. Jenny, thanks, I added the tips because I always appreciate a little bit of help, too. :-) I am SO sure you've made a fruit pie! And, if you haven't, you better right now!

    Penny, nectarines are my favorite fruit too! Ever since I was a little girl, they have been my most sought after fruit. Now, I finally have my own tree, and last year it gave us one fruit. Hopefully, the little baby has a few more in it this year.

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  12. Blessedmama...thank you so much for the beautiful pecan cookie cups you sent me to post on my blog. The cookie extravaganza went excellently well with the help of so many of our blooger friends participation. I just posted the last cookie recipe...my guayaba cookies. Next week I will post all the cookies until January 1. Thanks again my friend.

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  13. Peach pie! I never made it with preserved/canned/frozen fruit. Thanks for the tips.

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  14. You're welcome, Millie! My privilege.

    You're welcome, Alessandra. I hope they will help.

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