Is there anything that says summer more than a big slice of juicy fruit pie? This fresh apricot pie with lots of sweet/tart apricots piled into a buttery crust doesn’t disappoint ~ let’s hear it for summer!
I don’t often choose to make a traditional two crust pie when there are so many other easy summer desserts that don’t require the same amount of commitment. But I make the exception for exceptional fruit. Apricots have the most intense flavor ~ they deserve a pie all to themselves. This is a glorious dessert, well worth your time.
everyone should make a big fat juicy apricot pie at least once every summer
I get it if the mere mention of a double crust gets your stress hormones flowing. Let’s just say I haven’t completely mastered the art myself. The little niceties like rolling it out to a perfect circle and neatly fluting the edges elude me. But the wonderful thing that I’ve discovered about pie is that it doesn’t have to be artful to be amazingly delicious. As long as the crust is flaky, and the fruit is ripe and piled high, it usually turns out just great. And the experience of a homemade pie made with farm stand fruit in the middle of summer is not to be missed. So let’s get over ourselves and start baking.
apricot pie is the queen of summer pies
There’s something intoxicating about fresh apricots. They’re less juicy but more intensely flavored than peaches and, if given the choice, I’ll always go for the apricot. I piled them into the pie shell as high as I could to compensate for that disappointing shrinkage that happens in the oven. I only added a dash of sugar, some cornstarch to thicken the juices, and lemon juice to the fruit, that’s all it needs. The fruit flavor in my apricot pie really sings!
I did play with my basic crust recipe this time, though. I added shortening along with the butter. I really like what shortening does to a crust; it gives it a softer and more buttery (ironically!) texture.
But that reminds me of another issue I have with pies. I’m not so good at waiting for things to cool before I slice them. If you try to slice your apricot pie while it’s still warm the crust will most likely fall apart and the fruit will ooze in to fill the void left when you remove it. Oh well. Like I said, delicious isn’t necessarily tied to perfection when it comes to pies. If you can possibly manage it, though, let your apricot pie cool and then refrigerate it for an hour or two. You will be rewarded with much better looking slices. Personally I can’t resist a slice hot out of the oven.
Other summer bakes to try
- Blackberry Slab Pie Bars
- Cherry Crumble Pie
- Easy Blueberry Peach Crumble Pie
- Strawberry Rhubarb Crumble Pie
- Easy Raspberry Galette
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Apricot Pie
Equipment
- 9" pie plate
Ingredients
- 2 pounds of sliced apricots, or enough to fill your pie dish with a heaping pile
- 1 Tbsp sugar, if your apricots are under ripe or tart, add more to taste
- 1 Tbsp cornstarch
- juice of 1/2 lemon, leave out if your apricots are very tart
- 1/2 tsp vanilla or almond extract, optional
two crust pie dough
- 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour, plus more for rolling
- 1 tsp salt
- 3/4 cup unsalted butter, cold and cut in pieces
- 1/4 cup shortening, I used butter flavor Crisco
- 1/4 cup ice water
Instructions
- Set oven to 375F.
- Start by making the crust. Pulse the flour and salt a few times in a food processor to combine. Add the cold chunks of butter and shortening to the bowl and pulse about 20 times until the mixture is grainy.
- Add the ice water, a little at a time, while continuing to pulse, until the dough just comes together when you pinch it between your fingers. Stop the machine to check it. NOTE: you may not need all of the water.
- Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and bring it together into a ball. Add a little more flour if the dough is too wet. Cut the ball in half, form two disks, and wrap each one in plastic. Refrigerate the dough for 2 hours (or overnight) before rolling it out.
- Toss the apricot slices with the sugar, cornstarch and lemon juice.
- Roll out one of the disks for the bottom crust and fit into your pie plate. Fill the crust with the apricots.
- Roll out the other disk to make the top crust and cover the fruit. Seal the edges with the back of a fork. Cut small slits in the center to allow the steam to escape during baking.
- Bake for about 45 minutes, or until the crust is just beginning to turn golden around the edges and the juices a bubbling.
- Let cool before cutting.
Nutrition
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I added cinnamon to it. Do that when you are tossing the apricots
Nice idea!
Omg! I’m no baker but my father in law has an apricot tree that over produced this year, so he asked me (his only daughter in law) if I could make him a pie. My response was, “sure”! My food processor handle broke so I had to improvise. But this recipe is amazing and delicious!! I agree with one fruit pie a year! Now that this has turned out so great it might be more than once lol!
…and now you’re a baker! Love this story Felicia 🙂
I love anything with apricot, I just made delicious apricot turnovers. Funnily enough I haven never tried an apricot pie. I have about four pounds of apricots in the house, I know exactly what is going to happen to some of them!
Hope you like it as much as we did, Jenny, the flavor of cooked apricots is the best!!
I’ve never made an apricot pie, but as soon as I saw these photos, I started kicking myself. How has it taken me this long? This sounds amazing! And the pictures are gorgeous.
I’m so glad I could inspire you, Elizabeth — thanks for stopping by!
Oh yes, apricot pie! This looks so delicious — such a great way to beeline straight for the flavor of the fruit. Yay!
I love peaches but the flavor of apricots is irresistible. Your pie looks delicious.
This looks delicious!
Hi Sue, my husband loves apricots, got to make this for him. The crust looks amazing!
The crust was good, I think it will become my go to recipe…
Oh baby, does that look good. Fresh apricots are the bomb! I admit that for years, I let pie crust defeat me, until I finally decided that I would not put up with myself any longer. Mine aren’t perfect either, but I did pick up a few tricks from Martha Stewart [move the crust after each pass with the rolling pin, to prevent it sticking, and the importance of chilling] and now I just dive in. My husband has a deep and abiding love for pies, so I had to learn 🙂
I have a really large metal sheet type tool that gets under the whole piece of dough while I’m rolling it, and that helps a bit. Pie crust is definitely a challenge!
Those apricots look gorgeous! And so does your pie. I’m not really a pie person, mainly because of the crust, but I’d love to pick the filling out of this one 😉
I know what you mean…but one thing I’ve made peace with is that even if the crust doesn’t roll out easily, you can just patch it into the pie plate and it still tastes good 🙂