Apricot Hazelnut Pie with Creme Anglaise

I got so giddy the other day when I was at my favourite market in the city, St Lawrence Market. 

Along with a large area dedicated to the local farmers market, there are also the year round bakeries, dry goods, delis and cheese and fish mongers, and coffee and tea shops.  There is a little chocolate boutique, florist, and all sorts of artisan stalls for things to eat, from Chinese and Japanese, Eastern Euro treats like perogies and latkes, and Greek and Italian shops.  And then there are the artist stalls as well.  Something for everyone.

But the one shop that I am always guaranteed to pop into, is Urban Fresh Produce.  This family run organic and locally sourced Ontario produce store always keeps me in everything my little heart desires.  If I’m looking for something specific, they’ll try and source it for me.  And guys, this is my tip for you: if you ever come across an ingredient, a melon, a type of pear or apple, berries like currants or gooseberries, and don’t ever seem to find them, don’t stop the hunt.  Seek out an independent grocer or shop, one that doesn’t answer to a large corporate office somewhere in some large midwestern city, because what they source is what they know their clientele will purchase.  The more you speak with the owners of these shops, the more insight they will get as to what people are looking for.  They may pass by the very vegetable you are craving, because no one seems interested in it.  But if they know that you will purchase a decent amount, they may bring in a special order just for you!  And the more you do this, with all the little independent shop owners, the more they will start catering to you, even giving you advance notice of what will soon be appearing on shelves or in the baskets.

So yes, Urban Fresh Produce is that shop for me.  Anthony and his family are always sourcing amazing local in season produce, as well as bringing in sustainably sourced exotic ingredients that they know we are looking for.  And if I ask about something specific I may get, “Oh we could have brought it in, but it wasn’t the quality we know you’d want.  Wait a few weeks, we’ll get it from a better source.”

And last weekend, they had in the first apricots of the season.  Usually I’m content to wait for our own Ontario apricots to start showing up.  But this year, everything is behind.  We’ve had the coolest, wettest Spring that I can remember.  So dismal.  And when I saw those apricots, they just sang to me!  So I filled a bag with the little orange-pink-gold stone fruit, and thought about what I would make with them.  I decided on pie.  You are now saying, ‘Well isn’t that what you always do?!”   True, but I’ve never made a pie from apricots before.  I’ve used plums and cherries and peaches, but never apricots.  So this pie happened.

First of all, I decided that the filling deserved a fresh change from my traditional crust.  I opted for spelt flour.  Spelt is an ancient whole grain, related to wheat, so it does contain gluten.  It has a nutty, slightly sweet flavour once baked up.  Spelt has a good nutritional profile, having slightly fewer calories than wheat flour, and being somewhat higher in protein. The flour is easy to digest but is lower in fiber than wheat.  If I have the option to use whole wheat or spelt, I usually use spelt when combining or replacing it in my baking.  For the most part you can replace wheat flour with spelt at a 1:1 ratio.  The only thing to remember is that the gluten in spelt flour breaks down really easy, so don’t overmix whatever you are using it in.  Along with replacing some of the flour in my pastry recipe with the Spelt, I also added 2 tbsp of cinnamon.  Cinnamon with apricots is a natural, right?!

Then I thought about the filling.  Usually I use ground almonds or almond flour at the bottom of my pie shell to soak up any extra juices from the filling as it’s baking up.  And yes, almonds and apricots go beautifully together.  But I wanted to switch it up.  Hazelnuts and apricots are lovely together, at least they are in my favourite nut and dried fruit combo.  So out came the jar of ground hazelnuts.  If you don’t have ground hazelnuts or hazelnut flour (Bob’s Red Mill carries it, or get it here)  you can easily just grind some in a small food chopper or mill.  You only need about 2 or 3 tbsp of the ground hazelnuts.  If you are looking to have nut flour options in your pantry, hazelnut flour is a great one to have on hand.

Seeing that there would be hazelnuts at the bottom of the filling, what about the filling itself?  Frangelico to the rescue.  That wonderful nutty sweet Italian liqueur made from hazelnuts would be my addition.    The rest is easy.  Just following my typical filling amounts, five cups or a bit more, with 3 tbsp of arrowroot starch and 3 tbsp of AP flour combined with sugar and then added to the sliced fruit to sit and start releasing some juices.  Spread it all out into the pie shell, cover and  let it chill before the egg wash and baking.

A book that I go to for reference all the time is The Four and Twenty Blackbirds Pie Book.  It has guided me as I started experimenting with pie fillings, and has given me the confidence to create my own fillings through the years.  So of course, I did check to see if there was an apricot pie in the book.  There is.  What this told me, is that I wasn’t completely out to lunch when I first thought of using apricots for a pie filling!  What their recipe inspired me with, was how they served it.  They serve the apricot pie with a vanilla sauce of sorts.  Sometimes it’s called custard sauce.

Well, that vanilla pouring cream totally made me step back in time to when I was a waitress.  One restaurant I worked in served the best desserts.  All of them were based on Granny Smith apples.  Whether it was pie, fritters, dumplings or crumble, all the regular choices had apple in them.  And they were all served with a drizzle of the best Vanilla Sauce.  I was so addicted to that vanilla sauce, that the pastry chef had to make extra when I was working.  Because almost every time I entered the kitchen to pick up an order, I took a soup spoon to the vanilla sauce container and helped myself!  It was the best thing in the kitchen, forget the carpetbagger steaks, the french onion soup, the escargot, etc.  I was there for the vanilla sauce!  And so I thought, I’m just going to go ahead and use it for this pie recipe.  Thanks Blackbird crew!

These days, I have relied on Julie Jones’ recipe for Creme Anglaise.  It’s in her book, Soulful Baker.  It is the easiest, most foolproof recipe that I’ve tried through the years.  It’s so dreamy creamy and vanilla-y! And it is easily halved, if you don’t need a lot.  But obviously I can just live on spoonfuls from the jar in the fridge, so I make plenty!  It works wonderfully on all sorts of desserts, or over sweet crepes, on top of chocolate pudding, over churros etc.  So once you have it, you’ll use it, I promise.  Julie’s recipe is the one that I am including here. The only change I made is really just an addition, a little extra vanilla, because I really like my vanilla!

Let’s just say, since I baked up this pie and the beginning of the week (I baked it on late Sunday evening, I just couldn’t help myself) we’ve been enjoying it as breakfast, dessert, and snacks.  Almost time to bake another one.  Oh hey, for the pie itself that I’m showing here, I just did a fun easy lattice of sorts.  Let’s just call it the Jen Lattice.  It’s way less complicated that the intricate weaving of a traditional lattice.  It’s really just a matter of laying strips out in diagonals, touching at one end or the other, working from one side to the other.  In the end a fun pattern appears, and no stress or tearing of pastry for the baker!

I’m happy that I can get this recipe out now.  So that you will have it in plenty of time for apricot season, wherever you may live in the northern hemisphere!  Make it often, so you know you will have put those apricots to good use.

Love Jen

Print

Apricot Hazelnut Pie with Creme Anglaise

Bright apricots combine with ground hazelnuts and hazelnut liqueur for a tasty summery filling.  The crust is a Spelt and cinnamon one.  The finished pie is drizzled with creamy vanilla sauce for a perfect early summer pie.

Course Dessert

Prep Time 1 hour

Cook Time 55 minutes

Total Time 1 hour 55 minutes

Servings 8

Ingredients

Pie Crust

• 1 cup AP flour
• 1 cup Spelt flour
• 3 tbsp granulated sugar
• 2 tbsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp kosher salt
• 1/3 cup unsalted butter chilled and cubed
• 1/3 cup shortening chilled and cubed
• 1 large egg
• 1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
• 1/4 cup ice water

Filling

• 5 cups apricots pitted and cut into quarters
• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 tsp cardamom
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp arrowroot starch
• 2 tbsp AP flour
• 1 tbsp Frangelico hazelnut liqueur
• 1/2 tsp hazelnut extract
• 2 tbsp ground hazelnuts you can grind your own if you can't find any pre-ground
• 1 large egg mixed with 1 tsp of water for egg wash

Creme Anglaise

• 2/3 cup (150 ml; 5 fl oz) whole milk
• 2/3 cup (50 ml; 5 fl oz) double cream (heavy cream, like Devon cream, use 35% whipping cream if you can't find double cream)
• 1 1/8 tsp vanilla paste
• 1/4 cup (50 grams; 1 3/4 oz) granulated sugar
• 4 egg yolks

Instructions

Pie Crust

1. Combine flour, sugar and salt. I use a food processor, feel free to do this by hand, using a large bowl and a whisk.
2. Add the cubed butter and shortening and pulse only until blended to a rough, crumbly texture. It should only take 2 or 3 pulses. You still want to see large pieces of butter (the size of marbles). Or use a pastry blender or knife to achieve this. Try not to overwork with your hands though- their warmth will warm up the butter too much.
3. Whisk the egg, lemon juice and ice water in a small bowl.
4. Add to flour mixture and pulse just till the dough comes together into a rough ball. Don't worry about grabbing every little bit from the sides, you can add this to the ball you turn out onto the counter by hand. Ideally you should still see pieces of butter.
5. Shape the ball into two disks and wrap. Chill at least 30 minutes- 1 hour
6. Take out one disk and let return to room temperature. Don't roll a disk that is still cool, it will crack along the edges. Place it on a well floured counter.
7. Flouring your rolling pin, roll the disk out. Decrease pressure as you reach the edges. After each roll, spin the dough 1/4 turn. Keep flouring all the surfaces to keep from sticking. Roll to 2-3 inches larger than the pie plate you are using (should be around 1/8" thick.)
8. Either roll the disk up around the rolling pin and release it over the pie plate; or dust with flour and fold it in half and then in half again loosely and lay across the pie plate and then open it up. (In either case make sure that the dough is floured enough so that it won't stick together)
9. Allow the pastry to fall down the sides of the pie plate, so that there are no gaps between the dough and the pie plate. This will ensure that the dough will not pull up from the base, or shrink during baking. Trim it, allowing enough of an edge to work with the type of crimp you wish to use.
10. Place the prepared pie shell back into the fridge to chill for about 20 minutes.
11. Remove the other disk to warm up while you prepare the filling.

Apricot Filling

1. Preheat the oven to 425F, and place a rack in the lower third of the oven.
2. In a large bowl, combine the apricots with the lemon juice, using a silicone spatula to gently toss to coat. The lemon juice will keep the fruit from browning.
3. In a medium bowl combine the sugars with the cardamom and salt. Stir to combine well.
4. Add the flours to the sugar and whisk to combine well.
5. Pour the sugar and flour mix over the fruit and toss gently to combine. Sprinkle the hazelnut liqueur and extract over the filling and set aside to let the juices start releasing.
6. Pull out the chillied pie plate and dough.
7. Scatter the ground hazelnuts over the bottom of the pie plate.
8. Gently pour the filling into the pie plate, gently pushing down to evenly pack the filling into all the corners. Return the pie plate to the fridge while you work on the top.
9. Roll out the disk of dough as you did for the pie shell pastry: well floured counter and rolling pin. Cut out the decorations you wish to use, whether a lattice design or cookie cutter shapes. If you want to cover with another round of pastry, roll it out to about 10-11 inches in diameter.
10. Retrieve the pie from the fridge and finish with the top layer of pastry as you wish.
11. Return to the fridge to let the pastry set and chill.
12. When ready to bake, pull out, brush with the egg wash, and sprinkle with turbinado sugar.
13. Place the pie onto a baking sheet and bake in the lower third of the oven for 25 minutes, or until the pastry is set and beginning to brown.
14. Move the rack and the pie to the middle of the oven, and reduce the temperature to 375F.
15. Bake for another 30 or so minutes or until the juices are bubbling evenly all throughout the pie. This is key, as the bubbling juices are what indicate that the thickeners have been activated.
16. Cool on a rack for at least 3 hours.
17. Serve with Creme Anglaise

Creme Anglaise

1. Place the milk, cream, vanilla and 2 tbsp of the sugar in a heavy bottomed pot. Gently bring to a boil. As soon as it does, remove from the heat and allow the vanilla to infuse the cream.
2. Place the egg yolks into a large bowl and sprinkle with the remaining sugar and whisk together for a few minutes until they are thickened and have turned pale.
3. Add a little of the vanilla milk to the eggs to temper them, whisk to combine. Then it will be safe to add the rest of the milk mixture. Whisk to combine.
4. Pour the mixture back into the pot and return to low heat. Gently reheat, stirring constantly. After about 3-4 minutes you will see it thicken slightly. Remove the sauce as soon as the back of spoon can be coated with it, and a finger running through the sauce leaves a mark that doesn't disappear.
5. Don't cook any longer, as the eggs may start to scramble and create a lumpy sauce.
6. Strain through a sieve into a small jug or bowl.
7. This will keep in the fridge for 5 days. It can be served warm or cold. Reheat over low heat till warm.