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Stone fruit and spice pie

Stone Fruit and Spice Pie in a Cinnamon Crust

All the stone fruits of the season can be used in this filling- any one you like, or have waiting to be used up.  Add some warm spices, and a cinnamon scented crust, and you've got a perfect pie to celebrate the second half of summer.

Course Dessert
Prep Time 1 hour
Cook Time 1 hour
Resting time 3 hours
Total Time 2 hours
Servings 8

Ingredients

  • One recipe of my Perfect Pie Crust to be used to fill an 8 inch pie plate
  • 1 tbsp ground cinnamon

Filling

  • 4 cups mixed stone fruit pitted and sliced into 1/4 inch thickness (you can use any combination of peaches, nectarines, plums, apricots, cherries
  • 2 tbsp lemon juice
  • 3/4 cup brown sugar
  • 4 tbsp arrowroot starch
  • 1 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1 tsp ground ginger
  • 1/4 tsp sweet paprika
  • 1/8 tsp ground gloves
  • 1/2 tsp kosher salt
  • 3-4 good dashes Angustura or Old Fashioned Bitters
  • 2 tbsp ground almonds
  • 1 egg
  • 1 tbsp turbinado sugar

Instructions

Pie Crust

  1. Prepare the recipe for my double crust pie pastry as per the link below
  2. Replace 1 tbsp of the sugar with 1 tbsp of ground cinnamon
  3. Bring the dough together on the counter and then divide it into 2 even disks. Wrap them in plastic and store in the fridge for at least 1 hour.
  4. When ready to make your pie, pull out one of the disks and let it warm up to room temperature while you work on the filling.

Filling

  1. Preheat the oven to 425F. Place a rack in the lower third of the oven.
  2. Place all the sliced stone fruit in a large bowl.
  3. Pour the lemon juice over the slices and toss gently to coat.
  4. In a small bowl combine the brown sugar, starch, spices, and salt. Blend well.
  5. Pour this over the fruit and toss to coat.

  6. Add the dashes of bitters. Set the bowl aside while you work on the bottom crust.

Assemble the Pie

  1. Bring out the top disk of dough to warm up.
  2. Flour the counter as well as your rolling pin. Place the warmed disk of dough on to the flour and give it a couple of good whacks with your rolling pin. This will actually act like a tenderizer, getting the dough softened and ready for rolling.
  3. Roll out, regularly turning and checking that there is enough flour under the dough. Keep flouring your pin as well. Roll it out to an 11 inch circle.
  4. Flour the surface of the dough well so that it won't stick to itself as you transfer it to the pie plate.

  5. Either fold it half and then half again and transfer it to the plate so that the point of the 'triangle' is in the middle of the pie plate. At this point you can gently unfold it. Let the sides drop down as you fit it. This will help it from shrinking during baking/

  6. Alternatively you can roll the dough up around the pin and bring the pin the the pie plate and unroll it over the plate.
  7. If you are covering the pie filling with another circle of pastry or if you are creating a lattice top, just trim the edges to about 1/2 over the edges of the plate.
  8. If topping the pie with cut out, then you can crimp the edges as desired at this point.
  9. Sprinkle the bottom of the shell with about 2 tbsp almond flour (or any finely ground nut flour)
  10. Transfer the filling to the pie shell, packing it gently down so that the top is pretty even.
  11. Place this in the fridge while you bring out the second disk to roll out.
  12. Roll out as above. If you are covering the pie with a circle of dough, roll it out to about 10 inches. If using lattice or cut outs, make sure that your dough is rolled out to no less that 1/6 inch deep. Prepare dough as desired. If the dough is warming up, and getting sticky, return it to the fridge to cool down a bit.
  13. When ready to top the pie, pull out the filled pie shell and let it sit for 5 minutes.
  14. Cover as desired. If covering it with a solid lid, cut some slits for steam vents.
  15. Place the covered pie back into the fridge for 20 or so minutes.
  16. Pull out the pie and place it on a baking sheet.
  17. Give the entire top an egg wash (egg beaten with a splash of water) using a pastry brush.
  18. Sprinkle the top with about 1 tbsp of turbinado or raw sugar.
  19. Place the baking sheet on the rack and bake until the crust is firming up and just turning a golden colour, about 30 minutes.
  20. Remove the baking sheet.
  21. Place the rack to the centre of the oven.
  22. Return the baking sheet to the oven. Reduce the temperature to 375F and bake until golden brown and the juices are bubbling evenly throughout the entire pie, about another 25-30 minutes.
  23. Remove the pie to a cooling rack. Let it cool for at least 3 hours to let the juices set.

Recipe Notes

Link for the pie pastry is HERE

As with any fruit pie, it is good to give it several hours to set before cutting into it. In fact, you can make it first thing in the morning if you want to serve it for dinner in the evening. I will even bake mine the day before. It can rest outside on the counter overnight. Gently cover with a glass dome or tea towel after the first 4 or 5 hours.

If you don't have an 8 inch pie plate, you could use an 8 inch cast iron skillet. To convert this to a 9 inch pie use the following adjustments: 5 cups fruit, 2 tbsp lemon juice, 1 cup brown sugar, 5 tbsp arrowroot starch, 1 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon and ginger, 1/2 tsp paprika, 1/8 tsp ground cloves, 3/4 tsp salt, 5 dashes bitters.