Dried Apricot Pie
This recipe is from our friends, the Passarello's, who have a long family tradition of drying a couple hundred pounds of apricots so they can enjoy the sweetness and bounty of summer year-round!
Using dried apricots concentrates the flavor, so a small slice goes a long way. I can see this being a great pie for the colder fall and winter months, although I'm enjoying it right now in the middle of June!
Because I used unsulphured apricots, my pie filling is more brown than orange, but the taste is still apricot thru and thru. I tweaked Rebecca's original recipe a bit to suit our family's taste, namely adding lemon juice, cinnamon and a bit of almond extract. You can also play around with the amount of sugar. At half a cup, the pie is not too sweet, which is a way of saying, if you like your pies sweet, add more sugar! Just take a taste of the filling and add more if your taste buds decree!
Dried Apricot Pie
Adapted from the Passarello Family recipe
Makes one 9" pie
In a medium saucepan, combine and gently simmer with lid on for about 1/2 hour:
1 lb dried apricots, sulphured or unsulphured
water, to cover (about 2 cups)
Apricots should be soft, but not completely fallen apart and water mostly absorbed. If there's still a lot of water, remove lid and boil away some of the liquid.
Meanwhile, prepare:
one 9" double-crust pie pastry (I used the King Arthur's oil pie crust recipe, doubled)
Line 9" pie pan with bottom crust. Roll out a top crust. Keep both chilled in refrigerator.
Place a cookie sheet in oven and preheat oven to 350°F.
When apricots are softened, stir in:
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 tsp almond extract
1/4 tsp cinnamon
In a small saucer, combine until smooth:
juice from 1/2 lemon
1 Tbs cornstarch
Stir into apricot filling.
Spoon apricot filling into lined pie pan. Cover with top crust, crimp and flute as desired. Cut 3-5 slits on top. Brush crust with:
milk
And sprinkle with:
sugar
Place pie on pre-heated cookie sheet and bake at 350°F for 45 minutes or until filling is bubbly and crust is lightly browned. Remove from oven and cool on rack.
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