Crust
| 1/3 C |
roasted, salted and crushed almonds |
| 1/2 C |
whole wheat pastry flour |
| 1/2 C |
pastry flour |
| 2 T |
quinoa flour |
| 2 T |
corn meal |
| 1 T |
brown sugar |
| 6 T (3/4 stick) |
cold butter |
| 1 T |
canola oil |
| 2 T |
water |
Filling
| 2 C |
strawberries (about two baskets if
you eat a few), sliced in half |
| 2 C |
apricots (4 big ones), sliced in
eighths |
| 3 T |
honey |
Topping
| 3 |
strawberries, sliced |
| 1 |
apricot, thinly sliced |
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present on a generous dollop of creme fraiche |
Use the best stuff:
Fresh, organic fruit
Marshall's Bay Area Blend honey
Cowgirl Cremery creme fraiche |
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The Roches have a song (The
Troubles),
which describes their trip to Ireland
and one of the things they'll miss
when they're there:
strawberry-apricot pie.
The song and the pie both sounded great
to me.
However, I looked everywhere and couldn't find a
strawberry-apricot pie. So, I set out to make one.
This proved to be really hard.
I tried and failed several times.
Complicating matters is the fact that
organic strawberries and apricots are only
in season together for a few weeks in May each year.
Dedication and persistence have prevailed.
The proof is in the pie pan.
| Crust |
The crushed almonds should be flour
like, bordering perhaps on butter-like. Blend the flours and the
almonds together. Cut in the butter (my wife, Connie, recommends
cutting the butter until it is the size of "small
peas"). Add the oil and water.
Form the ingredients together with your hands: the heat of
your hands melts the butter. Make a ball of dough; cover it and
put it in the refrigerator for one hour.
Form the dough into a pie pan: press it in with your hands,
making a scalloped rim with your fingers. Bake the crust in a
pre-heated oven at 375 degrees for 20 minutes.
Take the crust out of the oven and let it cool until it is
warm. |
| Filling |
Put the honey, one cup of
strawberries and one cup of apricots in a saucepan (a double
boiler, which I don't have, might work even better). Simmer this
for about an hour, stirring frequently, until it reduces by
about half.
Take the saucepan off the stove and let it cool until the
sauce is very warm to the touch. Stir in the remaining apricots.
Let the apricots heat in the sauce for two minutes,
cooking very slightly.
Stir in the remaining strawberries and immediately put the
filling into the pie crust. Put the pie in the refrigerator
(again, immediately). All this rushing at the last minute means
that the strawberries warm a bit for a few minutes, bringing out
their flavor, then cool in the fridge. This prevents disintegrated
strawberries and wet pie. |
| Topping |
After the pie has been in the refrigerator
for a few minutes, take it out and arrange the thinly slice
fruit on top of the pie. I'm partial to a ring of apricots on
the perimeter, a ring of strawberry middles inside that and a
pile of strawberry ends in the center. |
| Serving |
Put a few heaping spoonfuls of creme
fraiche on the center of a small plate. Smooth it out in a
circle. Place a piece of the pie on top. |
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