Strawberry Nectarine Pie

Here’s what I really think about strawberry pies. They are one of the best fruit pies, but they don’t deserve the best $10 strawberries that you find at the farmers market during the summertime. Those sweet-as-sugar $10 strawberries are for eating and eating only. They don’t need any extra sugar or any heat applied to them. The strawberries from the grocery store in the clamshells on the other hand (especially if you’re buying them out of season in February), are perfect for pie. The grocery store berries aren’t that sweet but when you add brown and white sugars, a bit of vanilla, and let it cook down inside a pie, the best parts of the berry are brought out of the otherwise bland berry. If you have too many good strawberries from the farmers market that you need to use up, more than you can eat, feel free to use them for pie. You might not need as much sugar as you would with regular strawberries because of the higher sugar content naturally in the berries. I like to taste the filling before I add it to the pie tin to bake. I also added some in nectarines for an extra layer of flavour and for the pie to scream ‘I’m a summer pie, baby!’

Thank you Williams Sonoma Canada for making this summertime pie with me!

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Let’s talk about pie dough. I used to think pie dough was intimidating to make. How large should the butter pieces be? How much water is too much water? Why does the water have to be ice cold? A classic pie dough is made of ingredients you probably have already: flour, butter, water, a bit of sugar and salt (and sometimes a wee bit of vinegar). It comes together quickly and easily and I promise once you’ve made pie dough, you will never pie the premade tubes from the store again (there’s usually no butter in those!). There are two important things to keep in mind when working with pie dough — don’t overwork it and keep it cold. I like to roll out my pie dough on a marble surface like this one from Williams Sonoma Canada, which keeps the dough chilled much longer.

My favourite part about making pie is what I get to do with the lattice top. Rarely will I make a plain lattice — oftentimes, you will see a few braids and cut-outs that suggest what’s inside the pie. What I love most about cut-outs is that it hides eliminated the need for a perfectly crimped edge, something I am terrible at making. For this strawberry nectarine pie, I used these Williams Sonoma Summer Berry Pie Punches. They are extremely easy to use and add so much to any pie lattice. When I make a more elaborate pie lattice top, I’ll make 1.5x my normal pie dough recipe, so I have more dough to play with.

Pie dough and pie filling are extremely versatile. Instead of making a full 9-inch pie, you can easily use the same pie dough to make hand pies, which to me are the ideal shareable picnic dessert. You would simple roll out the pie dough as you would if you’re making a full pie, and then use large, round cookie cutters to stamp out the cut-outs. Instead of putting the uncooked fruit filling into hand pies, I like to cook them down over the stove until it reaches a jammy consistency and allow the jam to cool before filling the hand pies. Hand pies can be decorated with berry stamps as well! Hand pies take around 25 – 30 minutes to bake, much less than a full pie!

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