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Apricots are one of the few fruits that taste so much better when you cook them. They are especially amazing when you catch them in season. There’s also something magical about pairing them with cinnamon and a squeeze of lemon juice.
This apricot pie will make your taste buds dance. It reminded me of Christmas and that beautiful baked pie and pastry dough aroma that filled the kitchen… Ooh dear I want another slice badly! I love that this apricot pie wasn’t overly sweet, which only means that a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream on the side was less guilty. I guess I’m craving Fall, but I’m not done with Summer. Nope! Not even close!
Anyway, this flaky cream cheese pastry dough is the best. If you haven’t tried it, you must! It doesn’t come close to any store-bought crust. Best of all there is no shortening, lard or any other ingredients that would make you cringe. Love it up folks. 🙂
Ingredients for Apricot Pie:
1 recipe for Flaky Cream Cheese Pastry Dough (creates the top and bottom of the pie).
2 1/2 lbs fresh ripe apricots, pitted and sliced into 1/2″ thick slices
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 Tbsp all-purpose flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp salt
*Watch our easy video tutorial on how to measure correctly
For the Egg wash:
1 egg whisked together with 1 Tbsp cold water
Preparing the Flaky Cream Cheese Pastry Dough:
(Click here for the Perfect Flaky Pie Crust Recipe)
1. Once apricot pie crust has cooled in the fridge at least 1 hour, and you are ready to use it, remove dough from the refrigerator and on a large sheet of parchment paper, roll it out into a 13-inch circle, sprinkling lightly with flour to keep the dough from sticking to your rolling pin.
2. Transfer the dough to a 9-inch pie plate (the parchment paper makes it easy to transfer the dough; just put the rolled dough over the pie plate and peel off the paper backing.
3. Take the next piece of dough out of the fridge and re-using the parchment paper, roll it into a second 12-inch circle. Use a pizza cutter to slice the second rolled dough into about 15 (3/4-inch thick) strips. Set aside until ready to use.
Prepping your apricot filling:
Preheat Oven to 425˚F.
1. Stir together the dry ingredients in a small bowl: 1/4 cup sugar, 2 Tbsp flour, 1 tsp cinnamon and 1/8 tsp salt.
2. Pit apricots and slice into 1/2″ thick slices and place them in a large mixing bowl. Drizzle with 1 Tbsp lemon juice and gently stir. Sprinkle the sugar/flour/cinnamon mixture over the sliced apricots and toss gently to combine
3. Transfer prepared apricot filling into the bottom of your pie pan which should be lined with pastry dough.
4. Use the strips of pastry dough to create a lattice top and crimp the edges. Click here to view the full photo tutorial on how to make a lattice pie topping. I’ve made it easy for ya!
5. Crimp together the edges or use the leftover lattice topping scraps to make a fancy woven border; just make sure to push the border down onto the pie or it will disconnect from the pie and pieces of it will fall to the bottom of the oven and turn black (not that I’m speaking from experience ;)).
6. Beat together 1 egg with 1 Tbsp cold water. Brush top and edges of pie generously with egg wash.
7. Place pie on the center rack and bake at 425 ˚F for 20 minutes then place cookie sheet lined with foil under the pie to catch any drips then reduce oven to 375˚F and bake an additional 30 min until your filling is bubbling. Loosely Cover the top of the pie with foil if it is starting to brown too quickly.
Here’s the tough part: let the apricot pie cool down ideally at least 2 hours so the filling thickens. If you cut it early, the pie will be too juicy and will fall apart on your plate if eaten right away. It will still taste amazing, but it firms up as it stands
Apricot Pie Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 recipe for Flaky Cream Cheese Pastry Dough, Se Notes Section
For the Pie Filling:
- 2 1/2 lbs fresh ripe apricots, pitted and sliced into 1/2" thick slices
- 1 Tbsp lemon juice
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 2 Tbsp all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/8 tsp salt
For the Egg wash:
- 1 egg whisked together with 1 Tbsp cold water
Instructions
Prepare the Flaky Cream Cheese Pastry Dough (see notes for link on NatashasKitchen.com)
- Once pie crust has cooled in the fridge at least 1 hour, and you are ready to use it, remove dough from the refrigerator and on a large sheet of parchment paper, roll it out into a 13-inch circle, sprinkling lightly with flour to keep the dough from sticking to your rolling pin.
- Transfer the dough to a 9-inch pie plate (the parchment paper makes it easy to transfer the dough; just put the rolled dough over the pie plate and peel off the paper backing.
- Take the next piece of dough out of the fridge and re-using the parchment paper, roll it into a second 12-inch circle. Use a pizza cutter to slice the second rolled dough into about 15 (3/4-inch thick) strips. Set aside until ready to use.
Prepping your apricot filling: Preheat Oven to 425˚F.
- Stir together the dry ingredients in a small bowl: 1/4 cup sugar, 2 Tbsp flour, 1 tsp cinnamon and 1/8 tsp salt.
- Pit apricots and slice into 1/2″ thick slices and place them in a large mixing bowl. Drizzle with 1 Tbsp lemon juice and gently stir. Sprinkle the sugar/flour/cinnamon mixture over the sliced apricots and toss gently to combine.
- Transfer prepared apricot filling into the bottom of your pie pan which should be lined with pastry dough.
- Use the strips of pastry dough to create a lattice top and crimp the edges. (See notes for full photo tutorial on how to make a lattice pie topping). I've made it easy for ya!
- Crimp together the edges or use the leftover lattice topping scraps to make a fancy woven border; Just make sure to push the border down onto the pie or it will disconnect from the pie and pieces of it will fall to the bottom of the oven and turn black (not that I'm speaking from experience ;)).
- Beat together 1 egg with 1 Tbsp cold water. Brush top and edges of pie generously with egg wash.
- Place pie on the center rack and bake at 425 ˚F for 20 minutes then place cookie sheet lined with foil under the pie to catch any drips then reduce oven to 375˚F and bake an additional 30 min until your filling is bubbling. Loosely Cover the top of the pie with foil if it is starting to brown too quickly. Here’s the tough part: let the pie cool down ideally at least 2 hours so the filling thickens. If you cut it early, the pie will be too juicy and will fall apart on your plate if eaten right away. It will still taste amazing, but it firms up as it stands.
Notes
https://natashaskitchen.com/2013/08/30/how-to-make-a-lattice-pie-crust/ Cream Cheese Pie Crust Recipe:
https://natashaskitchen.com/2013/08/30/flaky-cream-cheese-pie-crust-recipe/
I’ve never had fresh apricot pie-I’m sure I would love it. My grandmother made dried apricot pie and used a lattice crust. It was a family favorite! You basically cook down dried apricots in water and sugar until it’s similar to a jam consistency. Put in the pie shell with lattice top and bake. Delicious!!
Hi, Perhaps the lemon juice could account for the variety of sourness -in reading the comments about filling turning out too sour. Ex. Meyer lemons are much sweeter than the common Eureka variety. A tablespoon of very tart lemon juice might be too much in some cases.
HI Mitsi, it depends on the type of apricots as well. If the apricots are very sweet, it will be a welcome balance but if you are using tart apricots or trying to cut the sugar, the lemon juice may be overpowering. Also, I used regular lemons. I hope that helps.
Natasha, have you ever combined apricots with blueberries? It is awe-mazing!
Hi Sandra, I have not tried that yet but thank you for the suggestion. I’ll try that next time!
We really enjoyed this! Made a spelt pastry. Read comments while it was in the oven so I was a little worried but we really enjoyed this pie. I might try swapping the fruit and experimenting
I’m glad you enjoyed this recipe! Feel free to experiment and please share with us how you liked that version if give it a try!
Can you freeze the apricot pie filling once prepared for use in a pie later?
Hi Fiona, I haven’t tried that so I’m not sure if it would discolor with freezing and thawing.
My apricot pie was perfect. I recommend this recipe. Not real sweet or tart . I love it. My husband loved it .
Thank you
That’s just awesome Betty! Thank you for that wonderful review!
I frozed my apricots how do you think frozen apricots would work?
Hi April, frozen apricots will work well, use a little more flour since frozen apricots are always slightly juicier.
Can I make this recipe using tinned apricot halves? If so, is there anything I’d need to adjust??
Hi Stephanie, I haven’t tested that but I think it could work. If you experiment, let me know how you liked the recipe.
I questioned the amount of sugar but made the recipe as stated. Won’t be using your recipe again unless I increase the amount of sugar. Really tasted “off” and sour.
Hi Mary Jo, Some apricots are sourer than others and it’s so hard to tell until you can actually bite into them. More sugar may be needed based on the apricot.
Not all apricots are the same, some are sweeter than others, also less tart.
Exactly! I make pies for a market and all our recipes have 1-1.5 cups of sugar for a 9 inch pastry pie. The solely .25 cup of sugar will be very off-putting and made me question if it was a typo or the author misread her notes when baking it before publishing. Even sweet apricots fresh off a tree require 3/4 cup of sugar in pastry.
I had a lot of apricots so decided to bake something with them.
And my pie looks great but filling turned out to be really sour 😣 Maybe my apricots wasn’t the best ones, but I didn’t expect this result. There’s no way to fix this, right? Except pour a ton of honey over it..
I guess should be some way to regulate sugar/lemon juice amount before baking..
Hi Daria, it is most likely due to tart apricots. For pie, the riper the apricots, the better because their sweetness increases considerably. You could try a sweetened slice of apricot before baking to double check next time.
What a tasty pie! I sometime add some sugar on top just for garnish
That’s a great idea Dawn! I’m glad you like it! Thanks for sharing 🙂
Can I bake this the day before my bbq and simply stick it in the fridge for the next day?
Hi Elise, yes that will work fine. It would probably be just fine at room temperature overnight.
I am not using the cream cheese crust, so i am going to freeze it before baking, I am making pies to bake later date. i hope it works. Love the recipe thank you
Please let me know how it turns out Pam!
Hey so how many cups of pie filling does this recipe use? I have apricot pie filling in hard so now I wondered how much I should use for 1 recipe of this pie.
Hi, I really didn’t measure it that way so I can’t say for sure. I would guess 4 to 6 cups depending on how large your pie pan is.
Do you have to balance and peal the apricots like a peach
Eddie, there is no need for blanching the apricots. Let me know how it turns out 😀.
I would to know if I can freezing and bake later. Thank you.
Hi Rosa, to be honest, I haven’t tried that with this recipe so I’m not sure if the dough would cook through properly or if it would become mushy taking it from the freezer to the oven. I just haven’t experimented to say for sure. If you try it out before I do, let me know how it works out 🙂
I have frozen I cut them up and put the spice what ever it is and put them into zip lock bag put them into pie tin shape when frozen take the pan out and leave fruit in the frozen when ready to bake I take the fruit out of bag let throw and put into pit tin and put lattice top on because full top will have more juice lattice will not and be perfect let sit two hour after to let juice goes away good luck