Blueberry and Apricot Pie in a Skillet!!

Making a pie in a skillet is an easy alternative to a pie pan. It always looks great, and everyone loves it! This pie has blueberries, apricots, black apricots and doughnut nectarines. Browned butter and amaretto helps bring out the rich flavor of these sumptuous fruits! A beautiful lattice crust made with my favorite butter crust dough recipe and topped with lemon zest makes for the perfect summer dessert. This pie is simply delicious! - -Forkable Blog

Step 1: Gather Ingredients

Shop for your fruit. Summer is a great time for fresh local produce. Here in the Midwest, we have wonderful fresh blueberries! Because its harvest time, there is a huge selection of produce. At the market, I chose apricots, black apricots and doughnut nectarines to compliment the organic blueberries.

For the filling:

1 pt of blueberries
2 lb of apricots
2 lb of black apricots
1 lb of doughnut nectarines
2 Tbl. butter browned
2 tsp. amaretto (almond liqueur)
2 Tbl. butter

Gather the ingredients for the pie dough. We need:

3 c. Flour
2 tbl. Sugar
1 3/4 tsp. Salt
1 c. butter (cold and cubed)
8 Tbl ice water
1 1/2 tsp cider vinegar

Step 2: Assemble Pie Dough

This is my favorite butter crust dough recipe. It has both sugar and cider vinegar to give the crust a tangy flavor! There never are crusts left on the plate with this pie recipe!

A food processor makes this dough recipe easy, but if you don't have one, you can use a pastry cutter or even a large fork.

Sift together dry ingredients: 3 c. flour, 2 tbl. sugar, and 1 3/4 tsp salt. Add to food processor.

Add 1 cup of cold butter cut into cubes. It is best cold because it gives the dough a better texture and makes for easier handling. Pulse or fork butter into flour until chunky.

Add, while pulsing, 1 1/2 tsp of cidar vinegar and 8 Tbl (1/2 cup) ice water. Add each tablespoon separately. Cold ice water is a must because it aids the binding of the dough and helps keep a good consistency when handling. Pulse dough until it becomes more solid.

Take dough out of food processor. Kneed with hands just until it creates a nice solid dough. Don't handle dough too much with your hands.

Wrap dough in syran wrap or put in plastic bag. Chill dough for at least an hour.

Step 3: Remove Skin From Apricots

Apricots, like peaches, have a fuzzy skin. I like to remove the skin when making my filling. We just have to blanch the fruit for a couple minutes in boiling water to loosen the skin from the flesh.

Take a pot of boiling water.

Drop fruit in. Depending on the ripeness of the fruit will dictate how long you should boil them. These apricots were super ripe, so needed about a minute. For less ripened harder fruit, give a little more time.

With a slotted spoon, remove the fruit and set aside to cool.

Once fruit has cooled enough to handle, begin to peal skin away from flesh.

Step 4: Assemle Filling

Slice peeled apricots around the pits. Slice nectarines around the pits. Place sliced fruit in a bowl.

Add rinsed blueberries.
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp lemon zest.

Add 2-4 tablespoons of flour to the filling depending on how much liquid is being released by the fruit. If your filling seems super juicy add more flour. The flour will help you filling thicken so you don't end up with pie soup.

Brown butter. Over medium heat, place 2 Tbs of butter in a saute pan. Saute butter until it becomes a rich brown color. Add 1 tsp of Amaretto and remove from heat.

Add Browned butter to filling.

Step 5: Roll Out Pie Dough

Take dough out of fridge and allow to sit for 10 minutes or so to warm up a bit to allow for easier rolling.

Once ready to be rolled out, slice your dough ball in half. Take half of dough and roll out on parchment paper sprinkled with flour. I like to use parchment paper when rolling dough because it allows you to spin the dough to change direction of rolling easier as well as aids in the placement of the dough in the pan. Try to keep the dough a consistent thickness. Keep a container of flour handy to keep rolling pin floured. Keep pie pan- or skillet in this case- nearby so you can check to make sure the dough is rolled large enough to fit inside pan. If your pan or skillet is deep, make sure you have enough dough to be fitted into deep contours of pan.

When dough is rolled out, lift corner of parchment paper to help wrap dough around rolling pin. Lift dough, keeping rolled around rolling pin, and move into skillet. Press dough down into the contours of the skillet.

Roll out second half of dough to prepare lattice top. When rolled out large enough to be fit on top of pie, set aside.

Step 6: Finish Pie Assembly.

Once bottom crust is placed in our skillet, add the pie filling. Add 2 tablespoons of cold butter to filling.

To prepare the edges of the bottom crust to be pressed with the lattice dough, brush egg yolk (separated from egg white) around edges before you start placing the lattice strips down.

Go back to rolled dough we have prepared for the top lattice. Cut dough into strips. Begin to weave lattice top, by taking your dough stips and alternating above and below your other strips. Be careful when handling your dough strips as it may have a tendency of tearing apart. If your strip breaks, just wet it down and pinch back together. Use the long strips at the center of the pieand shorter strips toward the edges.

When your lattice is in place, trim excess dough leaving about 1/2" dough hanging over to seal edges and make a decorative border. Roll dough from bottom crust around the ends of the lattice strips and around the edge of the skillet, down into place on top of the pie. Pinch the edges in an attempt to make a consistent pattern. Brush the top of the pie with remaining egg yolk. Sprinkle top of pie with lemon zest.

Step 7: Bake Pie

Bake pie at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes.

When putting pie in the oven, place skillet on a baking sheet to collect any fruit juice which might bubble over edge of skillet. You don't want to get smoked out of the kitchen when the juice from your pie overflows and burns all over the bottom of the oven!

Check your pie around 30 minutes and keep monitoring it. When your pie crust has a nice golden appearance, you know your pie is done!

Step 8: Victory! Lets Eat Pie!

Yum, lets eat pie! After making this delicious pie, it is impossible not to be overcome with a violent and expressive sense of VICTORY! A lush deep blueberry flavor with the sweet sumptious taste of apricts and underscored with the subtle rich flavors of the browned butter and amaretto. Serving this pie with fresh whipped cream or ice cream will bring smiles to everyones faces.