Nectarine and Blackberry Homemade Pie

While nectarines are not the first fruit you think of for making a homemade fruit pie, I promise after eating this amazing Nectarine and Blackberry Homemade Pie, you will think about them every single time!

Why Fruit Pies Are The Perfect Summer Dessert

Fruit Pie is the quintessential American dessert. You take the best fruits summer has to offer and sandwich them between flaky pie crusts. Could anything be better?

If you have felt intimidated about making a pie, let me give you some simple tips and tricks to help you out. I want you to love pie-making as much as I do.

Now, let's talk about nectarines. If you have never tried them in a pie before, add this to your weekend baking list.

Nectarines have long been one of my favorite summer fruits. A few years ago I decided to try them in a pie. Wasn't I surprised when I fell in love?

For this pie, I decided to use a blend of nectarines and blackberries. It was a really good idea as they are so good together!

Ingredients

• Pie dough- I wrote up a recipe post all about making the perfect pie crust. If you are new to pie-making, this is a really great resource. If you don't want to take the time, go ahead and buy your favorite brand.
• Nectarines- You will want these to be sweet and ripe, but not mushy. Mushy nectarines make terrible pie!
• Blackberries- as noted above, you want them ripe, but not mushy.
• Cornstarch- Do not skip this ingredient. This will help to thicken your fruit filling. I will explain more about this below.
• Granulated sugar- you can also use coconut sugar if you prefer
• Egg- this isn't necessary, but I use it for the egg wash and it gives the pie a beautiful glossy crust.
• Milk- for the egg wash as well

Step-By-Step Instructions

1. Roll out the bottom crust on a lightly floured surface. This pie can be made in an 8 or 9-inch pie pan. So, roll your dough about 2 inches bigger all the way around.
2. Place the pie dough gently into your pie pan.
3. Fold over the edges.
4. Crimp the edges.
5. Move the pie pan to the fridge to make the pie.
6. I will show you below how I form my lattice pie topping. If you are doing a regular solid crust, wait to roll out the top until after you have made the filling.
7. Cut up nectarines, then mix in the blackberries, sugar, and cornstarch.
8. Mix well and pour into the bottom crust.
9. Top with the lattice as I did, or with a regular solid crust. If you are using the solid, top, crimp to close.
10. Brush the crust with the egg wash and sprinkle with sugar.
11. Bake until the crust is golden brown and the nectarines are tender.

Notes On Making The Perfect Fruit Pie

• As I mentioned above, the fruit you will use for fruit pies needs to be ripe, but not mushy. The fruit will soften enough when you bake it, you don't want to start with mushy fruit!
• I do not peel my nectarines. It softens so much when you are baking, that I don't think it is worth the effort to peel it before adding them to the pie.
• It is important to make sure your pie dough stays chilled until it hits the hot oven. Don't get stressed out, just make sure you have all the ingredients ready to go before you start rolling. Or form the bottom crust and move it to the fridge while you make the filling.
• The filling needs to be thickened. Nectarines especially release a lot of juice when they are baking. I mix cornstarch in with my filling and this will thicken it while it bakes. If you aren't used to using cornstarch, this pie will change your mind!

How Do You Make Lattice Pie Crust?

• Okay, here is a secret I learned several years ago for forming a lattice top on pies. If you have always made your lattice on top of the pie filling, you know how messy and a pain this can be. Let me show you a better way.
• This is to make the lattice top separate from the rest of the pie and place it on later. Yes, there will be space around the edges where it doesn't crimp together, but I think this is really pretty, especially with fruit pies as it allows the bubbling to happen all around the lattice. You can see this in the close-up photo below.
• Trace the shape of the top of your pie onto parchment paper. It will be a round circle of about 10 inches. Make sure the line you draw is dark. Now, flip the paper over, making sure you can still see the pencil circle.
• Roll your pie dough out to about ¼ inch thick on a floured surface. I did mine in a sort of oblong shape. Cut the dough into about ½-1-inch strips. This depends on how you want your lattice to look.
• Now, start weaving the pie dough. Lay 6-8 of your strips vertically, pretty close together. These will go right over the top of the circle you traced. Make sure the lattice goes over the edges of the circle you traced. We want a little wiggle room for trimming later.
• Then with the remaining strips, start weaving, working horizontally. If you remember this process from grade school art class, you will remember how easy this is.
• I like to do the cross weave by folding back every other strip, then I don't have to remember if I am going over or under. You can see this in the bottom photo on the left.
• Once you are finished weaving, straighten your strips as needed. Then trim to the circle.
• Place in the freezer until the filling is done and in the bottom crust.
• When you add it to the top of the filling, if it is a little big, don't stress, trim up the edges with a sharp pair of scissors.

Other pie filling variations

If you are looking to change this recipe up a bit, here are my suggestions- the nectarines can easily be subbed out for peaches. No other changes are needed to the recipe.

If you want a different berry, blueberries, raspberries, and strawberries all work well with this recipe. Again, sub them out for the same amount and everything else stays the same. You can even make a mix of berries if you want to get really wild!

Other Pie Recipes

• Cherry Slab Pie
• Simple Pie Pops
• Chocolate pecan pie
• Chocolate coconut pie
• Pumpkin praline pie
• Blueberry Hand Pies
• Pumpkin Maple Pie
• Apple Pie

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