Do you have a couple of fresh apricots in your pantry? Then try out my apricot pie: a homemade pie shell from scratch filled with French pastry cream and sliced fresh apricots…
This apricot pie recipe never failed on me before.
I use my easy tart shell recipe for this because it is so simple to make. And you need very little ingredients to make it. In the end you get a soft and flavorful crust.
For the pie filling I opted for a simple crème pâtissière also known as French pastry cream. I sliced the fresh apricots up, then arranged them nicely on top of the cream.
Great.
Crème Anglaise vs. Crème Patissière
Can you replace the crème pâtissière with custard?
Custard is not as thick as crème pâtissière pastry cream so I would say better not. So what’s the difference then between both? Have you made custard (also known as crème anglaise or English cream in French) before at home?
Crème patissière is much thicker than custard.
Chefs mainly used it to fill pastry with it, like eclairs or profiteroles for instance. And because of that this cream needs to be thick so you can pipe it using a piping bag.
Profiteroles
Crème anglaise (or English cream in French) is what you call custard in the UK. It is way too thin and runny to fill up pastry so that’s why you serve it as a sauce alongside sweet desserts such as apple pie or fresh fruits.
I made the pie in the morning, baked it and let it cool down.
Then served it for dessert around 3pm later on that day, sprinkled some caster sugar on top and just popped it under a hot grill for a minute.
Easy Apricot Pie with Fresh Apricots
That’s really all it needed.
Are you looking for more delicious apricot dessert recipes?
Then also check out my creamy apricot ice cream with fresh apricots!
Enjoy!
Easy Fresh Apricot Pie Recipe
- 2 fresh apricots pitted and sliced
- 7 oz self-raising flour (200 g)
- 3 oz unsalted butter (85 g), cold and diced
- ⅚ cup whole milk (200 ml), tepid
- 4,5 oz caster sugar (125 g)
- 1 tbsp plain flour (15 g)
- 2 egg yolks
- salt
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Add the self-raising flour and the diced cold butter to a clean blender. Season with a tiny pinch of salt and a tablespoon of the caster sugar.
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Pulse into a dry mixture. Then add 1 egg yolk and pour in ¼ cup (60 ml) the tepid whole milk.
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Pulse again until the dough comes together nicely. It shouldn’t be sticky at all.
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Then transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface and knead it for 3 minutes. Wrap it in a sheet of cling film and put it aside to rest for at least 30 minutes.
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Then transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface and knead it for 3 minutes. Wrap it in a sheet of cling film and put it aside to rest for at least 30 minutes. While the dough is resting, add the plain flour, the rest of the caster sugar and the remaining egg yolk to a medium saucepan.
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Stir well until creamy. Then place this over very low heat for 2 minutes. Stir regularly. Don’t scramble the yolk! Now turn the heat to medium and add little drops of the remaining tepid milk to the saucepan.
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Do this slowly so the eggy mixture has the time to thicken a little. In the end you should get a smooth but quite runny cream sauce.
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Take the sauce off the heat and let it cool a little. In the meantime roll out the dough an coat a buttered tart tin with it. Blind bake it for 12 minutes at 356°F (180°C).
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Then remove the pastry shell from the hot oven and pour in the cream sauce. Top with the sliced apricots.
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Bake the pie in the hot oven for another 30 minutes. Then let it cool down in its tin. Serve lukewarm.
