Mini Stone Fruit Pies

During a recent visit to the farmer's market we loaded up a lot of stone fruits and even after pureeing some for baby E and eating a week's worth of fruit we still had quite a bit leftover so I decided to make some fruit pies.

The mini stone fruit pies is loosely based off of Bon Appetite Stone Fruit Lattice Pie. 

Ingredients for Pie Crust
3 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup (2 sticks) chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2" cubes
1/4 cup vegetable shortening
1 tablespoon plus 1 tsp. sugar
1 tablespoon kosher salt

Process flour, butter, vegetable shortening, sugar, and salt in a food processor until butter resembles tiny pebbles, about 25 seconds. Transfer to a large bowl. Gradually add 3/4 cup ice water, using a fork to stir until dough is a mixture of clumpy wet pieces and sandier pieces, adding more water by tablespoonfuls if dry. Press plastic wrap over surface of dough. Chill in the bowl at least 1 hour or over night.

If you don't have time to make pie crust from scratch you can always buy the ready made pie crust that you find in the freezer aisle of your local grocer.

Ingredients for Pie Filling:
2 pounds nectarines
1 pound peaches, peeled
1 pound plums
1/2 cup plus 1 Tbsp. sugar  *Substituted for honey and agave nectar instead and used less than the recommended 1/2 cup since the fruits are at their peak and already quite sweet
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg *Did not use
1/2 teaspoon orange-flower water (optional) *Used fresh squeezed orange and lemon juice and zest instead
1 large egg, beaten to blend

Crust

Take the chilled dough out and cut in half and roll out on a lightly flowered surface to about 1/4" thick. To get the mini pie shape I used a large cookie cutter then transferred the dough to a baking sheet lined with a silpat mat and kept covered and chilled in the refrigerator until ready to assemble.

Filling

Preheat oven to 350°. Peel the skin, halve, pit and cut the fruit into small 1/4" cubes. Place all the fruit in a large bowl. Add 1/2 cup sugar and toss to coat - instead of sugar I used a little bit of honey and agave nectar and used 1/4 cup. Let sit at room temperature for 1 hour, tossing occasionally - I did not have an hour to wait around so I only waited for about 15-20 minutes for the fruit to macerate in the honey and agave nectar. Strain fruit, reserving some of the liquid pour into a separate small container and return fruit to same bowl it was macerating in. Whisk cornstarch into the reserved fruit liquids that you've separated in a small bowl. Then add the cornstarch fruit liquid mixture, nutmeg, and orange-flower water to the fruit filling and toss gently. As mentioned I did not use nutmeg nor the orange-flower water, instead I squeezed in 1 small whole fresh orange and 1/2 of a lemon juice to the fruit filling and added approximately 1 tablespoon of fresh orange and lemon zest.

Gently spoon the fruit mixture onto the unbaked pie crust that's been sitting on the baking sheet and place another unbaked pie crust on top and crimp to close with a fork. Brush the beaten egg wash over the crust and sprinkle the top crust with a little bit of sugar if desired otherwise it's not necessary.

Bake the mini pies for about 20-30 minutes or until crust is golden brown and juices start to bubble out of the pie. Let cool on a wire rack and then enjoy!

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