Nectarine Blueberry Pie

We were at the vegetable stand the other day and picked up some nectarines. Sometimes peaches and nectarines are hit or miss for me (they can be mealy or mushy), but these were a very nice consistency and were very sweet. We went back this morning to get some more, and I decided to make a pie. I used nectarines and blueberries, which were also on sale at the vegetable stand as well. I didn’t have a vegan pie crust recipe that is my go-to recipe, so I poked around to find one that looked good. Honestly, usually, I don’t make my own pie crusts; I usually buy a Wholly Wholesome set of frozen pie crusts. Sometimes I use them as is, and other times, I take let them thaw a bit and roll them out into a dough I can put into my own pie pan. I ended up choosing Isa Chandra’s and Terry Romero’s recipe for the basic pie crust from Veganomicon. I doubled it, and substituted 1/2 whole wheat pastry flour and 1/2 oat flour for the all-purpose flour. If you want a recipe for vegan pie crust that is accessible online, it looks like Emily at Daily Garnish has come up with a pretty simple one. I made my own concoction for the filling (recipe below).

The Recipe

double batch of pie crust, rolled out in two flat circles on parchment paper

5 nectarines

2 cups blueberries

4 T sugar (I use vegan evaporated cane juice)

1 T cornstarch

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground ginger

Cut up nectarines into bite sized chunks. In a large mixing bowl, stir blueberries and chopped nectarines together. In a small bowl, mix sugar, cornstarch, cinnamon and ginger. Add these dry ingredients to the fruit and stir to combine. Set aside.

Gently turn one of the rolled out pie crust dough into your pie dish:

Add the fruit mixture to the pie pan:

You can either put the second crust directly onto the top at this point, crimp the edges and poke some holes in the top in a fun pattern with a fork. Or you can do the lattice top, which did not turn out to be quite the vision of perfection I was hoping for. If you go the lattice route, just slice the second pie crust into strips (about 1/2 to 3/4 inch wide) and then weave them together on top:

I added a little heart on top that I covered with cinnamon sugar before baking. Pinch the edges of your pie crust closed:

Bake at 425 for 10 minutes, then turn down the heat to 350 and bake for another 30-40 minutes, or until golden brown:

Let cool for at least 30 minutes before cutting it in order to let it set up a bit. This pie didn’t turn out quite as pretty as I had envisioned and cutting it resulted in a sort of chopped up bowl of pie, but it tasted damn good. Not too sweet, not too tart. The fruit held its shape, so it tasted like really fresh fruit with some hearty crispy crust. Yum!