Rustic Stone Fruit Pie

Whoever came up with the phrase “easy as pie” must have had rustic pies in mind. No fitting in a pie plate or fussy crimping for these pies. No. Just roll out a single crust, pile on the filling, and bring the edge of the crust up over the filling. The more “rustic” looking the better! It tastes just as good as regular pies, without the fuss.

This week I got some cherries on sale, along with the sweetest apricots and plums.  I also got some blueberries (not shown) and seedless black grapes. With so much luscious fruit in the house, I just had to use some of it in a pie. Here’s what I did:

I pulled a single pie crust from the freezer, thawed it, and rolled it out between two pieces of parchment.  After preheating the oven to 400 degrees, I placed the crust (still on the bottom parchment) on a baking sheet (discard the top piece of parchment).  I then spread about 2 tablespoons of lime marmalade on the crust, to add a bit of citrus flavor, but this is an optional step.  For the filling, I combined about a cup of pitted and halved cherries with two apricots and two plums, pitted and sliced.  I tossed in a handful of blueberries, too, just because I had them on hand and I like to add blueberries to just about everything!  You can use any kind of fruit, separately or in combination, in this type of pie.

Over the fruit, I sprinkled about 2 tablespoons of cornstarch and about 1/3 cup sugar (you might need more depending on how sweet your fruit is).  I then stirred gently to combine and piled the fruit in the center of the crust, leaving about a two-inch border all around.  You can go all fancy and arrange your fruit in a pattern if you like, but to me, the idea of a rustic freeform pie is to just toss it together.  The edge of the dough then needs to be gently pulled up over the fruit — I do it in clockwise sections and the dough folds nicely into pleated sections, leaving the center of the pie exposed.  To bake, just sprinkle a little sugar over the whole thing and bake until the crust is nicely browned, about 30 minutes.  Cool before serving.  Here’s what it looks like out of the oven:

As it happens, this is also my Birthday Pie this year, because tomorrow is my birthday and I like pie better than cake!