Peach, Plum, and Apricot Pie

     I've made plum pie, I've made peach cobbler, and I've made an apricot tart, but one day, I started thinking about what would happen if I combined all three into one pie. It would be the trifecta of stone fruits! In theory, it made sense, since these fruits are all like cousins, some sweet, others tart. So I took my classic fruit pie recipe and tested my theory. Unfortunately, neither Mother Nature, nor the supermarket gods were on my side at the time, so I couldn't find any fresh apricots, but I guarantee that they would have been great in this pie, so let's just pretend that they were in there this time. Also, against my better judgement, I did decide to make my own crust this time. Click here for instructions on that, or just use the pre-made crust. It was my intention to make a fancy lattice crust on top, but since I also had to make 2 other pies, plus dinner for my 12 housemates, I ran out of energy after hour 3 in the kitchen. (But this particular pie should only take an hour and a half.) So once again, I used my favorite crumble topping. Finally, I also made an individual-sized gluten-free version of this pie, of which I am very proud. I'll share my tips on that at the end of this post.

INGREDIENTS:
one pre-made or homemade crust (Click the link above.)

Filling:
3 peaches
4 plums
3 apricots
1/4 cup flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Topping:
1 stick cold butter, cubed
2/3 cup whole oats
2/3 cup chopped walnuts
2/3 cup flour
2/3 cup brown sugar

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 350, prepare your crust, and fit it into a lightly greased 8 or 9inch glass pie plate.
2. Wash all the fruit, peel only the peaches, and cut everything into wedges.
3. In a large bowl, toss the fruit with the brown sugar, flour, and cinnamon. Then, pour it over the crust into the pie plate.

 4. Prepare the crumble topping by mixing the dry ingredients together in a medium bowl and then cutting in the butter until the texture looks pebbly. To make it super easy, just pulse it in a food processor.

5. Spread the crumble all over the top of the pie. Then bake it for 1 hour.

Once again, I couldn't get a decent-looking slice to take a picture of because I don't think my roommates would have been too happy if I made them wait 2 hours until it cooled. Oh well, you'll just have to believe me that it was just as beautiful on the inside.

And now for my gluten-free masterpiece...

At first, I thought that making a gluten-free pie crust would require expensive ingredients and way too much effort, but it really didn't. Basically, I just cut my regular pie crust recipe in half, substituted a gluten-free all-purpose baking mix every time I needed flour, and made a top crust instead of the crumble. And it ended up looking really cute in my itty-bitty tart pan.

Enjoy your Pie Monday everyone, and check back later in the week for some fall recipes!