Lattice Pear & Tinned Peach Pie
A lattice pie is such a pretty thing, and it’s not as difficult to make as it looks.
If I feel the need to be a little artistic, decorating a pie is a great way for me to get it out of my system.
The basic concept is just one strip layered over another, and keep doing this until the pattern has finished.
It’s not necessary to cover the whole of the pie with lattice, step it up and cover just half and then finish the rest off by using some of the pastry offcuts for further decoration.
I used tinned peaches because that’s what I had in my pantry and pears because that’s what I had in my fruit bowl.
Sweet short pastry , but not too sweet
I only made this pie because I needed some emotional wellbeing time, sometimes baking is the only thing that can re-set me and make me feel more like I’m connected to the world.
Yeh, I know it sounds a bit strange, but just how it is!
This pie tastes even better the day after baking.
As it cools, the inside sets firmer and it becomes easier to cut, not that this makes any difference to how fabulous it tastes.
Adding the lard to the pastry makes it incredibly short and even though it’s a sweet pastry, it’s not so sweet as to be overwhelming.
This pastry recipe is a keeper.
It’s a great pastry recipe to add to your personal recipe book and to use on any sweet pie you fancy making.
Using tinned peaches, or any tinned fruit, is a tasty and economical way to make sure I can get my bake on quickly.
I always have some type of tinned fruit in my pantry, not just for baking.
The lovey Mr G is very partial to tinned peaches with evaporated milk for dessert.
Now that brings back childhood memories. That for another time!
Go on, give it a go and enjoy your sweet life!
Liberal dusting with granulated sugar
What You Need
Pastry
360g Plain Flour – More for dusting
225g Cold Butter – Cut into small cubes
50g Cold Lard – Cut into small cubes
1 Tbsp Castor Sugar
114g Ice Cold Water
1 Tsp Salt – See Tip Box
Lay the pastry onto the pie dish and then peel it away
Filling
3 Tins Peaches – Approx. 600g – Drained really well - See Tip Box
350g Ripe Pears – Peeled, Cored and sliced – See Tip Box
150g Castor Sugar
6 Tbsp Cornflour
2 Tbsp Fresh Orange Juice
½ Tsp Vanilla Extract
½ Tsp Salt
Crimp the edges to make them look pretty
Egg Wash
1 Egg Yolk
2 Tbsp Milk
2 Tbsp Granulated Sugar
Fill the pie to the top with the fruit mixture
How It’s Done
Pastry
Either by hand or in a food processor, place the flour, sugar and salt if using – See Tip Box
Give it a mx, or whizz.
Using a food processor – Piece by piece, slowly add the cubes of butter and lard and let the food processor whizz until the mix looks like fine breadcrumbs.
Slowly pour in the ice water and let it whizz until the mix comes together into a soft dough.
By Hand – Place all the pieces of butter and lard into the flour.
Using finger tips or a pastry cutter, cut or rub the pieces of butter and lard into the flour until the mix resembles fine breadcrumbs.
Make a well in the centre and pour in the ice water.
Use a blunt knife to bring the dough together into a soft dough ball
Dust the work surface with a little flour and tip out the dough
Bring the dough together with your hands gathering up all the crumbs
Split the dough into two pieces.
Wrap each separate piece in cling film and place them both in the fridge for 30 minutes.
While the pastry is resting, prepare the filling.
Using a pizza cutter makes it easier to cut straight lines
Filling
Heat the oven to 190c
Place an oven tray into the oven to get piping hot
Drain the peaches really well
Peel, core and slice the pears (Long ways) into slices approx. £1 thickness
Place the drained peaches and pears into a large bowl
Add the cornflour, orange juice, vanilla extract, salt and castor sugar in to the bowl and mix everything together so that the fruit is completely coated.
Take one piece of the pastry out of the fridge and lay it out onto a piece of non-stick kitchen paper that has been dusted with a little flour.
Dust the top of the pastry with a little flour and roll the pastry out into a circle, (big enough to line the inside of a 23cm ish tart dish) approx. thickness of £1 coin
Lift the parchment and lay it pastry side down, onto the pie dish.
Remove the paper.
Gently push the pastry around and up the sides of the dish
Let the pastry hang over the edge of the dish about 1/4 inch and trim off the rest of the pastry.
Pinch the edges of the pastry to make it look pretty.
Place the covered pie dish back into the fridge while the pieces of the lattice are being cut out.
Roll out the second half pastry as per the first batch
Cut out strips of pastry and lay them in a lattice pattern over the top pf the pie – See Photo and See Tip Box
If you’ve any extra pasty, cut out shapes and decorate the lattice with them
Separate the egg yolk from the egg white
Add 2 tbsp of milk to the yolk and using a fork, whisk it up to mix.
Brush the top pastry lattice with the egg mixture
Place the complete pie into the oven sitting on top of the hot tray.
Bake for 60 minutes until the top is a golden brown and the filling is bubbling hot.
If the edges get to brown too quickly, loosely wrap the edge of the pie with foil halfway through baking.
Let the pie cool for 10 minutes then sprinkle the pastry liberally with granulated sugar
Do as much or as little decoration as you feel like you want to!
Before baking
Tip Box
Salt – Only add the salt to the pastry if using unsalted butter
Pears – I used Conference pears.
Peaches - The recipe reads 600g, but this is honestly just a guideline. Any more and thats good too
Lattice – I found it much easier to cut the lattice strips when I used a pizza cutter.
Decoration - I used a snowflake cutter to decorate the top of the pie, but use anything you want to decorate or don’t decorate at all.
One slice or two?
