Birthday Pie: Apricot and Sour Cherry

                       “They say it’s your birthday. It’s my birthday too, yeah.” *

I had never known someone who shares my birth date. There are several that are close, but not exact. It turns out that one of our pie night co-conspirators (we’ll call her the Equally Eminent Mosaicist) and I have the same birth date (same day, different years). Her husband, the Eminent Botanist, was born one day later.

Our youngest daughter shares her birthday with a tragedy, September 11.

When she gives out her birthday she sometimes gets an occasional look. It used to make her feel uncomfortable and your birthday should never make you feel uncomfortable.

One of Anna Quindlen’s children was born on Sept. 11. I read (or heard) that she was quick to point out that “9/11” was something that happened to the country, but “September 11 is your birthday.” When youngest daughter was old enough to understand, we explained the same thing to her.

We went out together for some Greek food and since it was pie night, pie, not cake, was in order.

I used some of the sour cherries I had put away in the freezer. Two cups of sour cherries usually require six tablespoons of sugar. The apricots were sweet so I halved the amount of sugar that I usually use for that amount of apricots so the total amount of sugar I used is ½ cup for this pie. Taste your apricots and decide if they need additional sweetening. The frozen cherries gave off a lot of juice as they thawed so you may not want to put all of the accumulated juice into the pie.

Apricot and Sour Cherry Pie

You will need pie dough for a double crust pie          

1 pint apricots (a generous 2 cups when quartered)

2 cups pitted sour cherries

½ cup sugar (maybe extra)

4 Tablespoons cornstarch

egg wash- 1 egg mixed with 1 Tablespoon water

1. Rinse and pit the apricots; quarter them lengthwise and place them into a bowl. Add the cherries to the bowl along with the sugar; mix to combine. Set stand for at least 20 minutes.

2. On a lightly floured surface roll out one piece of pie dough to an 1/8^th inch thickness. Lift and place the dough into the pie dish, fitting it, not stretching it, into place. Place the pie dish into the refrigerator to chill.

3. Heat oven to 450 degrees.

4. On a lightly floured surface roll out the second piece of pie dough. Remove the pie shell from the refrigerator. Brush the edge of the crust with some of the egg wash mixture. Add the cornstarch to the bowl with the fruit and mix until cornstarch has dissolved. Spread the fruit and their juices in an even layer on the bottom the pie shell. Cut the second piece of dough into strips and weave them into a somewhat tight lattice with little of the filling showing. Trim the edges of the lattice pieces, then seal and crimp the crust. Brush the top of the pie with some of the egg wash mixture and sprinkle the top of the pie with some sugar. Place the pie onto a baking tray and place into the oven. Bake for 10 minutes, then lower the oven temperature to 350 degrees and continue baking for 25 minutes. Rotate the pie and continue baking for an additional 20 minutes, until the pie is golden brown and the filling is bubbling. Remove from oven, let cool and serve. Celebrate.

* Birthday, by Lennon & McCartney, like you didn’t know already.

Images from the Samuel Yellin gate, Gwynedd Mercy College, Gwynedd, PA