Oh boy! It’s that rare time of year when bing cherries, peaches and blueberries are all readily available at reasonable prices — i.e. the perfect time to make a Cherry-Berry-Peach Pie, one of my all-time faves.

I usually use a frozen pie crust, but if you want to make your own, I’ve added a recipe below. And if you’ve never made a lattice-top pie, fear not — it’s not as hard as you might think, and it’s so pretty! Here is a good video that will show you how.

Ingredients:

3 cups sliced, peeled peaches (about 6)
1 cup fresh blueberries
1 cup pitted, halved, fresh sweet cherries
1 Tbs. lemon juice
¼ cup packed light brown sugar
½ cup granulated sugar
3 Tbs. flour
Pinch of salt
¼ tsp. cinnamon
Pastry for a deep-dish, two-crust, 9-inch pie

Directions:

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

In a large bowl, mix together the peaches, blueberries and cherries. Sprinkle with the lemon juice. Gently stir in the brown sugar, granulated sugar, flour, salt and cinnamon.

Line a 9-inch, deep pie plate with half the pastry; trim overhang to one inch. Turn the fruit into the pie. Roll out the remaining pastry and place over the filling. If you like, make a lattice top: cut the dough  into thee-quarter-inch strips. Arrange the strips over the fruit in a lattice. Fold the top crust or the ends of the lattice strips under the edge of the pastry and flute the edges. If you like, you can brush the top of the pie with milk or apple juice and a add a sprinkle of granulated sugar.

Bake at 450 degrees for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 degrees aand bake 45 to 50 minutes longer, until pastry is brown and fruit is tender.

Serves 6 to 8

Classic Piecrust

(for a double-crust deep-dish pie)

Ingredients:

2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup well-chilled vegetable shortening
6 to 10 Tbs. ice-cold water

Directions:

Blend  flour and salt in medium mixing bowl.

Cut  chilled shortening into flour mixture, using a pastry blender, in an up and down chopping motion, until mixture resembles coarse crumbs with some small pea-sized pieces remaining.

Sprinkle 5 Tbs. ice-cold water over the flour mixture. Using a fork, quickly stir, drawing flour from bottom of bowl to the top, distributing moisture evenly into flour. Press chunks down to bottom of bowl with fork. Add more water by the tablespoon, until dough is moist enough to hold together when pressed together.

Tip: Test dough for proper moistness by squeezing a marble-sized ball of dough in your hand. If it holds together firmly, do not add any additional water. If the dough crumbles, add more water by the tablespoonful, until dough is moist enough to form a smooth ball when pressed together.

Divide dough in two balls, one ball slightly larger than the other. Flatten balls into ½-inch thick round disks.

Tip: For ease in rolling, wrap dough in plastic wrap and chill for 30 minutes or up to 2 days.

Roll larger ball of dough from center outward with steady pressure on a lightly floured work surface or between two sheets of wax or parchment paper into a circle 2-inches wider than top of pie plate for the bottom crust. Transfer dough to pie plate by loosely rolling around rolling pin. Center the rolling pin over the pie plate, and then unroll, easing dough into pie plate.

Fill unbaked pie crust according to recipe directions. Roll out smaller dough disk. Transfer dough carefully onto filled pie. Trim edges of dough leaving a 3/4-inch overhang. Fold top edge under bottom crust. Press edges together to seal and flute as desired. Cut slits in top crust or prick with fork to vent steam. Bake according to specific recipe directions.

Tags: berry, Bing cherries, blueberries, cherry, fruit pie, lattice crust, parve, peach, peaches, pie, pie crust, piecrust