Directions

• In a large bowl, whisk the dry ingredients to combine thoroughly.
• Add the chunks of butter, and toss them until they are coated in the dry ingredients. Squeeze the chunks between thumb and forefinger until they are about 1/8th of an inch thick.
• Remove the water from the fridge, make a well in the dry ingredients and slowly pour in the iced water (don’t let the ice fall in). Mix GENTLY until the dough starts to form, then flour your hands and press the dough together before flattening it into a fat disk. If any parts of the dough are still dry and crumbly, add more cold water by the teaspoonful, mixing a little (not with your hands as they are too warm) until there are no more dry patches. The less you handle, mix and work the dough the better, remember, but if it gets too warm you can put it in the fridge for 30 mins to chill again.
• Flour your work surface well, and place your dough on it. Flour your dough ball and rolling pin too. Roll into a rectangle-ish shape, taking care to not press down too hard with your rolling pin but rather keeping it moving over and over the surface. Roll until it is about an inch thick.
  Note: Our aim here is to keep those fat pockets of shortening or butter as intact as we can; don’t worry if you can’t see them, they will likely have dispersed, but we don’t want to mix it all the way in! Those bits of fat will fry the dough and create lovely pockets of crispness in your crust.
• Flour your dough again and fold it in thirds like a business letter. Sprinkle with flour again, roll again, sprinkle again and fold again, then sprinkle and roll once more until its about a 1/2 inch thick. You have now rolled it three times.
• Now take a sharp knife and cut your dough in half down the shorter side of the rectangle. One piece will be your pie base, the other your pie lid. Wrap them both securely in cling film and put them in the fridge to chill for 30 minutes to an hour – this is a perfect time to work on the filling!
• The filling:
• Pit and slice the peaches into 1/2 inch pieces, half the dried apricots and hull and half/quater the strawberries (depending on how big they are). Put the fruit together in a large bowl and sprinkle with two tbsp of sugar. This will draw some of the liquid out of the fruit and prevent the filling from becoming too wet. Leave for at least 20 minutes. If the pie dough is now firm, take one portion of your dough out to make into your base.
• Finish shaping the pie crust
• Grease a pie tin and set aside, and thoroughly flour your work surface. Unwrap your dough portion and place it on your work surface, then flour the top of the dough and your rolling pin. This dough loves to stick to things and fall apart, but it’s worth it.
• Roll out to about 12 inches square, the cut to about a 12 inches diameter circle. Fold the circle over gently in half and transfer over to the pie tin. If you get some cracks don’t worry, you can make repairs when you get it in the tin, and if it completely disintegrates you’ve always got the other portion in the fridge to start again while this one re-chills. Once it’s in the tin, unfold it again, lift the edges gently and push the dough down into the corners of the tin. Trim the edges so there’s about a 1 inch overhang. Don’t panic if you don’t have enough overhang in some places, or even any- we can fix that later. Put the crust back in the fridge while you work on the filling.
• Gently drain the fruit and discard the liquid. Put it back in its bowl and add the remaining granulated sugar and the brown sugar; stir, but don’t be rough with it. We want the fruit to stay as much in chunks as possible.
• Take the unused dough portion out of the fridge, flour your surface thoroughly and the top of the dough, and roll until it’s between 1/8 and 1/4 inch thick. Cut with a sharp knife or pizza wheel into eight to ten strips; these will be used for the lattice on top.
• Remove your pie base from the fridge and pour your fruit in. Now, if you’re anything like me, you’ll be nervous as all heck about how the lattice will work based on the pie base’s behaviour. Breathe deep! This crust works much better for light lattices than the heavy base. Place half the strips on the pie pointing in one direction, then weave the other half through them. If you gently lift up the whole unwoven end of the strips you want to go under, you should find they are quite cooperative.
• When you’ve woven your lattice on top of the pie, break off any ends of strips hanging over the pie’s lip and then fold the one inch overhang all around the pie’s edge, securing the lattice ends. Press a fork into the folded overhang, sealing it.
• Place the pie back in the fridge for 15 minutes minimum, and preheat the oven to 425f/220c/200c with fan.
• Beat an egg and brush it over the pie with a pastry brush, for that extra golden gleam when it comes out of the oven, and sprinkle some extra sugar on top. Try and get the egg into all the nooks and crannies of the lattice especially, and into at least some of the fork impressions.
• Bake for 25 minutes on a rimmed baking sheet, then turn the heat down to 375f/190c/170c with fan for 35-45 minutes. It’s done when the crust is golden brown and the fruit juice is bubbling up in the middle.
• It will be very hot, but a large scoop of vanilla ice cream should help with that…