Prune pie

I chose for the very first post on this blog my grandmother’s pie that was quite common in Soviet Russia. It is one my most favorite pies and even my husband, who is rather choosey, shares this opinion. The main trick is the filling- it has to be prune filling- as strange as it sounds to American ear. Prunes give it absolutely wonderful flavor and tanginess.



This pie can be made with any dry fruit or jam of your liking but for me it tastes the best with the prune butter. You can buy ready-made filling in the bakery section or make it yourself by soaking prunes overnight and then bringing them to a boil in the same liquid for a few minutes and then pureeing them in the food processor.

2 ½ cups of flour (white or half and half white and whole-wheat)
2 sticks of margarine or 1 stick of margarine and 1 stick of butter
½ cup of sugar
1 egg
½ tea spoon of baking powder
½ cup pine nuts or finely chopped walnuts

Sift flour in a large bowl and cut in the margarine with the pastry blender until the mixture resembles course crumbs. Place sugar, baking powder and egg in the cup and stir until combined. Add the mixture from the cup to the flour-butter crumbs in small portions and continue cutting it in with the pastry blender until evenly combined and the mixture has even crumbly texture and evenly moist. Form 8 balls out of the dough and place them in the freezer for at list 2 hours.

Preheat oven to 350¡F and prepare baking sheet dusting it with a little bit of flour.
Process 4 of the dough balls on the baking sheet using course grater, scatter with nuts and spread the filling for the pie. Grate the remaining 4 balls of dough. Try to distribute dough as evenly as possible. Push loose lying crumbs to the pie with the knife and form as even of a rectangle as possible. Bake until the top of the pie is gold in color, about 30 minutes.

Let it cool and dust with confectioner’s sugar if desired.