Peach mango pie

This peach mango pie recipe has both fresh mango and fresh peaches in the filling, which is set with a little cornstarch to make a super fun summer pie that everybody will love!

The pairing of peaches with mangoes is actually quite common. Growing up, we used to love drinking "orange peach mango" juice at breakfast, but I find the orange in that mix can be a little overpowering. Still, my childhood juice favourite was the inspiration for this pie.

Types of mangoes

There are a lot of different types of mangoes that you can buy to make a pie, and in North America, we only see a fraction of what other areas of the world grow. Personally, I prefer the Ataulfo mangoes, which usually come from Mexico. These mangoes have a more floral flavour and the flesh has almost no fibres or strings. Some of the cheaper mangoes can be extremely fibrous and I wouldn't want to throw that into a pie filling because those fibres might make the filling stringy.

Those fibres can make mangoes tough to eat and difficult to work with, and the absence of those tough fibres is why I love Ataulfo mangoes so much.

Ataulfo mangoes are small and their skin is golden yellow verging on orange. The flesh of the mango is a deep orange, soft and sweet. Unripe Ataulfo mangoes are green or bright yellow and hard. You have to let them ripen until the flesh of the fruit is more supple. The outside may wrinkle slightly as the fruit ripens, and that's okay! Sometimes you may notice black spots appear on the skin, but usually, the fruit inside is unaffected.

The other great thing about Ataulfo mangoes is the pit is narrow and rather small compared to other mango varieties, where the pit can be quite large. There's a reason why Ataulfo mangoes can be a little more pricey than the others, but they are well worth it!

How to make a pie without a gap between top crust and fruit

Sometimes, with double-crust pies, you'll notice that there can be quite a large gap between the fruit layer and the top crust after baking. Then when you cut into the pie, the top crust collapses, which can make for messy serving situations. When baking pies with fruit fillings, there are a few tricks to making sure there's no gap:

1. pre-cook or par-cook the fruit in the filling so that it is softer. This way the fruit will be more pliable, allowing you to pack more fruit into the bottom crust. I've done this for the maple apple pie and the rhubarb lattice pie.
2. macerate the fruit with a little sugar, which makes the fruit pieces more supple. Again, this allows you to completely fill the bottom crust, without any big air pockets or gaps in the filling that may collapse when you bake and serve the pie.

With both of these tricks, the goal is to make the fruit pieces softer, so that you can stuff the fruit into the pie shell more tightly.

Cooking down the fruit juices before assembling the pie

For this pie, I chose to macerate the fruit in sugar and cornstarch, drawing the water out of the fruit pieces and forming a very soupy filling. Sure, you can just dump the mixture as is into the pie shell, but this might lead to a gummy bottom crust that is so wet it can't bake properly.

Instead, you can gel the water the macerated fruit releases: less free water in the filling means a thicker, less wet filling that gives the bottom crust a chance to bake properly and also makes for a less soupy filling after baking. This makes serving the pie easier and allows you to get nice even slices that hold their shape and don't collapse.

This also means that when you serve the pie, the juices are properly gelled and set so they don't run off as you serve the pie, as you can see in the photos. The set is rather perfect. The filling isn't dry, but it's not runny either.

Achieving the perfect gel for pie filling

For this pie, I used 15 mL (1 tablespoon) of cornstarch per 80 mL (⅓ cup) of fruit juice released when the fruit pieces are macerated. So for this pie, my fruit pieces formed about 170 mL (⅔ cup) of juice, and I used 30 mL (2 tablespoons) of cornstarch. If after macerating your fruit, you find you've collected even more juice than that. Feel free to use more cornstarch.

The type of thickener you use is entirely dependent on the fruit. An apple pie doesn't need much thickening powder, so just a little flour is plenty to help the pie filling set properly without being soupy because apples aren't so high in water content. Flour is the least powerful thickener you could use.

On the other hand, a rhubarb pie requires tapioca starch, which has the strongest gelling power. Remember, rhubarb is mostly water and as soon as the fruit is heated, the cells will break down and release a ton of water into the pie filling.

With peaches, both flour and cornstarch work. Cornstarch falls in the middle of the spectrum of pie filling thickeners, but one important difference between flour and cornstarch is that when flour gels, it's opaque. When cornstarch gels, the gel is clear. You'll notice with this whiskey peach crumble pie, the filling looks a little opaque: that's because I used flour.

There's nothing wrong with using flour in a pie filling, but if you don't want to "see" the thickener, opt for cornstarch or tapioca starch. And don't forget, with both of these, a little goes a long way!

Pie dough recipe that holds cut-out shapes well

For pies with intricate designs, you want to use pie dough that holds shapes well, especially cut-out shapes. I find in general, this type of pie dough is easier to work with. It is a little less flaky than some, but you have to compromise if you want to make a pie that holds its crimped edge well and holds the cut-out shapes.

To do so, I tend to "over-process" the dough. I work the ingredients together a little more so that the butter pieces are smaller, the size of coarse sand or very tiny pebbles (really very small pebbles). This way, when the butter melts, it doesn't have an impact on the shapes you've worked so hard to create.

If making pie crust from scratch scares you, be sure to check out my pie crust masterclass, which includes video tutorials for making pie crust in the stand mixer, food processor, and by hand!

Another trick is to freeze the pie briefly before baking. Even just 15 minutes in the freezer before popping the pie into the oven will slow the melting of the butter just enough that the outer layer of the pie shapes will set and dry out before the butter has time to melt.

Decorative Top Crust For Pies

For this peach mango pie, I opted to top the unbaked pie with layers of cutout stars. If you would like a more traditional look, read about how to make a lattice pie crust so you can do that here.

Special tools and equipment

Pie doesn't require that much equipment if you make the dough by hand. Still, this list of pie tools will make baking pies a lot easier for you. Here's what you need:

• food processor—you can make the dough by hand using a bowl and your fingers, but I like the ease of making pie dough in a food processor
• pie plate—I prefer a metal pie plate because it's a better heat conductor, whereas glass is insulating
• rolling pin—I am most comfortable with a French rolling pin made out of wood. It has tapered ends and I find it easy to handle
• pastry brush—I prefer natural bristle pastry brushes, though silicone works too
• cookie cutters for the top crust—I used a set of star cookie cutters to cut out lots of stars of different sizes, which I layered over the fruit
• large rimmed sheet pan, like a half sheet pan lined with parchment to catch the drips as the pie bakes in the oven. Trust me when I say you don't want to skip this, unless you like cleaning the floor and racks of your oven.

What to do with pie dough scraps

Inevitably, when you make a pie, you will be left with a pile of pie dough scraps. Gather them up and press them together to shape them into a disk and use them to make pie crust cookies!

What to serve with pie

Serve this mango peach pie à la mode with scoops of homemade ice cream! You're going to love it with:

• cardamom ice cream
• popcorn ice cream
• lemon custard ice cream

📖 Recipe