Last year this was my first peach pie. Now i am wondering why i had never attempted it before. Maybe because of my failing history with pie crust? Maybe because even when the crust did come out, i never seemed to get the filling right? I don’t know but i now know what i was missing and i, and my family, regret not making two.
We found the biggest, most beautiful, succulent peaches at Hannaford Supermarket, which was most definatly a big plus in the flavor of this pie. I have not normally been a huge fan of peaches until recently. Everyone is right, BUY IN SEASON!
Another big tip for a great pie is with the crust. Don’t handle the dough more than you have to. It will produce a wonderful flaky crust that melts in your mouth.
Enough of my jabbering and on to the recipe.
~~~~~~~CRUST~~~~~~~~~
2 2/3 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon white sugar, for sprinkling on top
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup vegetable shortening
6-8 Tablespoons ice cold water
1 egg. beaten, for basting on the crust.
Mix flour, salt, brown sugar,and cinnamon in large bowl.Cut in shortening with pastry cutter or two butter knives until baby pea sized balls . Or olat is well incorperated into flour mixture. Place in refrigerator to chill while preparing filling.
~~~~~~FILLING~~~~~~~~~
7-8 large fresh ripe peaches
1 Tablespoon lemon juice
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla ( you can use extract, i usually use the insides of 1 vanilla bean or 1 teaspoon vanilla gel, which has the “flecks” of the bean in it)
3 Tablespoons flour
3 teaspoons butter
Peel, pit and slice peaches, place in a large bowl with lemon juice. Mix well. Coat well with 3 Tablespoons flour, brown sugar and vanilla. Set aside.
~~~~~~Assembly~~~~~~~~
Preheat oven to 425.
tablespoon
Take pie crust mixture out of the fridge and mix in ice water, by Tablespoon until dough can barely form a ball, still crumbling a bit.
Divide in half. Roll out one half, handling as little as possible, into a disk that will fit into pie plate. Brush with egg. ( this will prevent it from getting soggy)
Pour peach mixture into crust, dot with butter. Roll out second disk for the top of pie and place on top. You can make lattice or just make slits in top crust. Brush with egg, sprinke with white sugar.
Place in oven at 425 for about 10 minutes. Turn down to 350 and bake approximatly 40 minutes. ( oven times vary.) halfway through, or when it starts browning on the edges,cover edges with aluminum foil to keep from burning.
Enjoy!
Honey Peach Puff Ups
2 tubes large refrigerated biscuits ( i happened to stumble on honey butter flavored)
i 8 07 pkg cream cheese, softened
1 cup sour cream
1/4 cup honey (you can sweeten it up to your liking)
2 Tablespoons grated fresh ginger
1 large ripe peach, diced.
Using mixer, blend cream cheese and sour cream, add honey. Stir in ginger and peach .
Lightly grease or spray with cooking spray 24 muffin cups. Split biscuits in half lengthwise (peel it apart) and place each piece in the muffin cup, making sure some goes up the sides. Repeat until cups are all filled. Evenly place a dollop of (did i just say DOLLOP??) cream cheese mixture in the center.
Bake at 375 for 14 minuites or until golden brown. Place on cooling racks over something you dont mind getting incrediblly sticky, drizzle with honey, serve.
