Peach Pie

 

Ok so pies are not my jam.

Well wait.  I like pies.  I like to eat pies.  I like to make pies.  

Pies stress me out though.  I get Dough Anxiety.  It’s a registered thing in the uh DSM-5.  For real.  (Ok, don’t dig too deep.)

No doubt many of us have Dough Anxiety.  Or all of us.  Which precludes us from making and eating and enjoying pies.  

I feel like I should be doing a television ad…”Consult your doctor before taking ButterzicalmiaⓇ.  Side effects may include drooling, excessive scent-sensations, Bigger Eye than Stomach syndrome….”

Holy mother of pies.

So, hence, as such, therefore it’s not terribly often a pie with a full blown butter pie crust gets made here.  I know, crime against humanity, why is my husband still with me. 

It’s craziness too that I don’t make more pies.  But again.  Dough Anxiety.

“For the relief of Dough Anxiety, repetitious experimentation is prescribed along with Butterzicalmia®.  Symptoms and performance vastly improve upon repeated duplication.”

And it’s not for a lack of studying up either.  Trust me, I voraciously tip-hunt each and every time before I make this pie.  Which comes from Patty’s Food, by the way.

It’s totally being riddled with Dough Anxiety, not following my prescribed treatment plan, that is my problem.

Every July, Mike’s mom Jan makes him a peach pie for his birthday, as she has done for years and years and years.  And he loves it.  Peach pie is Mike’s faaaaavvvvoooorrrittttte.  As in, could not be any more his favorite thing on the planet.

How do I express this.  Peach pie is Mike’s Precious. 

Precious.

I think he loves peach pie more than me.  Actually.  Hm.

But he has told me he is unable to publicly comment on the record for the blog on whose pie is the best.  Terribly irksome so the pressure is SUPER on to come through. 

He jokes about it too.  “Don’t screw this up, ya know.”  “This better be good, ahem.”  “If it’s good, you live another day.”  No, he doesn’t say that last bit.

Or at least I think he’s joking.  Or I hope he is.  Oh boy.  Omg, he’s not.

Usually I wait until the end of July to make his annual pie as that’s when peaches are perfectly in season over here.

The phone rings.  It’s Mike.  “How did you know?”  “Know what?” “That your peach pie is in the oven.”  I can hear him smiling, “I didn’t.”  Yeah right.  He’s got peach pie radar.

“We’re gonna skip dinner and go directly to pie, right?  Why waste space on ‘food,’ right?”

The first time I made this particular recipe, it was a disaster.  The crust was mush, the filling was a swimming pool, a wreck.  I got the consolation “well, but it tastes good,” in a warbling, heartbroken voice. 

This year not only is the pressure on to get this right for my sweetheart just anyway, the pressure is on because hello, baking blog.

I’d used various pie crust recipes in the past but again, as full butter pie crusts are kinda a rarity here, I never remember which one I made the time prior.  Despite my well-organized recipe collection.  Smartly I always think I’ll remember which one it was.  A-yup. 

So this year I went with Jen’s pie crust recipe.  Why screw around, amiright?!  

I still stubbornly come from the chill-the-dough camp though as I’m not as pie-organized as Jen.  For a two crust’er, double her recipe.

Hot tip:  if you constantly have flour spewing out of the seam between the lid and the food processor bowl as I do, wrap it tight with a towel.

Veering from the original, I added a teaspoon of sugar as after querying Mike on his crust sweetness preferences for the first time in thirteen years (ever) (shrug), he prefers a hint of sweet.  I’ll add a dash more next time. 

Also veering from the original, I froze a wee less than half my butter cubes and tossed those in after a few pulses with solely refrigerated ones first.

All butter in the flour pool with the minimum amount of water here.

Too, heh, I left out the vinegar as Mike is anti-vinegary anything and to ensure he didn’t catch a hint of it, a precautionary measure, it stayed in the bottle. 

Despite these itty bitty minor details, it’s Jen’s recipe which I strongly encourage the use of.

Except yeah, my dough looks dry. As I do without fail each and every time. Isn’t that the definition of insanity, repeating expecting a different outcome?

Once the dough was good to go, I too rolled it right away, preloading half into my pie dish,* the other half flat onto parchment* skootched onto a cookie sheet* and both into the fridge.

Still, I really struggled with the dough roll out.  As usual.  As always.  This is where most of my Dough Anxiety comes from I think, I can’t ever roll the stupid dough out nicely or easily.  Cracks, oblong shapes, sticking, detaching dough pieces….sigh….

It’s traumatizing.  But it’s just a rolling pin* and some freakin’ dough, for goodness sake, sheesh.  Next time more water, that must be my issue as my Baker’s Rose flour is on the dry side; listen to the dough, folks.

Rolling before chilling was way advantageous and made assembly a time-saving, less-of-a-struggle piece of cake, ah ha cake not pie, rather than battling with discs of super chilled dough.  But I still suck at dough roll-out regardless of before-chilling or after-.

In the end, it truly was the Best Damn Flakiest Crispiest Crust I have ever made.  Jen is right, people.

Once you get rolling on the pie filling, ah, rolling, another pun, hahaha nice, everything is easy.  Meeeeessy but easy.

Boil up a large pot of water, slice a decent size but not deep X into the bottoms of each peach, plop them in the water.  Mike has directed me to purchase slightly soft peaches, not firm ones, FYI.

Happy accident of the day:  the water overflowed snuffing out my burner so I left the peaches there sans heat for 2 minutes.  The easiest skin peeling EVER.  Like ever.  So do that.

Start your oven preheat now.  Peel the skins off the peaches then slice them up.  Drop them in a large bowl where you’ve got your lemon juice, flour, sugars, and cinnamon; toss it all around.  

Pull your dough filled pie dish out of the fridge and using a slotted spoon, scoop the peaches in there.  Be sure to give them a bit of a draining too.  Once the dish is full, spoon a little bit (but not a lot) of the remaining liquid over the peaches, maybe a tablespoon or two or three or four.

Load ’em up! But yeah, you can see, this is four pounds of peaches. Looks like there’s room enough for more. So do more than four.

By the way, if you have extra peaches (again, I keep finding the three to four pounds originally called for is scant so I upped it below), pop them in the freezer and make hand pies another time or heat them and spoon them over ice cream.  Whoa, yes I said that.

Dot with tiny cubes of butter (I make them stupid tiny so butter gets all over the darn place).

Dotting the butter onto them peaches in the tiniest way possible. Weirdo.

Add your top crust and seal that bad boy up.  I suck at the nice edge part too.  Slice a few vents.  

Top crust piled on there with the uh lame crimping.

With a pastry brush,* spread a thin layer of heavy cream across the top, sprinkle with sugar then off to the oven it goes on a sheet pan.  Pop a ButterzicalmiaⓇ, commence sacrificing to the Dough Gods.

 

Baked Peach Pie, fresh outta the oven.

How do I know Mike loves this particular pie?  Other than everything I’ve blathered on about above?  He is silent.  Utterly silent.  Trance-like otherworldly deathly silent.  If you get near him while he is eating this, the fork quickly moves into stab-your-hand defensive mode.

And whooooaaa, check out those flaky pie crust layers whooie! I am fanning myself.

By the way, do you need something to carry your pies in?  I DIY’ed a custom wood pie box with handles, come check it out here.  It doesn’t take major skills to build either!

Note:  This content originally appeared on Flaky Bakers.

Peach Pie

Yield

12 slices

Prep time

45 Min

Cook time

1 H & 5 M

Total time

1 H & 50 M

The best Peach Pie ever, teeming with fresh in-season peaches, a whiff of vanilla, and a sprinkling of warm cinnamon.

Ingredients

• 1 double recipe Jen’s Everyday Flaky Pie Crust
• 5 pounds (2268 g) ripe peaches, about 8-10 good size peaches, slightly soft
• 1 tablespoon (15 ml) fresh lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon (15 ml) vanilla extract
• Sprinkle of cinnamon to taste
• 1/2 cup (99 g) sugar
• 1/3 cup (71 g) brown sugar
• 5 tablespoons (38 g) flour
• 2 tablespoons (28 g) unsalted butter, cut into tiny cubes
• 2 tablespoon (30 ml) heavy cream, just enough to coat the top crust
• 1 tablespoon (12 g) sugar

Instructions

1. Prepare the pie dough as directed.
2. If you opt to chill the pie dough, split the dough in half, roll out each half. Place one half in the pie dish and chill. Place the other half flat on parchment on a cookie sheet and chill.
3. In a large pot, boil enough water to hold all the peaches. (This can also be done half at a time.)
4. While you are waiting for the water to boil, collect the lemon juice, vanilla, cinnamon, both sugars, and the flour into a large mixing bowl. No need to stir.
5. Cut the butter into tiny cubes, place on a small dish then refrigerate.
6. Once the water is at a boil, slice an X just through just the skin of each peach bottom with a small knife and carefully add them to the boiling water. Turn the heat off, allow the peaches to steep for 2 minutes, remove them from the water.
7. While the peaches are cooling to touch, preheat your oven to 425°F or 218° C.
8. Peel the skins off the peaches. Slice the peaches into fat 1/8” slices and add them to the mixing bowl, gently stirring the ingredients as you add more peaches.
9. Remove the pie dish from the refrigerator and place on a rimmed cookie sheet. With a slotted spoon, ladle the peaches onto the chilled dough. Be sure to drain the peaches slightly but not thoroughly.
10. Drizzle a few tablespoons of the remaining liquid over the peaches then add the dots of butter around.
11. Cover the pie with the top crust, pinching the layers of dough together into a nice edge. Slice about 4-5 vents in the top with a sharp knife.
12. With a pastry brush, brush the top crust with the cream and sprinkle the sugar over the top.
13. Place the whole thing in the oven and bake for 15 minutes. Lower the heat to 375°F or 191°C and continue to bake for around 50 minutes, until a golden brown crust and bubbling peaches are achieved.
14. If the crust or the edges are beginning to brown too soon, tent them with foil. Cool the pie on a wire rack and serve. Store in the refrigerator after slicing.

Notes:

Adapted from Patty’s Food.

Calories

327

Fat (grams)

13.1

Sat. Fat (grams)

4

Carbs (grams)

50.44

Fiber (grams)

5.65

Sugar (grams)

31.38

Protein (grams)

4.33

Sodium (milligrams)

166

Cholesterol (grams)

6

Please see the "info" section for nutrition details.

pie, peach

recipe

American

Created using The Recipes Generator

*The pie dishes, parchment paper, baking sheets, rolling pins, and pastry brushes are Amazon affiliate links.  Happy baking, thanks!  Please see the "info" tab for more, well, info.