Fresh Peach Pie
Bake together. Peach Pie for our Thanksgiving feast.
What I love about Thanksgiving is friends and family gathered around one, big table laden with our favorite foods and always a few new dishes we’re trying out. Even better, I love the dessert buffet with its variety of pies, maybe a cake, fresh whipped cream, and some nondairy coconut cream. And always ice cream. My husband and his family love ice cream.
For me, there’s just something about serving pie, hand shaped and filled with delicious pumpkin custard or sticky pecan or fresh fruit. It’s fun to offer different filling flavors, and crusts with an array of textures and patterns.
A multitude of pies on the Thanksgiving buffet reminds me of childhood at Grandma Bell’s where we had my mom’s pumpkin pie, Grandma’s apple pie, and my aunt’s mincemeat pie with ‘hard sauce’ (a warm butter and sugar sauce with rum and nutmeg).
I still make a couple of pumpkin pies, one dairy and gluten free, and one dairy-full. I like to try different pies to go with the pumpkin, maybe apple or apple-cranberry, or pecan. Some years I’ve made Shaker lemon (which is delicious with it’s candied lemon slices for the filling), and recently I’ve made fresh peach pie in late August to freeze and then bake for Thanksgiving.
Taste Test Kitchen
This August Rebel and I made two fresh peach pies. We enjoyed one that evening, it’s juices bubbling up out of a lattice top crust. We froze the other, with its traditional top crust, to be baked later.
A couple of years ago I decided I wanted to hold onto that super juicy, end-of-summer flavor that I love about peaches and share it at the holidays. By freezing the peach pie at the end of August, the flavor and texture keep well in the freezer until Thanksgiving. I thaw it overnight and then bake as usual. It still tastes really fresh.
The real trick is using peaches that are perfectly ripe and full flavored but before they start to spoil. I keep them separated by paper towels so the skins don’t touch inside a paper bag on the counter. This helps them ripen and avoid bad spots. I check them every day and have to be ready to bake them up – or keep them one more day in the refrigerator before making the pie.
The magic to making a perfect fresh fruit pie is thickening up the filling so that it sets up and isn’t runny. Most recipes use quite a bit of cornstarch or tapioca. Sometimes you can taste the thickener or the texture seems too jellied.
I learned from a new jam recipe a couple of years ago about using apple or plum pieces in the fruit mix to release natural pectin as a thickener. (I’d always used store-bought, processed pectin as a thickener for jams and jellies.) I decided to cut up a plum in the cinnamon-sugar mixture and it worked great to make a thickener. I went ahead and added the plum pieces to the peaches for a little color. The pie set up really well with the thickened cinnamon-sugar and only a small amount of cornstarch added to the peaches.
A key to a successful fruit pie is a crust that won’t get soggy or fall apart with the juicy filling. I’ve used this pie crust recipe for a couple of years. The flavor and texture are delicious. With both margarine and shortening, the crust holds up to juicy, fresh fruit filling while still being flaky. This time I added vinegar to make it more tender. That adjustment is a keeper.
~ Lee
Fresh Peach Pie
ingredients:
- 3 lbs peaches, ripe
- 1/2 cup + 3 tablespoons sugar, divided
- 1 teaspoon fresh lemon zest
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- pinch of ground nutmeg
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 1 ripe plum (any variety)
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- Dough for Double Crust Pie Dough for Fruit Pies – Vegan
instructions:
How to cook Fresh Peach Pie
- Make the pie crust dough and refrigerate one hour up to overnight.
- Peel, pit and cut the peaches into 12 even slices each. If peaches are too ripe and juicy to peel, cut a X in the bottom of each, blanch for 15 seconds in boiling water, immerse in ice water, and then peel.
- Place the peach slices in a large bowl. Toss with the 1/2 cup of the sugar, lemon zest, lemon juice, and salt. Let stand 30 minutes to an hour.
- In a small bowl, combine cinnamon, nutmeg and 2 tablespoons sugar. Set aside.
- Roll out and shape top and bottom pie crust according to the recipe.
- Preheat oven to 425° with rack in lowest position.
- Mix the peach slices with the cornstarch. Set aside.
- Remove 1 cup of the peach mixture to a plate and mash with a fork. Drain the remaining bowl of peach mixture and reserve the juices in a liquid measurer.
- Pour 1/2 cup of the liquid into a large skillet (discard or save for another use any extra juices). Slice the plum into quarters and add to the skillet. Stir in the cinnamon-sugar mixture. Cook over medium heat for 3-5 minutes, stirring occasionally, or until the mixture thickens. Cool slightly. You can leave the plum slices in for the pie or remove them.
- Add the mashed peaches and thickened juice and cinnamon-sugar mixture to the peaches.
- Bring the pie shell and top crust out of the refrigerator and freezer. Scoop the peach filling into the pie shell and spread to the edges, mounding toward the middle.
- Place the lattice strips or top crust according to the pie crust recipe.
- Sprinkle the top with 1 tablespoon sugar. Place pie on a rimmed baking sheet.
- Bake 25 minutes at 425°. Rotate and reduce temperature to 375°. Bake for an additional 30-40 minutes until crust is a deep golden brown and juices are bubbly in the center.
- Cool for 3 hours on a wire rack at room temperature.
