Fresh Peach Pie

As some of you may have noticed, I've been somewhat AWOL from posting of late, but it's not for lack of baking, but rather for lack of time. Let's just say that the mild envy I once felt seeing people enjoying a leisurely mid-morning latte in a cafe or attending a yoga class at 2 p.m. is approaching full-on resentment. But if I didn't have my day job, I never would have met Josephine Lume, the lovely and uber talented CFO of Henry Street Settlement (where she plays a mean calculator!) who gifted me with these peaches from her father's tree, pictured below. (I'm convinced her father, a native of Italy, lives in an orchard in Queens, where he grows persimmons, figs, blackberries and, of course, peaches.)

About those peaches. They are certainly not "pretty as a peach" but what they lack in appearance is made up in juicy deliciousness.

For a fresh peach pie, boil the peaches for about 60 seconds and, if you're lucky, the skins will slip right off. If not take a paring knife to peel them before slicing.

Next, combine the sugar, cornstarch and salt.  Add water and stir until combined. Slip the peach slices in and cook until the mixture boils. Then cook another minute.

Pour the mixture into an unbaked pie shell.  You can see below I had too much liquid, so I simply spooned some out.

Cover with a top crust. I got a little fancy with a lattice.

Bake until done. Cool on a rack.

Enjoy in the garden, even if it lacks a peach tree.

This recipe is from a c. 1960 cookbook published by The Women of Circle "B" of the First Brethren Church in Ohio.

Production notes: I followed this recipe exactly, but had to spoon out some liquid. Next time, I would leave some in the saucepan. I used a nine-inch pie pan and five cups of peaches. Always bake pies on a foil-lined baking sheet for ease of removal from the oven, and also to prevent the bubbling juices from spilling onto the oven floor.

My favorite pie crust recipe

2 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
1 stick of cold butter, cut into small pieces
6 T. cold Crisco, cut into pieces
2 t. sugar
1 t. salt
3 - 6 T. cold water

Place dry ingredients in a food processor and whirl to blend.  Add butter and Crisco and process until it resembles cornmeal. Transfer to a round bowl, and add the water, a couple of tablespoons at a time.  Blend with a fork.  When it holds together, transfer to a lightly floured surface and form a large ball.  Divide in half and either roll out between two sheets of plastic wrap, or refrigerate until it's a bit firmer and then roll out.

How Not to Make a Peach Pie

You know that saying: Listen to your gut?  On Saturday, I didn't and ended up with a disappointing mess of a peach pie (though a night in the refrigerator somewhat improved things).

It all began at the farmer's market, where I purchased some gorgeous peaches intending to make a peach cobbler for that night's barbecue.  But after discovering that I had made (and written about) peach cobbler three times, decided to bake those beauties into a pie. I couldn't find a hand-written recipe in my collection, but I did find the next best thing: a clipped recipe from an old newspaper carefully glued to a recipe card.

The venture began well.  I dropped the peaches (in batches) into boiling water for a minute or two, so as to loosen their skins . . .

which slipped off easily after running the fruit under some cold water.

I sliced the peaches and

after coating them with sugar, flour, cinnamon and nutmeg, placed them in a pastry-lined pie pan.

And then, against every instinct I had, I followed the recipe and poured nearly one cup of cream mixed with a beaten egg over the peaches.  Pie bakers know that one adds thickener (flour, tapioca, cornstarch, etc.) to fruit pies to absorb the juices released from fruit -- and here this recipe called for adding liquid, and a lot of it! Can anyone say counter-intuitive?

The liquid poured out of the shell faster than I could contain it. You can see below just a bit of the mess it created.  I was too busy trying to stop the flood from reaching the floor to take more pictures, but you get the idea.

I couldn't serve the pie that night.  It was still very warm from the oven, so I quickly made chocolate chip cupcakes with milk chocolate frosting (subject of a future post).

Even after a night cooling on the counter, the pie was still quite liquid-y inside.  That didn't prevent me from eating quite a lot of it.  And it had firmed up nicely after a night in the fridge. Still...

Production notes:  Follow this recipe, but don't add any liquid!

Some of our barbecue guests holding the pie, which they didn't even get to sample.