Peach Pie Perfection

 

Peaches are my favorite fruit.  But because I love them so much, it is difficult actually making anything with them because I tend to eat them all before I get around to baking with them!  But this peach pie is absolutely worth a little bit of patience.  Both Paul and I used to think we weren't much of peach pie people anyway, but after making this pie with gorgeous, orangey-pink peaches from the local farmer's market, we have been converted.  In fact, this may be my new favorite pie. 

Peach Pie

1 double-crust pie crust
3 pounds of fresh peaches (about 6-7 large peaches), peeled and sliced into 1/4-inch slices
1/2 to 3/4 cups sugar, depending on the sweetness of the peaches
2 tablespoons cornstarch
2 tablespoons flour
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
a pinch of allspice
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoons butter
1 egg, lightly beaten
sanding sugar

Prepare pie crust according to recipe, then line pie plate with the bottom crust.  To easily peel peaches, gently lower them into a large pot of boiling water for about 60 seconds, then remove to a pan and use your fingers to rub off the skin.  Remove peach pits and slice peaches into 1/4-inch slices. 

Place sliced peaches in a large bowl, then gently toss with sugar, cornstarch, flour, spices, salt and vanilla.  Fill bottom pie shell with peach mixture and dot with butter.  Add top crust and crimp edges.  Cut a few slits in the top of the crust to allow the pie to vent and brush with egg wash and sprinkle with sanding sugar.

Bake in a 400 degree oven for 45-50 minutes or until juices are bubbling and the crust is nicely browned.  You may need to cover the crust edges with tinfoil to protect it from getting too brown.  Let the pie cool for at least 3 hours.  Serve with a big scoop of vanilla ice cream.

*Optional: Instead of a top crust, you could do a brown butter streusel using the follow recipe and technique.

Brown Butter Streusel Topping

1/3 cup pecans

1/2 cup butter

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons flour

1/2 cup granulated sugar

3 tablespoons dark brown sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

Pinch cinnamon

Sprinkle the pecans on a baking sheet and toast for 5 minutes. Remove and set aside until cool enough to handle, then chop.

In a small, heavy-bottomed saucepan, melt a stick of butter over medium heat, stirring frequently. Cook until the butter turns golden-brown, being careful not to burn it. Set aside.

 

Whisk together the 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons flour, ½ cup sugar, 3 tablespoons dark brown sugar, ¼ teaspoon salt, and pinch of cinnamon. Mix in the pecans. Drizzle over the browned butter (which now should be slightly cooled) and mix until crumbs form.

 

Sprinkle and crumble the streusel over the pie filling until the pie filling is completely covered. Bake as directed above.

Cranberry Apple Pie (or Crumble)

I LOVE this as a crumble and I LOVE this as a pie.  The filling is the same and really you can't go wrong either way you decide to make it.  The cranberries add bursts of tartness that are so delicious with the buttery crumble topping and delicately spiced sweet apples. With a generous scoop of vanilla ice cream, this dessert is heavenly. And okay, I love eating it for breakfast the next morning too.

Cranberry Apple Pie (or Crumble)

1 recipe double-crust pie crust (if making into a pie) or 1 recipe Oat Crumble Topping (below)

Filling

8 - 10 large apples, peeled, cored, and sliced 1/4-inch thick (3 1/2 pounds prepped)

2 cups cranberries, fresh or frozen

1 1/3 cups granulated sugar

2 tablespoons cornstarch

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

 

Oat Crumble Topping

 

2 cups rolled oats

1 1/2 cups flour

1 1/3 cups packed brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt

3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted

 

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Butter a large rectangular baking dish (if making a crumble) or prepare pie pastry (if making a pie).
              

To make topping, mix the oats, flour, brown sugar, and salt together in a bowl. Stir in the butter, then press the topping together with your hands to form small clumps. Put the topping in the freezer while you assemble the filling.

              

To make the fruit filling, toss the apples, cranberries, sugar, cornstarch, and cinnamon together in a large bowl. Transfer the filling to the prepared pan and spread it out, pressing the fruit down into the corners.  If making a pie, dot with butter before topping with the crust and crimping the edges and brushing the top crust with an egg wash.

 

Press the oat crumble evenly over the fruit, then bake for 60 - 70 minutes, or until the crumble is lightly golden and the filling is bubbling up in the corners (or the pie crust is golden brown - you may have to cover the edges of the pie to prevent burning). Cool for 20 minutes or so before serving, then top with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Blueberry Custard Pie

A couple of years ago we were invited to attend a Pi Day (March 14 - 3.14) pie party.  We moved after that and decided to host our own Pi Day pie party for 3.14.15.  We invited a bunch of friends and told everybody to bring a pie to share, then we ate, played games, and swapped leftover pie to take home.  We even did awards for things like best crust, best filling, and the pie most likely to bring about world peace.  This blueberry custard pie won the world peace award and it was totally deserving.  I mean, juicy blueberries and a streusel topping in a creamy filling and buttery pie crust?  How could anyone resist that kind of bliss?  My friend Christina was kind enough to share the recipe with me and I made it for Easter dinner a few weeks later.  It's a new favorite.

Blueberry Custard Pie

Filling:

 

1 cup (8 ounces) sour cream

3/4 cup sugar

1 egg

2 tablespoons flour

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 1/2 cups fresh blueberries

1 recipe single-crust pie dough

 

Streusel Topping:

 

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup flour

1/4 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup chopped pecans

 

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.  In a large bowl, mix the sour cream, 3/4 cup sugar, egg, 2 tablespoons flour, vanilla extract and salt with a spoon until smooth. Gently fold the blueberries into the sour cream mixture. Spoon the filling into the unbaked pie crust.  Bake in the preheated oven for 25 minutes.

 

While the filling is baking, prepare the streusel topping: In a medium bowl combine the brown sugar and flour. Mix the butter in (I always use my hands) until the mixture resembles course sand. Fold in the chopped pecans. After the filling has baked 25 minutes, sprinkle the streusel crunch topping over the top of the pie. Bake an additional 15-20 minutes or until filling is set and topping is brown.  Make sure your crust doesn't burn. Either use a crust shield or make a loose foil tent towards the end of baking.

 

Remove from oven and let pie sit for at least 10-15 minutes. Serve pie warm or chill it and serve cold.

Basic Double-Crust or Single-Crust Pie Dough

I have tried pie crusts made with all shortening, ones made with all butter, and a number of other crusts.  But this one, from the America's Test Kitchen cookbook, has become my go-to pie crust.  It always gives great results and isn't as fussy as other crusts I have attempted in the past.  The recipe makes 2 generous crusts.

Basic Double-Crust Pie Dough

2 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour, plus extra for the work surface
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon table salt
1/2 cup vegetable shortening
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) butter, cut into 1/4-inch pieces and chilled
6-8 tablespoons ice water

or

Basic Single-Crust Pie Dough

1 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour, plus extra for the work surface
1 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon table salt
3 tablespoons vegetable shortening
5 tablespoons butter, cut into 1/4-inch pieces and chilled
4-6 tablespoons ice water

Mix the flour, sugar and salt until combined.  Add the shortening and cold butter and pulse in a food processor or cut in using a pastry cutter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.  Sprinkle 6 tablespoons of ice water over the mixture (for the double-crust pie - only start with 4 tablespoons if making the single-crust recipe), 2 tablespoons at a time, stirring lightly with a fork, just until the dough sticks together.  Use additional two tablespoons as needed, one at a time, until the dough just comes together.

If making the double-crust recipe, divide the dough into two even pieces and lay each piece on a sheet of plastic wrap and flatten into a disk.  Wrap each piece tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.  Before rolling the dough out, let it sit on the counter to soften slightly, about 10 minutes. 

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

 

There is something amazingly right and good and true about Strawberry Rhubarb Pie.  I mean, rhubarb is this crazy vegetable with poisonous leaves and insanely sour/tart stems but if you add a little sugar and mix them with berries in a pie crust, they create the most wonderful sweet-tart pie that you can possibly imagine.  This just may be my favorite pie ever.  And the girls are definitely huge fans.  I dished up a slice with a scoop of vanilla ice cream for a treat the other afternoon and sat on the back step to watch the girls play in the yard while I ate it.  Except I couldn't even get a bite to a myself because Rose and Clara hovered right next to me and devoured the whole thing spoonful by spoonful while making happy "mmmmmmm" sounds. 

 

The filling is made with equal parts strawberries and chopped rhubarb with a little cinnamon for warmth and depth, lemon juice and zest for brightness, and tapioca for thickening.  And I think this is the perfect pie for a lattice-top crust, which never fails to impress. 

Clara loves when I make pies because I always give her the extra dough scraps from the crust and she uses her little rolling pin and a mini tart pan to make her own "pies". 

When the perfectly golden pie comes out of the oven with the tangy and sweet filling bubbling up out of the holes in the lattice top, it is a powerful thing.  I'm pretty sure this pie could bring about world peace. 

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

1 recipe basic double-crust pie dough

2 1/2 cups chopped red rhubarb, fresh

2 1/2 cups strawberries, washed, hulled and cut into pieces about the same size as the rhubarb

1 1/2 cups sugar

3 tablespoons minute tapioca

1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon lemon zest

1/2 teaspoon lemon juice

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 tablespoons butter, cubed small

1 egg beaten with 1 teaspoon water

Sugar for sprinkling on top

 

Prepare double-crust pie crust recipe.  Roll out one half of the crust and cover the bottom of a pie dish, while reserving the other half of the dough for the top crust. 

 

Mix the rhubarb, strawberries, sugar, tapioca, flour, lemon zest and juice, cinnamon, and vanilla. Mix well in a large bowl and pour out into prepared crust. Dot the top of the filling with the butter.  Roll out the other piece of dough and place over filling either as a solid crust or by cutting into strips and laying them out in a lattice pattern. Crimp to seal edges. Brush with egg wash and sprinkle with sugar. Loosely cover edges with foil and bake at 425 degrees F for 15 minutes. Decrease temperature to 375 degrees F and bake for an additional 45 to 50 minutes, or until the filling starts bubbling and crust is golden brown.

 

Let the pie cool for at least 2 hours before cutting and serving.

Razzleberry Pie

Razzleberry Pie

1 recipe basic double-crust pie dough

1-1/3 cups sugar

2 tablespoons quick-cooking tapioca

2 tablespoons cornstarch

5 cups fresh or frozen unsweetened raspberries, thawed                                                

1 tablespoon butter

 

Prepare pie crust.  Meanwhile, in another large bowl, combine the sugar, tapioca, cornstarch and raspberries; let stand for 15 minutes. 

 

On a lightly floured surface, roll out larger ball of dough to fit a 9-in. pie plate. Transfer dough to pie plate; trim even with edge. Add raspberry filling; dot with butter.  Roll out remaining dough to fit top of pie; place over filling. Trim, seal and flute edges. Cut slits in top. Brush with milk or egg wash.  Bake at 350° for 50-55 minutes or until crust is golden brown and filling is bubbly.