An Inspired Cook

The best dessert is Pie, at least according to me.  Peach pie is my favorite and I make it as soon as the peaches are good and ripe.   I used the Combination Butter and Shortening Crust posted by Simply Recipes, which gives really good instructions.  I will tell you that it takes some practice, or maybe I should say I need practice.  This deep dish pie takes a lot of peaches to fill it.  I piled 4 pounds of peaches into this pie.  I don’t know if you would say it looks pretty, but it tasted pretty darn good!

Start with really good peaches, 4 pounds for a deep dish pie.  I tried the white peaches earlier in the summer and they just didn’t taste right, so I would not recommend them.  Pick peaches that smell good and you want them to be ripe, not too ripe but somewhat soft.

Peaches will peel easier if they are blanched first.  Boil water in a big stock pot, add peaches, turn off the heat and let them sit for 1 minute.

Then place them in some ice water.

The skin should just peel off real easy now.

Once they are peeled, halve them and discard the seeds.

Thinly slice the peaches.

Now it’s time for some sugar and spice and everything nice.

First some lemon juice.

Add your sugar, flour, tapioca and cinnamon.

Stir it all together so that all the peaches are coated.

Here’s my pie crust, still need to roll it out.

This is as good as it gets.  You can see I need some assistance on the edging.

Dot with butter.

I made an egg wash from 1 egg yolk and 1 tablespoon half & half.  Whisk it together and brush over pie crust.  Sprinkle with some Vanilla Sugar.

You should flute the pie to release steam within.  I like to make hearts on my pie.

Cover the edges of the pie with aluminum foil and secure with toothpicks.  This will save the edges from getting too brown.  You will take the foil off the last 15 minutes of cooking time.

Bake at 400 degrees 20 minutes, then turn down the heat to 375 degrees for another 40 minutes.  Take the aluminum foil off the last 15 minutes so that the crust edges can brown.

My heart went into this pie!

Deep Dish Peach Pie

4 pounds ripe Peaches (approximately 10 peaches)
1 cup Sugar (1 1/4 cups if you want a sweeter pie)
1/4 cup Flour
2 tablespoons Tapioca
2 teaspoons Lemon Juice
1/2 teaspoon Cinnamon
Pastry for Double Crust Pie
Vanilla Sugar

Egg Wash

1 Egg Yolk
1 tablespoon Half and Half

Blanch peaches in boiling water 1 minute.  Transfer to ice water bath.  Peel peaches and remove seeds.  Slice into thin slices and place in a large bowl.  Add lemon juice to peaches, stir.  Combine sugar, flour, tapioca and cinnamon and add to peaches.  Line a deep dish pie plate with pie crust.  Stir pie filling and add to the pie plate.  Dot peach filing with slivers of butter.  Top with pie crust, flute and seal. Brush egg wash over the top of the pie crust, and sprinkle with vanilla sugar.  Cover the edges of the pie crust with aluminum foil to prevent the edges from browning too soon.

Bake at 400 degrees 20 minutes, turn the oven down to 375 degrees and bake another 40 minutes.  Remove the aluminum foil from the edges of the pie crust the last 15 minutes of cook time.

Take pie from oven and let cool.

Serve with ice cream or whipped cream.