When fresh fruit is in season it is easy to bring home a basket or two, and then find after a few days your family has had their fill. The rest just sits on the counter craving a little love. When this happens in our household, a pie crust comes in handy to save the day, and the fruit from spoiling. And you really don’t have to go to the effort of blanching and remove the skin. It’s all good when you have ripe peaches.
Having pie dough already made is a bonus. If you are really ahead of the game you would have rolled out the crusts into pie plates and have them stacked neatly in the freezer, just like you buy in the store, or you could just buy them in the store. You can also use this simple filling in other baked peach desserts, or even “can” them to enjoy in the winter.
Easy Peasy Peach Pie
Ingredients
- 6 medium ripe peaches washed
- 1/4 cup Granulated sugar (or sugar substitute)
- 1/4 cup light brown sugar
- 1/8 tsp. ground cinnamon
- 3 tbsp. minute tapioca
- my pie pastry recipe see below
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 425 degrees.
- Roll out the bottom crust of the pie. The key to rolling out pie crust is to keep it cold. Start with refrigerated dough and try a marble slab which will have a nice cool surface. If you have stone countertops you can fill a cookie sheet with ice cubes and place on your counter for a good 10 minutes. Wipe the counter down and place the dough on a large sheet of parchment paper, dusted with flour. Roll from the inside of the circle out and rotate the paper every so often to get a nice even thickness.
- Cut the peaches into slices or smaller cubes (depending on your preference), into a bowl. Mix in the sugars and spice. This recipe is lower in the normal amount of sugar typically used.
- Peach pie does create a lot of juices so you might want to consider blind baking first (see below) to make sure you don’t have a soggy bottom (when you want to impress company). My mom’s trick was to sprinkle the tapioca on the bottom of the pie plate and then add the filling, but I like to sprinkle a tablespoon on the bottom, the rest mixed in with the peaches.
- Transfer the filling into the pie shell.
- To make a lattice-top, roll out the pie dough into a long rectangle, and cut into thick strips with a sharp knife. Arrange strips in one direction across pacing the strips evenly. Fold back every other strip gently on itself and then add a perpendicular strip, fold the strips back, fold the other strips up and then repeat. The larger the strips the less time it takes to do the weave. Press the strips against the rim of the bottom crust, trim and crimp as you like for a decorative edge.
- Brush pie with milk, or water and sprinkle with sugar. Wrap the edges with tin foil to prevent burning.
- Bake 20 minutes in the preheated oven, until the crust is set and beginning to brown. Reduce oven temperature to 375F and bake pie for another 30 to 40 minutes, until filling is bubbling all over and the crust is a nice golden brown. Remove the tin foil for the last 10 minutes of baking.
