Maggie Monday: Perfect Peach Pie

When I think of peaches in a dessert my first tough goes to cobbler and then to Peaches and Cream. Having a look at the pie below, I know I may need to move that up on my list. Here’s Maggie… 

Mu husband recently drove from Virginia to Georgia. It is peach season. He brought a big bag of peaches back. I love my husband. Peach season is my favorite. And strawberry season. That too. Oh, and tomato and sweet corn season. Oh hell, I love summer food. The end.

I had to find a way to use this big bag o’ peaches, and opted for a classic peach pie. I chose this recipe courtesy of Anne Thornton. It had the classic elements I was looking for. The only change I made was to use brown sugar instead of white sugar.

It was beautiful and delicious. My husband was a very happy man, and he may or may not have had Peach Pie a la mode for breakfast the morning after I baked this pie. And the morning after that too…

If you have extra blueberries or raspberries hanging around with the peaches, toss a cup of those into the filling before baking. Berries go really well with peaches. Give it a shot!

Isn’t this a pretty pie? Tastes even better than it looks!

Perfect Peach Pie

What you need:

Pastry for 2 9” pie crusts. (I use refrigerated crusts)
10 ripe but firm peaches
1 lemon, juiced (bottled lemon juice is just fine)
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar ( I used brown sugar, but white is fine)
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon or pinch ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
3 tablespoons butter, cut into small pieces
1 egg, beaten for wash on crust

What you do:

Cook’s Note: You can increase the amount of sugar to 1 1/4 cups, depending upon the sweetness of the peaches. Peak summer peaches will only need 1 cup.

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.
Place the bottom crust in the pie plate, poke some holes in it and pre-bake for 5- 10 minutes, just get it a slightly browned and bubbled. This will keep the bottom crust crisp and flaky rather than doughy and wet. Remove from oven.

For the filling: Peel and cut the peaches into 1/4-inch thick slices (you should have about 7 cups) and toss with the lemon juice and almond extract in a large bowl. Whisk the flour, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt in another bowl, making sure there are no lumps. Stir the flour mixture into the peaches and mix well. Pour the peaches into the pie crust. Scatter with the pieces of butter. Top with top crust. Cut a few slits in center of top crust. Crimp the edges to seal. Beat the egg with 1 teaspoon water and brush the lattice and edges with the egg wash. Sprinkle with a bit of sugar.

Pop in the oven and bake for 10 minutes, and then lower the heat to 350 degrees F and bake until the crust gets brown, about 50 minutes more. If the edges brown too fast, cover them with strips of aluminum foil about halfway through baking. Cool about 30 minutes before serving.