It's a Peach

When life hands you peaches...you know what they say. Make peach pie. Peach pie is one of my absolute favorites, though we have never tried to make one before. We made an apple pie last fall after a particularly fruitful (feel free to roll your eyes) apple picking adventure. Though it was successful, the labor intensive pie-making process was enough to discourage us to put it off for almost a year before giving it another go.

We used the classic pie dough recipe from the excellent America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook, which I suggest that everyone run out and buy. Immediately. Seriously, it is the best. We had great luck with this dough recipe when we made our apple pie. Why mess with perfection, right? My mom is an excellent cook and baker, and when I asked if she had any additional advice on making a great pie crust, it was simply keep everything very VERY cold. That, and use lard but don't tell your friends who are vegetarians. We skipped out on the lard, but used ice water and gave our butter and shortening plenty of time to chill in the freezer. We have a teeny tiny food processor (are you reading this Santa?) that was not large enough to cut the butter and shortening into the dough as the cookbook recommends. We went at it the old fashioned way with a fork and knife. Though it was a bit more labor intensive, we still got an excellent result. The crust came out golden, flakey, and delicious. Even without the lard.

As for the filling, we were a bit nervous about peeling the peaches. We again followed the instructions in the Test Kitchen, and blanched the peaches before trying to peel them. This made the skins come off much easier. After I removed the peaches from the ice bath, I could immediately tell which sides had been submerged deeper into the boiling water. Those parts of the skin zipped right off. I guess I didn't stir the peaches as well as I thought I did. I'll remember for next time!

My embarrassing lack of knife skills really started to show themselves once I began trying to cut the peaches into 1/3 inch slices. How the heck are you supposed to cut up a peach? I tried googling, and the results I found said to cut down the middle right through the pit, and then separate the flesh from the stone. We have a pretty sharp knife, but even with all my arm strength, that was just not going to happen. I'm sure a thousand southern grandmas were crying watching my pathetic attempts. BUUT, I was able to hack at the peaches until they resembled semi-even slices. And I can assure you that what it lacked in beauty, it made up for in taste!

After slicing, the peaches macerate in sugar for about an hour until they release their juices. Then you just drain, mix with a little corn starch, and lemon juice, and voila!

The pie gets assembled, and then bakes. Then comes the hardest part, letting it cool for an hour before you can eat it.

The county fair better watch out. Now we have 2 pies under our belts, there's no stopping us!