Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Peach Pie

Last week I was over at my parents' house when my dad came in with a big basket of peaches. My family has a little bit of an obsession about peaches. We won't touch the ones in the grocery store, but if there is a ripe, juicy locally-grown peach, we are there. When we lived in Texas, it was Freestone County peaches. Last summer I bought a small paper bag full of them for $8. Joe thought I was crazy until he had one. Almost every summer, they make my grandma's recipe for homemade peach ice cream, so when my dad walked in with all of those peaches, it immediately popped into my head to make a peach pie.

I had never made a two-crust pie or even a fruit pie. My only pie experience was with pumpkin pie around the holidays. Despite my lack of experience, the pie turned out phenomenally, though I give most of that credit to the peaches being so ripe and tasty.



Ingredients:
- 1 (15 ounce) package pastry for a 9 inch double crust pie
- 1 egg, beaten
- 5 cups sliced peeled peaches (about 10 medium-large peaches)
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 cup white sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons butter

Instructions:
-Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F (220 degrees C).


-Line the bottom and sides of a 9 inch pie plate with one of the pie crusts. Brush with some of the beaten egg to keep the dough from becoming soggy later.


-Place the sliced peaches in a large bowl, and sprinkle with lemon juice. Mix gently. In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. Pour over the peaches, and mix gently. Pour into the pie crust, and dot with butter. Cover with the other pie crust, and fold the edges under. Flute the edges to seal or press the edges with the tines of a fork dipped in egg. Brush the remaining egg over the top crust. Cut several slits in the top crust to vent steam.


- Bake for 10 minutes in the preheated oven, then reduce the heat to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) and bake for an additional 30 to 35 minutes, until the crust is brown and the juice begins to bubble through the vents. If the edges brown to fast, cover them with strips of aluminum foil about halfway through baking. Cool before serving. This tastes better warm than hot.


Some of the comments on allrecipes said it was too soggy and needed to cook longer. I didn't have this problem. I took it out of the oven at 32 minutes, and it was perfect. I served it microwaved with a side of Purity 98% Fat-Free Vanilla Ice Cream.

recipe from here