On our way home from Missouri last weekend, we stopped at an orchard for fresh peaches.
Oh my – the delectable odor of fresh picked-from-the-tree peaches. These just screamed at me, “make us into a pie”. And so that’s what I did yesterday.
Prep Time: 45 Minutes | Cook Time: 35-45 minutes | Difficulty: Easy as pie | Servings: 8
Pastry Ingredients:
- 1 cup shortening
- 2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
Filling Ingredients:
- 1 cup sugar
- ¼ cup all purpose flour
- ¼ teaspoon cinnamon
- 4 cups peeled and sliced fresh peaches (thawed frozen peaches can be substituted)
- 1 tablespoon butter
Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
Peel and slice the peaches and place in a mixing bowl. Place bowl in the fridge to prevent browning. Measure out the rest of the filling ingredients and put aside for later.
Time to make the pie crust. If you’ve never made pie crust from scratch, don’t worry – it’s so easy – only 3 ingredients.
Put the shortening and salt in a mixing bowl with the flour.
Mix with a fork or pastry blender until it looks like this:
Add water, a couple tablespoons at a time, and stir with a fork until it looks like this:
Form into a uniform mound with the fork, and cut roughly in half with one half bigger than the other.
Take the larger half, and roll into the ball, coat the ball with flour, and place on a piece of wax paper.
With your hand, press the ball down into a flying saucer shape.
Place another sheet of wax paper on top, and then roll out the pie crust with a rolling pin.
Using the flat of your hands on the pin, and starting at the halfway point on the crust, roll the pin towards you to the edge of the crust(not over the edge), and then turn the crust 1/4 turn. Roll again and turn. Keep rolling until it looks like this and is about 12 inches in diameter. This will be the bottom crust.
Using the steps above, roll out the remainder of the crust, only roll it out a little smaller than the bottom crust. This will be the top crust.
Peel the top layer of wax paper off the bottom crust, and flip the crust over onto the pie dish.
Gently peel off the remaining layer of wax paper.
Gently ease the crust down into the dish by pulling the sides away from the dish and letting gravity do the rest. If you get a tear, just press the 2 edges of the tear together to mend.
Now it’s time to make the filling. Remove the peaches from the fridge.
Add the flour, sugar, and cinnamon.
Mix until just combined.
Pour filling into crust.
Add a few pats of butter to the top.
Remove the top layer of wax paper from the top crust, and flip over on top of the pie.
Peel the remaining wax paper off the crust.
Carefully roll the top and bottom crusts together and under.
Crimp with your fingers to seal.
Poke holes in the top crust with a moistened fork to ventilate.
Place in a 425 degree preheated oven. Place a sheet of aluminum foil on the rack below the pie, so if it runs over, it won’t mess up your oven.
Bake 35 to 45 minutes, or until crust is brown. About halfway through the baking time, place a ring of aluminum foil over the piecrust edge. This will prevent overbrowning.
When your piecrust looks like this, it’s done baby.
Cool completely and serve.
Oh me oh my.
Grab a fork, and eat.
How much more summmery can you get than a fresh peach pie. Of course, if you don’t have fresh peaches, you can use frozen. Just thaw them out first.
