After almost a month of hectic schedules, out of town guests, weeks of illness and general 'summer-ness', the 4th of July took us by surprise this year. We had made no plans for cook outs, parties or even looked up the best place to watch the fireworks in Baltimore. Taking the rare opportunity for an unscheduled day, my husband and I happily made the most of what we call 'being bums'. We slept in, stayed in pajamas all day, took naps, watched netflix, ate pizza and went to bed not feeling one bit guilty about it. By not running out to find a giant crowd of people stuffed on a dock somewhere watching the fireworks, we also found out that from our own balcony we have one of the best views. We actually got to see 3 different fireworks shows happening at once in different directions across the cityscape.
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| Though the fireworks were awesome, this was the light show that really took my breath away. Photo credit goes to Richard Karper. |
The one quintessential part of the 4th of July that we weren't willing to give up though was the PIE! With half a bushel of fresh West Virginia peaches from my mom's visit over the weekend we decided that peach would be the flavor of choice this year. I have to say I think this is one of the best pies I've pulled off to date. It made our relaxing day around the house still have the flavor of independence.
I combined a few different recipes from Pinterest to make my pies, so to the best of my ability, I will combine them here for anyone who wants to try it themselves.
Happy Independence Day America!!
Peach Pie Two Ways:
Yields two deep dish peach pies.
Crust: Yields 2-3 single pie crusts.
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for rolling
- 1 cup (2 sticks or 8 ounces) unsalted butter, very-cold, cut into 1/2 inch cubes*
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 6 to 8 Tbsp ice water
- 1 egg beaten
Peach Filling:
- 12-14 cups,sliced,peeled fresh peaches
- 2 Tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 cup all purpose flour (Approximately. It may different depending on the how juicy your peaches are.)
- 3/4 cup white sugar
- 1/4 cup brown sugar (I didn't have brown sugar on hand, so I used 1 full cup as white sugar instead and it still turned out great.)
- 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1/2 teaspoon allspice
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 4 Tablespoons cold butter
Crumble Top:
- ⅓ cup all-purpose flour
- ⅓ cup light brown sugar (again, I didn't have brown sugar so I used white and it turned out fine)
- ⅓ cup old-fashioned rolled oats
- ⅓ cup maple syrup
- 6 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
Oven Temp: 450 degrees then 350 degrees
1 Crust - Put flour, sugar, salt, butter and half the water into the bowl of a food processor and blend until butter is in small pieces mixed throughout the dough. Continue to add water in tablespoon portions until you are able to pinch some of the crumbly dough together with your fingers and it holds together. Be cautious with the amount of water you add. Too much water and the crust will be tough.
2 Carefully empty the crumbly dough mixture from the food processor onto a clean, dry, flat surface. Gather the mixture in a mound. At this point, if you want, you can do what the French call fraisage: push down with the palm of your hand on the dough crumbles a few times. This will help flatten the pieces of butter into layers which will help your crust be flaky. Do not over-knead! Kneading develops gluten which will toughen the dough, not something you want in a pastry crust. Put your dough in an airtight container and store in the fridge until you are ready to fill and bake. Make sure the pie dough rests at least one hour but it can stay in the fridge up to 2 days unbaked.
3 Filling - In a large bowl combine the sliced peaches and lemon juice, gently toss together. Place the sliced peaches in a colander to drain. Don't skip this step, this eliminates some of the juice so your pie won't be soupy after it's cut. Drain peaches about 10 - 15 minutes. Place drained peaches in a large bowl and add flour, sugars, salt, nutmeg and allspice.Stir. Continue to add more flour as needed until most of the juice from your peaches has been absorbed. (It will just get juicier when you bake it!)
4 Divide refrigerated dough into 3 equal size balls and roll them each out until they are large enough circles to cover your pie pans. If you find your dough sticking to the table or your rolling pin, sprinkle a little more flour on the surfaces. Place one homemade pie crust in the bottom of each of your pie pans and brush the pie crust (bottom and sides) with a little of the beaten egg. This keeps the crust from getting soggy. Keep the rest of the beaten egg to brush on the top crust.(One of the pies will be crumb topped so you only need the egg for one pie top).
5 Divide the peach filling evenly to fill pie crusts. Dot the tops of the pies with a little more chilled butter.
6 Take the 1 remaining circle of pie dough and cover one of the pies. Trim off extra dough and pinch the edges to seal the crusts together. Use a knife to cut slits in the top pie crust and then brush with the remaining egg.
7 Crumb Topping - To make crumb topping, in a small bowl, combine the flour, brown sugar (or white), maple syrup and oats; using your hands, work in the butter until well combined. It will be lumpy. Crumble the crumb topping over the un-topped pie and brush any part of the bottom crust that is showing with egg.
8 Placed pies on cookie sheet (to catch any juices that overflow) and baked in pre-heated oven at 450 degrees for 10 minutes. Reduce temperature to 350 degrees and bake for 45-60 minutes or until pie is baked through and you have the desired golden color on top. I found that the crumb topped one took a little longer than the dough topped one, so I removed the dough topped pie and put the crumb topped one under the broiler on low for an additional 3-5 minutes.
9 Wait until pie as cooled then slice and enjoy!
