Perfectly Picturesque Peach Pie :)

Paul wanted to put the pie in the window. I wanted to drive the neighbors nuts with the great smell.

The blogosphere has been abuzz with peaches lately.  Peach cobbler, grilled peaches, peach smoothies, fresh stuffed peaches, peach cake…Mmmm!  I don’t live in the States right now but I know how delicious those peaches are and I want you to know how jealous I am.  My husband and I really can’t eat a whole peach pie right now, so I convinced a friend to host a potluck, promising him a delicious and stunning peach pie.  I didn’t have a recipe.

I bit the bullet and bought those expensive imported peaches that are not quite ripe…but it is the best I can get.  So I’ll have to hope my baking skills can make up for it.  As for the recipe, I spent a wonderful moment perusing some great food blogs for ideas.  I decided to go with something akin to my mom’s Dutch apple pie with the beautiful presentation of SassyKitchen, but I couldn’t use her recipe so I was still at square one.  The flavor combinations of Pease Pudding sparked my interest:  Nectarine & Cardamon Ice Cream.  Mmmm…cardamom; Fitting given its prominent role in Arab foods (Arabic coffee) and my current location in the Arab world.  A nice local touch.  Finally, I thought I’d change up the streusel topping by using almonds (thanks to Carina Forum for the idea).

Here is the recipe (email me if you’d like it in cups instead of ounces):

Crust:

2.7 oz butter

5 oz all purpose flour

½ tsp salt

3+ tbsp cold water

1 egg white (used later)

Dice up the butter into cubes/pads and drop it into the food processor.  Add the flour and salt and pulse until you have small pieces (not too long or you’ll have one big blob).  Pour in the cold water, 1 tbsp at a time, pulsing in between tbsps.  Add more water until the dough is moist and sticks together.  Roll out a piece of saran wrap and place the dough in the center.  Knead the dough slightly to make sure you don’t have chunks of butter.  Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

 

Filling:

4-5 delicious and fresh peaches!

8 oz. sugar

1.25 oz all purpose flour

½ tsp cinnamon

½ tsp nutmeg

½ tsp cardamom

Splash of lemon juice

Slice the peaches and put them in a large mixing bowl.  In a separate bowl, combine the sugar, flour, and spices.  (If you want to go the extra mile, grate your own cinnamon, nutmeg and cardamom!)  Sprinkle the dry mixture over the peaches and toss.  My peaches were pretty dry and the mixture mostly fell to the bottom of the bowl.  But, the sugar will pull out the juices in the peaches to create a syrup so you should stir this a few times to re-coat the peaches.  I added a splash of lemon juice a.) because my peaches were dry and b.) because I wanted something bright amidst the warm winter flavors.

 

Topping

2.5 oz all purpose flour

2.5 oz almonds

4 oz butter

4 oz brown sugar

Using a food grinder (like a coffee bean grinder), coarsely grind the almonds into a powder.  Combine the almond, flour and sugar in a food processor.  Add the butter in cubes/pads.  Pulse until small balls appear.  (If you blend too much on this one, don’t worry.  Your fingers will just do little more work breaking it into pieces when you put it on the pie.)

Okay – so now you have all of the pieces ready.   

1.  Roll out your pie crust, fold it into quarters and transfer to the pie pan.  Trim the edges right at the top of the pie dish – don’t eat them.  (If you can, blind bake the crust for 10 minutes.)   

2.  Roll the extra edges into a ball and roll it out again into an oval.  Cut this into long strips about ¼ inch thick.  Twist two strips together and repeat until you have enough ribbon to go around the circumference of the pie.  (If you were blind baking the crust, pull it out of the oven!)  

3.  Stir your peaches one last time and pour them into the crust, drizzling any extra syrup over the peaches.  Reserve 5 perfectly cut beautifully colored slices for the top the pie.   

Pre-baked.

4.  Using your fingertips break the topping into small pieces and spread it evenly on top of the peaches (don’t get too close to the edge).   

5.  Now carefully wrap your dough-ribbon around the edge of the pie, hiding the ends as best possible.  Arrange your final peach slices on top and brush the ribbon with egg whites.

6.  Finally, cover your masterpiece with foil and bake.

Bake at 400F for about 30-35 minutes.  Remove the foil and bake for another 10-15 minutes until the crust and topping are beautiful golden brown.  Resist the temptation to eat the hot pie and let it cool – the syrup will congeal and it will look so beautiful when you cut into it!

 The pie is very warm and not too sweet.  I recommend you serve it with some vanilla ice cream.  The cool rich flavors of the ice cream will balance well with the warm fruity flavors of the pie.  

Golden Crust.