Impulse-buy Peach Pie

There is nothing that beats a perfectly ripe peach. The best peach I ever had was in Italy. It was June, I was 16 going on 17, and in the beautiful town of Portofino. Feeling a bit hungry, I bought a handful of cherries and a peach at the farmers' market, and carried them off to be consumed in a brown paper bag. I have never in my life, before or after that point, tasted such delicious fruit. I don't know if it was the fruit, the excitement of travel abroad, or the gorgeous scenery. Whatever it was, it ruined peaches for me. You didn't see that coming did you? Well, since that point, every peach I have ever had is a letdown. That doesn't keep me from trying, however. I had a sudden impulse while driving home from work today, and just had to buy some peaches. To make a pie. Yes, I am sure that is your first thought after a full workday as well. If just plain peaches aren't going to live up to the Portofino peach, I might as well try pie instead.

Pie dough in the food processor

A peach-colored rose from my garden

Peaches

Peaches

Peeled peaches

Stirring together the filling

Filling

A disc of chilled dough

Rolling out the dough, and thankful that pastry is forgiving

Brushing the top with milk

A sprinkle of sugar on top

Voilá! It leaked a bit, but that is what pie tends to do.

A fabulous slice of pie

The oats worked wonderfully - not a drip in sight

Of course it must be á la mode.

Pie for two grown-ups and a toddler who loved it as well.

Moist and juicy without a hint of runniness

Pate Brisee

Enough for two single-crust pies or a double-crust pie. Freezes well!

2 1/2 cups (315 grams) flour
1 tablespoon (15 grams) sugar
1 teaspoon (5 grams) table salt
1 c. (225 grams) butter, very cold
1/2 c. cold water with ice in it

Put the flour in your food processor (or do it by hand if your are an overachiever). Cube the butter and place it on top, add sugar and salt. Then pulse it until the butter and flour are slightly combined. Trickle the water around, not the ice, then pulse a bit more. Add water and pulse a couple of times alternately until the mealy mass just barely starts to become dough-like. Then dump it out on a prepared surface and divide in two, squishing it into 2 discs. The less you work with it, the better. Wrap the discs in plastic wrap and chill.
After about a half hour, or whenever you are ready, take one disc out at a time. Roll it out on a floured surface and use.

Peach Pie filling

9 small peaches, sliced (about 3 1/2 lbs)

1/3 c. white sugar

1/3 c. brown sugar (use 1/4 of each if peaches are quite sweet)

1 T orange juice

a dash of salt

1/8 tsp. cinnamon

1/16 tsp. nutmeg

4 T quick-cooking oats

Stir together in a large bowl and fill prepared pie shell. 

For garnish: 

1 T milk

1 T white sugar

After adding top crust, flute edge, add some slits for venting, and brush with milk. Sprinkle with sugar. 

Bake at 425F/220C for 20 minutes. Then lower heat to 365F/180C and bake another 30-40 minutes until golden and filling is cooked through. Let cool at room temperature so juices can thicken.

I neither had the magical tapioca that makes pies non-runny, nor the traditional cornstarch. I was counting on that cornstarch to be in the pantry like it always is, but when I went to find it, it had disappeared. I have a recipe for Sloppy Joes that uses oats as a thickener, so I figured, why not? Instead of 3 T cornstarch, I tried 4 T oats. I will get back to you on the result once the pie cools and can be eaten.

ETA: The pie turned out perfectly. It was the perfect consistency - not a runny drip in sight, and perfectly moist filling, paired with a soft, but flaky crust. This pie just redeemed peaches for me. The toddler and hubby loved it too, and big girl was not home to express her skepticism about peaches. She has never actually eaten one, but is certain she does not like them. I usually use the "You can't eat this, it has too much sugar" trick, often with success. 

Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie

I have had a hankering for pie lately. I made a peach crisp two weeks ago, but this hankering was for a real two-crust pie. Cherry pie is my favorite, but a good Strawberry-Rhubarb will do in a pinch. Considering the fact that we don't have canned pie filling in Sweden, there is also considerably less pitting involved in a Strawberry-Rhubarb pie. The proliferation of strawberries in our little patch in the yard was the kick in the pants I needed to make it happen. The toddler just wants to eat the wild strawberries called smultron that grow in the woods and along our road, and the big kid has a general aversion to red food items. So I had to do something with the berries amassing in my refrigerator.

We had to stop at the store to pick up butter, flour, sugar and eggs, which the girls and I did after I had picked them up. The toddler decided that she wanted to escape as soon as we were in the checkout line, and I had to assign toddler-chasing duty to the big girl. This is why my children are six years apart. Whew.

So once we got home, I made the Pate Brisee. There probably should be accents in there somewhere, because it is French for all-butter pastry. We don't have shortening in Sweden either, so this is my standby where pies are concerned. I had always used Martha Stewart's recipe, but had been checking out a blog called Smitten Kitchen lately, and hers was basically the same with extra sugar. I liked the result better. I am sticking to my food processor, however, because hey, who makes more work than they need to?

After a complaint-free dinner of tacos whilst my dough chilled in the fridge, I rolled it out and made the filling.

We took a vote, and decided to go for a lattice top rather than a plain one. My husband's vote was "What's that mean?" and Big girl's vote was "Lettuce?" and the toddler said "Googie."

It is good to dampen the edge of the bottom crust before you assemble the lattice so that it adheres. Then you just weave by folding back every-other strip in turns.

Once done, you trim with a good sized overhang, about two inches, then go around the pie and fold it under. If anything seems loose, moisten it with a little water. If any spot around the edge is too thin, use your scraps and a little water to thicken it from underneath.

Then you flute it. There are many ways to flute a pie crust. This time, I just took a good pinch and a slight twist and there you go. Slightly moistening the edge, if need be, makes it more pliable.

Then using an egg-wash made of 1 yolk beaten with 1 tsp. water, brush the top. Sprinkle with a touch of white sugar for show.

Bake at 400 F/200 C for 20-25 minutes, then lower the temperature to 350 F/165 C for another 30 or until the crust is golden and the fruit tender. Baking at two temperatures meant I didn't even have to do the "tricky foil edge during the middle of baking whilst burning myself in the hot oven to avoid a burnt crust" maneuver.

The end result:

My kids probably won't eat it, but do I care? What are treats for, if not to be consumed after the kids' bedtime?

Pate Brisee

Enough for two single-crust pies or a double-crust pie. Freezes well!

2 1/2 cups (315 grams) flour

1 tablespoon (15 grams) sugar
1 teaspoon (5 grams) table salt
1 c. (225 grams) butter, very cold

1/2 c. cold water with ice in it 

Put the flour in your food processor (or do it by hand if your are an overachiever). Cube the butter and place it on top, add sugar and salt. Then pulse it until the butter and flour are slightly combined. Trickle the water around, not the ice, then pulse a bit more. Add water and pulse a couple of times alternately until the mealy mass just barely starts to become dough-like. Then dump it out on a prepared surface and divide in two, squishing it into 2 discs. The less you work with it, the better. Wrap the discs in plastic wrap and chill. 

Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie filling

Generally you would use more rhubarb and less strawberries than I did, but you use what you have available. 

Combine in large bowl:

1 c. chopped rhubarb

4 c. strawberries, halved

1/2 c. brown sugar, scant

1/4 c. white sugar

2 t. vanilla

a dash of salt

1/4 c. + 3 T. corn starch

For egg wash:

1 egg yolk + 1 tsp. cold water, beaten.

Arrange in prepared bottom crust, placed in glass pie plate. Cover with top crust or lattice-top, flute edge, and brush with egg wash. Sprinkle with a little sugar and bake in preheated oven at 400 F for the first 25 minutes and then turn down to 350 F for the next 30 or so. Let cool so the juices thicken a bit.  Real foodies add tapioca to their filling to thicken it, but guess what else we don't have in Sweden?