Early Peaches in a Pie

I've heard about the Dry Creek Peach stand for years, but it's up by Geyserville and I don't travel to that part of the county often, so I never visited. A few days ago I read that they already had peaches...about two weeks earlier than usual. I love peaches, but the ones that I get in the market are uninspiring. They tend to be hard and with little flavor. You can ripen them in a brown paper bag, but then they are ripe and still flavorless, plus they are often bruised with large dark areas from rough handling when they were hard.

So Sweetie and I found that we had the time, so we drove up the the Dry Creek Peach stand and purchased a flat of the first peaches of the season. The Dry Creek Peach folks were delightful and since they grow 30 varieties, we will likely be visiting them again and again. 

The peaches! They are heavenly! Because they were picked ripe, the skins come off easily...no need to dip them in boiling water to loosen the skins. They are also wonderfully juicy and full of peach flavor.

Of course we started eating them plain. Sweetie even ate his with the peel still on. I prefer them without the peel. Then I combined them with some other fresh fruit we had on hand...raspberries, pineapple and banana. Delicious!

The next day I made a peach pie with them and it is a really great pie. It took about 6 peaches to make the filling. I used a ready made pie dough crust for the bottom, made a filling with those slices peaches, freshly ground nutmeg, some flour and cornstarch mixed and a tablespoon of lemon juice. They were sweet enough that I didn't add any sugar. On top I put a streusel of brown sugar, flour, butter and chopped pecans. I'm afraid that the streusel  burned a bit during the first part of the baking, but I covered the whole top with foil for the 350 degree F part and it didn't burn any more. Next time I'll cover it sooner.

This is an exceptional pie, especially if you use tree ripened fruit. True peach season in most of the U.S is in June and July, so see if you can find some good peaches...and have some pie!

Peach Pie with Streusel Topping

5 cups peeled, sliced peaches, pits discarded

1/4 cup all-purpose flour mixed with 1 tablespoon cornstarch

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg, freshly grated if possible

few grains of salt

3/4 cup brown sugar

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup chopped pecans

8 oz. (1/2 cup, 1 stick) soft butter

one egg white

one 9” unbaked pie shell ( put into freezer until ready to fill the pie)

Mix peach slices with flour mixture,  lemon juice, nutmeg and salt. Pile into chilled pie shell that has been brushed with slightly beaten egg white. 

Make the streusel: In a medium bowl mix together the brown sugar, flour and pecans. Add the soft butter, cut into pieces, and use clean fingers to smoosh the butter into the flour mixture until combined. The mixture will be barely crumbly.

Break apart the streusel mixture into small-ish lumps and scatter evenly over the peach filling.

Bake in a preheated 425 degree F oven for 10 minutes. Place foil over edges of pie shell if they start to become too brown or if the top becomes too brown. Reduce heat to 350 degrees F and bake about 45 minutes, or until filling is bubbly and crust is golden brown.

Let cool at least five minutes before serving. I served mine at room temperature.

My Mom's NOTES: The filling (without the streusel topping) can be frozen: Line 9” pie pan with heavy foil and put in peach mixture. Fold over and seal the foil. Put into a zip lock bag (gallon size) and freeze. When ready to bake, continue as above, putting frozen pie filling into an unbaked pie shell brushed with egg white as above. You can do the same thing with the apple pie filling. You may have to bake either pie with frozen filling 10 minutes or so longer.

Sum-sum-summertime

There are few things more summery, if we are talking enjoyment, than a picnic. I'm not really a summer lover, far preferring fall's vivid hues and cooler days, but summer does have a wonderful variety of fruits and vegetables to play with. Picnics can be thrown together with some string cheese or other cheeses, crackers and baguette slices, carrots and red pepper slices and celery sticks and zucchini sticks for veggies, plus bunches of ripe grapes, succulent sweet strawberries, blueberries to eat by the handful and cool, crunch slices of juicy watermelon...seed spitting is optional.

This is also the season of one of my favorite fruits, peaches.

This week my local market had ripe white peaches for a reasonable price...irresistible. For a backyard picnic at a relative's (Happy 5th Anniversary A&J!) my contribution was a basket of these cute four inch individual peach pies. They went fast!

The dough is easy and handles well. It is one I found on Peabody's new blog, Northwest Noshings. Do visit it if you haven't already. She gives a delicious glimpse of some of the iconic foods of the Northwest area of the U.S. and places to eat them. She used this dough for the crust of a yummy Salmon Pie. Go there to get the pie dough recipe.

Now this dough isn't low calorie, but it is flaky and delicate and very tasty. Fresh, ripe, juicy white peaches are a real treat but the pastry was just as much of a treat to eat. Together they were magical! I even added a sprinkle of crystal sugar to the finished little pies for sparkle and crunch. You could also make these little pies with yellow peaches, plums, cherries, blueberries, blackberries...you get the idea.

It was fairly warm in the kitchen as I worked, so I returned the dough to the 'fridge often to keep it cool enough to roll and cut and handle. The crimping of the edges after they were sealed was done with a regular dinner fork.

If you make these, be prepared for them to be the favorite dessert at your picnic...they even aced out the brownies I made (which I'll blog about later) and they went well with watermelon wedges, too. Make the dough at least an hour before you bake the pies to give it a change to chill thoroughly.

Individual White Peach Pies with Peabody's Crust

1 recipe Cream Cheese Pie Dough from Northwest Noshings (see above for link), chilled

4 medium peaches, peeled, pitted and diced

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon freshly grated (if possible) nutmeg

1 tablespoon sugar (or more to taste)

2 teaspoons half and half or cream

About 2 tablespoons crystal sugar

On lightly flour surface, using a lightly floured rolling pin, roll out half of the pie dough. The dough might be sticky, so flip it over about half way through rolling and sprinkle on a little more flour if needed. Using a 4 inch cutter or small plate, cut 12 discs of dough. Place them, with at least an inch of space between the discs, on a baking sheet lined with a silicone mat or parchment paper.

Mix the peaches, flour, nutmeg, and sugar together to blend, mixing gently so as not to bruise the peaches. Place about a tablespoon of the mixture int he middle of each dough disc, mounding it a bit int he center. (See photo below for approximate amount.) Run a moistened finger around the edge of the dough disc up to the mound of peaches. Chill while rolling out the rest of the dough.

Roll out the remainder of the dough and cut 12 more discs, re-rolling the scraps as necessary.

Place a disc on top of the mound of peaches and seal edges of dough disc to bottom dough disc. Flute with dinner knife tines to seal. Repeat until all twelve mini pies have been made and sealed.

Brush top of each pie lightly with half and half or cream and sprinkle lightly with crystal sugar (optional).

Bake in a preheated 400 degree F. oven for about 20 minutes, reversing pans top to bottom and front to back about half way through baking. Pies should be golden brown. Remove from oven and let sit 5 minutes. Transfer to wire cooling rack to cool. Serve warm or cold.

Peabody's Cream Cheese Pie Crust 2 cups all-purpose flour 8 ounce cream cheese, softened but still cool 2 sticks(8 ounces) unsalted butter, softened but still cool
In a mixer, combine all ingredients and mix on medium-low until it forms a dough. Wrap in plastic wrap and place in fridge for 30 minutes.

Serving size - one per person.