Peach Pie for a Friend

This is for you, It's About The Story, I saw your comment and I will tell you how to make the peach pie, but I didn't measure things. But you can still go get some of those Brigham City peaches and make something awesome!

Peach Pie
Prepare enough pie crust dough for a 9-inch deep dish pie crust. Roll out the two crusts between sheets of plastic wrap. Keep them well-chilled while rolling by placing them in the freezer for a couple of minutes if the butter starts to melt. Place a bottom crust in a 9-inch deep dish pie pan, and place in the freezer to chill for at least 30 minutes, or until the filling is ready. Keep the rolled second crust in between the plastic wrap and chill in the freezer until the filling is ready.

To prepare the filling: Take about 8 peaches, and poach them, 2 or 3 at a time, in boiling water for about 30 seconds each, then immediately place in cold water. This will help the peels come off. When they are all poached and in the cold water, start slipping the skins off, they should come off pretty easily, but if they don't, just peel them with a knife. Cut the flesh into slices, not too thin, maybe 6-8 slices/peach. Place the slices in a nice big bowl, and sprinkle the juice of one lemon over them. Then sprinkle about 1/2 cup of sugar over them and the spices of your choice. Spices are optional, actually. I think peaches can really stand on their own. But I did about 2 tsp. cinnamon and 1 tsp. ginger, and I couldn't even taste the ginger. So if I was going to go for a peach ginger pie, the way I want to sometime, I would add only ginger, and I would probably use either fresh minced or crystalized ginger. Anyway, stir the sugar and spices through the peaches, and let it sit. It will become juicy and soupy as the sugar pulls fluid out of the peaches. After about 30 minutes, drain as much as you can of the juicy stuff into a small saucepan. Bring the juice to a boil, turn the heat down and let simmer gently. Swirl the pan occasionally to keep it from burning. The juices should become darker and reduce quite a bit. While it is simmering, measure about 1 Tbsp of cornstarch into the peaches and gently mix it in to make sure that there are no clumps and it is well distributed. When the juice has reduced by at least 1/3, take it off the heat and pour over the peaches and stir it in gently.

Now assemble the pie: Take the crusts out of the freezer a few minutes before assembly so that they can warm up enough to not break when you try to work with them. Pour the filling into the bottom crust. Trim the bottom crust to have a 1/2 inch overhang over the edge of the pan. Gently place the top crust on top and press the two together slightly to keep the top from shifting. Trim the top crust to a 1 inch overhang. Now fold the top underneath the bottom, and crimp the edges to seal the two crusts tightly together. Cut slits in the top, make them wide enough that when the juices bubble up they won't seal the slits closed.

Cover the pie with plastic wrap and stick it back in the freezer again. At this point you can leave it in the freezer for a while, even for weeks if you've wrapped it really well. About 30 minutes before you want to bake it, begin preheating the oven to 450 degrees F. When the oven is preheated, take the pie out of the freezer and take off the plastic. Place the pie on the bottom rack of the oven, and bake for about 50 minutes. You should be able to hear the filling bubbling, and the crust should be dark brown. You will probably want to cover the edges of the crust after 30 minutes of baking to make sure they don't burn. If it looks like the top crust is getting too brown, you can cover the whole thing with a large foil tent. Cut nice big vents in it to let the steam out or the crust will get soggy. If you are nervous about putting a pie pan in the oven right after it has been in the freezer, you can use metal pans and they will do just fine, but it should be dark, dull metal, not shiny. And DO NOT use those cheap throw-away ones that come in packs of three. They cannot support a whole pie if you only holding the rim of the pan. But consider this, I have used good quality glass pans at least 5 times and moved a whole pie straight from the freezer to the hot oven and the pans have never broken from the extreme temperature change. I like using glass because then the bottom of the bottom crust can get brown and you can see it through the glass. That is actually the best way to tell if your pie is baked all the way.

Okay, so your pie crust is nice and brown, but not burnt, you can hear the filling bubbling away, and hopefully you can see that the bottom of the pie is nice and brown as well. So take it out of the oven and let it cool for at least 1 hour to let all the juices set up and thicken a little. It doesn't have to be cooled off all the way. Now cut it and eat it up!