Peaches, peaches, peaches. I love them…the way they taste, the way they smell, the fact that they are perfect, perfect symbol of summer.
However. They are NOT the easiest fruit in the world to work with when you are baking with them. You have to boil them for a few minutes in order to peel them, and then you have to deal with getting the dang peach pit out of the center. All the peaches I have ever met hang on to that pit for dear life, and so I usually end up spending a lot of quality time with my paring knife and peach juice running down my arm. So if I am going to go through all that (and who knows, maybe it is just me and the rest of the world only runs into well-behaved peaches), then whatever I am making better be worth it.
Ladies and gentlemen, please meet Peaches and Cream Pie, otherwise known as Worth It.
One of my other issues is usually with peach pies…actually with most fruit pies…and that is that while they are usually scrumptious, they are also, well, super-messy. All that lovely juice quadruples in volume in the oven, and when you cut into your gorgeous pie it kind of collapses on you into a delicious but soupy puddle of fruit and crust. Not that there is anything wrong with that, but just once I wanted to make a well-behaved pie. And here it is…and here’s the secret.
You still have to wrangle with the peaches – the peeling, the pitting, etc – but once you have your peaches peeled and pitted and cut in half, you lay them on a foil-lined cookie sheet and sprinkle them with some sugar, and then you bake them until they have caramelized and released some of that juice I was talking about. (And as an extra added bonus, you can also pre-bake your pie shell in the very same oven. Better and better!).
Then you slice up the caramelized peaches, drop them in your conveniently pre-baked pie-shell, and cover the whole thing with a custard mixture of eggs and cream and bake it until it is golden and wonderful and perfect. You can tell when people start wandering into the kitchen and lurking around near the oven. You then have to break the news that not only does it have to cool for about three hours, but you were actually planning to serve it AFTER dinner and not before.
Of course, you could make an exception, just this once.
Peaches and Cream Pie, from Cooks Country
Ingredients Directions
What if I want to have this FOR dinner? Cause if I made it…all self control would be out the window.
Wow, this looks like a perfect bite of summer! I definitely know what a pain it is to work with peaches – I recently posted about my troubles making a peach pie. So much work, but so worth it in the end!
Thank you very much for the new peach pie recipe!!
I'm a Georgia Peach myself, and LOVE peach pie. And I never even thought about the amount of prep work that was involved….because I usually use canned peaches. Shhhhhh! But I do go through all of that work to cut my apples! I sometimes make peach/apple pies. Does that count?! ^_^ But I've never seen a peach pie like this. With the custard I mean. I'll have to put it on my 'to do' list right away!
Sounds incredible. Don't they have both types of peaches in your part of the country- cling and non cling? The pits in non cling are super easy to deal with.
ohhhhhh yummmmm jan
This is literally making me gawp at the screen, I want a slice to bad! It sounds as if you have worked out all the little niggles that could come with make this and im so tempted to give it a go, if it turned out HALF as lovely as yours then i would be onnneee happy bunny
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Kate – a MUST try. I am in peach heaven these days … just picked up some more at the Montclair farmers market this morning. Can't get enough! I love the idea that you bake the peaches first so the crust doesn't "sog" – perfect!
i made your homemade ricotta, summer lasagna and peaches & cream pie for sunday dinner…everything was delicious and eaten.
thanks for your amazingly simple and delicious recipes that appeal to my whole family.
btw,i could bathe in your BLT salad dressing.
DI-VINE!
best.
Kel
Hi everyone, and thanks for all the sweet comments! And yes, peach heaven is the right way to describe it.