Cream Peach Pie
My mother’s recipe and a forever summertime staple. This pie is my ode to peaches.
Cream Peach Pie perfection
There is something so special about peach season. For a brief moment at the height of summer, this stone fruit comes alive. Velvety skin with a subtle fragrance, dreamy August sunburst tones and perfectly juicy sweetness. Delicious alone, with freshly whipped cream, served savory or sweet… There are countless ways to savor a peach. But for me, this summertime staple is most at home when nestled into a flakey crust and bathed in a custardy filling. This is cream peach pie. And summer simply would not be summer without it.
I grew up waiting for peach season. For the day when we would stop by Erickson Farms on our way home from a day at the pool for a crate of these sunset gems. It was a simple farm stand with seasonal produce and I remember always picking a couple of honey sticks, that were strategically placed next to the registrar, to enjoy on the ride home. I don’t think you could pick your own peaches (I believe if you could, my mom would have been all over this) but I do know that the orchard spanned for acres and acres and though I am sure that they had more than just this singular fruit, the peaches are what I remember. What I inevitably crave each and every August.
The farm where my earliest stone fruit memories originated is now a subdevelopment and the peach trees, long gone, but their flavor and the memories they nourished will live in my heart forever.
A slice of August and summertime magic.
Once perfectly pie ripe, I would watch my mom as she made the pie dough and prepared the filling, learning all of my pie making techniques as I nibbled on the impossibly sweet morsels just as fast as she could cut them, waiting for the moment when I could lick the filling remnants from the bowl, a sugary, creamy, cinnamon-y delight. As I got older, I became obsessed with my own pie making skills, hoping to rival the pies of my grandmother whose crust was impossible to recreate. Today I am very proud to say that my gluten free crust is finally near the expert level of my grandmother’s, though I must confess that it took nearly a decade to get there. I have cried and sworn and actually thrown pie dough in endless fits of frustration as I attempted to develop a crust that was indistinguishable from a pie made with regular flour. But with my own gluten free flour mix and lots and lots of trial and far too many errors, I finally created a wildly perfect gluten free crust. A crust worthy of my favorite pie.
Cream peach pie is a perfectly simple dessert. The delicate custard quietly enhancing the flavor and texture of the peach, allowing it to be the absolute star of the show. Served room temp in the garden after dinner and cold for breakfast the following day… This pie is simply a perfect slice of summer. It is my ode to peaches. Xx
Cream Peach Pie
Makes one round 9” pie
Pâte Sucrée
Ingredients
1 stick cold butter
1 tablespoons sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 large egg
1 tablespoon lemon juice
Method
Combine the dry ingredients together in a mixing bowl. Add in cold butter a half inch cube at a time and cut into the flour mixture until a sandy texture is met with pea sized butter still remaining. In a small bowl, whisk egg and lemon together until frothy and pour into the flour and butter. Mix together quickly until just combined. Press flat on a large piece of wax paper, fold up tightly and refrigerate for at least an hour.
Allow to rest at room temperature and roll out into 1/4 inch thick circle. Place in pie tin and trim and shape edges. Place in the freezer for 15 minutes. Lay a piece of parchment paper over the frozen pie crust and fill with dried beans or pie weights. Blind bake at 350 for about 15 minutes, remove parchment and beans/pie weights and bake for another 10 minute until just barely golden. Allow to come to room temperature before beginning the cream peach filling.
Filling
Ingredients
4-5 large peaches - pealed and cut into decent sized slices
1 cup double/heavy cream
2/3 cups sugar
1/4 cup Odella Bakes gluten free flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla
Method
Preheat oven to 400ºF. Lay peach slices in the base of your pie crust, allowing to overlap and pile to the base of the pie crust crimp. Mix together cream, sugar, spices etc and pour over peach slices. Bake pie at 400º for 30 minutes, lower temperature to 350 and cover lightly with foil to keep edges from burning and cook for abut 30 minutes, until set and just barley jiggles when jostled side to side.
Allow to fully cool to room temperature before cutting (do not cut warm as the filling will not be set). Store in fridge.
