You had to know this was coming. How could I peel, slice, and freeze all of those peaches without making a pie? And I don’t even like peach pie! But when I think of a quintissential summer dessert, peach pie is what I think of. Bright, summery, fresh and perfectly sweet. Plus making pies is fun!

This pie is almost as simple as the blueberry pie I made a few weeks ago. The hardest part is peeling and slicing the peaches. I used my new favorite all-butter crust, which produces a delicious flaky crust (and better yet, can be made in your stand mixer). I had such great luck with my last Williams Sonoma pie, so I went ahead and used their recipe for the peach filling for this pie. That turned out to be a great idea, because the flavor is perfect! I mentioned that I don’t like peach pie, but it has nothing to do with the taste (which I love). It’s a texture thing – I’m just not a fan of cooked peaches. I still managed to eat a piece of this one though, just for testing purposes 🙂 Plus I ate enough of the peaches before I baked it that I was worried about my pie not being full enough! Mike loved this pie and rated it a 4. I think it’s safe to say that he’s totally on board with my new found love of baking pies.

Peach Pie

Ingredients:

2 rolled-out rounds of basic pie dough
6 cups peeled, pitted and sliced peaches (see this post for instructions)
2 Tbs. fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
2/3 cup sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
Pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
2 Tbs. unsalted butter

Directions:

Fold 1 dough round in half and carefully transfer to a 9-inch pie dish. Unfold and ease the round into the pan, without stretching it, and pat it firmly into the bottom and up the sides of the pan. Using kitchen scissors, trim the edge of the dough, leaving 3/4 inch of overhang. Set the dough-lined pan aside, along with the other dough round, in a cool place until ready to use.

To make the filling, place the peaches in a large bowl. Sprinkle with the lemon juice and toss to coat well. In a small bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, salt and nutmeg. Add to the peaches and toss to combine. Pile the fruit mixture into the pastry-lined pan and dot with bits of the butter.

Fold the reserved dough round in half and carefully position it over half of the filled pie. Unfold and trim the edge neatly, leaving 1 inch of overhang, then fold the edge of the top round under the edge of the bottom round and crimp the edges to seal. Using a small, sharp knife, cut an asterisk 4 to 5 inches across in the center of the top to allow steam to escape during baking.

Alternately, to create a lattice top, roll out the pastry for the top crust and cut it into strips about 3/4 inch wide. Use the longer strips across the center of the pie, and the shorter strips near the edge and weave the strips on top of the pie, starting in the center and working toward the edges.

Bake at 425°F for 25 minutes, then reduce the heat to 350°F and bake until the juices are bubbling and the top is browned, about 25 minutes more. Let cool before serving.

from Williams Sonoma

Every day for the past few weeks, as I took my lunchtime walk, I would walk past a lady selling peaches at a little roadside stand. I stopped and talked to her, learned that she owned the farm where they came from, checked the prices, and finally, one day remembered to bring some money on my walk. I was ready to buy some peaches. The only problem was that my place of employment is about 1/2 mile from the peach stand, which would seriously limit the amount of peaches I could buy. At least it should have. After I saw the huge half bushel basket of beautiful peaches, and heard that this was the last day she was going to be there, well….I just had to buy it. Yes, 1/2 bushel of peaches (approximately 25 lbs). Which I carried in 5 separate plastic bags 1/2 mile back to work. In 80 degree weather.  My shoulders have literally been sore for days thanks to those peaches! But I made it! And it was worth it. Just look at all those peaches!

Mike’s response was something along the lines of “Why in the world did you buy so many peaches??”  I’m guessing he’ll have a different attitude when he gets peach smoothies in the middle of winter.

My main goal for the peaches was to freeze them. We have smoothies every morning before work, and the thought of having fresh sweet summer peaches to put in our smoothies during the long winter months just makes me smile. So I researched, and googled, and asked around, and came up with a pretty good freezing method. I’ve had a few people ask me how I did it, so I figured I’d include some pictures, along with the general method I used in case anyone has been waiting for a peach freezing tutorial. It’s a little time consuming (ok, that was an understatement…towards the end of those 25 lbs I was pretty much a steady strem of complaints), but I think it will be totally worth it when I open up that bag of summer peaches in the middle of January!

I put captions with the pictures, and included full instructions at the bottom of the post. Let me know if you try it. Or if you freeze peaches another way, I’d love to hear about it! (p.s. sorry for the low quality pictures…my hands were seriously covered in peach goo, and it was not ideal for picture taking).

Boil the peaches for 20-40 seconds to loosen their skins and make them easier to peel.

Place the peaches in ice water to stop the cooking process.

Peel off the skins, discard the pits, and cut the peaches into slices

Spoon the peaches into ziploc bags and cover with a light syrup.

Freeze the peaches flat on cookie sheets. Once they’re frozen, you can stack them easily in the freezer.

How To Freeze Fresh Peaches
adapted from MLive

Start with peaches that are at the peak of ripeness, perfect for eating fresh. Create a light syrup by combining 7 cups of water and 2 cups of sugar. Heat over medium heat, stirring until sugar is dissolved. Let cool while you prepare the peaches. Alternately you could use white grape juice, apple juice, orange juice or peach juice instead of the light syrup.

Wash the peaches in cool water. Bring a pot of water to boil. Have a bowl of water with ice cubes beside the peaches. Put the peaches in boiling water for 20 to 40 seconds. Remove the peaches with a slotted spoon and immediately place them in ice water to stop the cooking process.

Using a small knife, slit the peach skins at the end and peel them off. Slice the peaches and discard the pits. Place sliced peaches in a large bowl.

After you have about 5 cups of peaches, pour 1/4 cup of lemon juice over the peaches or sprinkle 3 teaspoons of Fruit Fresh over them. Gently stir them with a wooden spoon so that all the fruit surfaces are covered.

Ladle peaches into freezer bags in amounts desired (I did about 2 cups of peaches per bag for smoothies). Pour enough syrup or juice over the fruit in the bag to completely cover it. Seal the bag, pushing out as much air as possible.

Lay the bags flat so that all fruit is covered by the liquid. Freeze flat on a cookie sheet. Once they’re frozen, you can stack them in the freezer.Thaw peaches by putting them out on the counter for a couple of hours or in the refrigerator overnight. Use immediately.

Of course I didn’t freeze all the peaches…. recipe coming soon!