I’m struggling with this introduction. I haven’t had a new post for some time, and I’ll be honest. It’s been an insomnia issue. It sucks all the creativity right out of me. I’m sitting here in a sort of glazed fog trying desperately to cling onto something witty regarding the word peach and how versatile it is. Peaches just have this adorable, plump, perfect connotation that go with them. I want to be surrounded by them always; bathe in their glory.
Anyway, my dramatic imagination aside, peaches are all up in my life these days. They are crazy cheap at the store, and with my sister in town, we decided to bake. I ran to the store for dinner fixings and stopped to pick 10 peaches for our pies. Sadly, none of them were that really bruised ripe consistency you want for a pie. So I just picked the softest I could find and called it a day. We put them in a brown paper bag, said a tiny prayer, and hoped that the next day they’d be ripe enough for us. They were not.
We went back to the store and bought new bruised peaches. And thus, my days of peaches was born. We only used about 6 peaches for the pies, which left me with about 10. And the problem here for me, is that I never quite get to all the fresh fruit I buy. I love the concept of it. Healthy, natural carbs. Clean food. But it just doesn’t happen. I’m not meant to eat fresh fruit every day. I just don’t roll that way. So 10 peaches is a daunting task. But I also hate waste, so challenge accepted.
We set to work on the pies. Well, my sister set to work. I kind of danced around the kitchen drinking iced coffee and eating ice cream while she did everything. She kind of went for it, zeroed in on the task at hand, and I let her run wild. She made 2 different crusts, experimenting with butter in the second one. I’ve posted our family’s crust recipe on here before, so you can back track to find it if you’re curious. The buttered one rolled out a lot easier, for obvious reasons. The butter greased it up real nice. But the fact that she made 2 batches of crust completely blew my mind. I always split the one I make, but this seemed so much easier. The rolling process was simple, with much less cursing, and the crust was thick and easy to manipulate.
It was interesting to see how we do things differently. It’s the same recipe, with such few ingredients, but I have a very specific way of making my crust, whereas my sister does it differently. I won’t get all new age on you, but I think it has to do with your hands and your energy. The dough comes together differently for both of us. That’s kind of neat.
Anyways, it was time to make the filling. We half remembered/ have looked up on the internet, that the best way to peel the peaches was to blanch them. You cut a soft ‘x’ into the bottom of each and put them into boiling water for 2 minutes.
Then transfer them to an ice bath so they stop cooking. The skin becomes so soft that you can easily peel it off with your fingers. It’s incredible and a trick I wish I had known about last summer when I was cursing peaches as I peeled them. You just have to be sure that the peaches are ripe. We did an experiment with one of the harder ones I had bought, and it didn’t take. So make sure your fruit is bruised and ready to roll.
After that it was all slicing, adding sugar, cornstarch and flour. I think she used a 1/4 c of each. I really like to have a heavy hand when it comes to cornstarch. I enjoy my pie fillings to be more gelatinous than runny, but these came out just fine. Oh and a pinch of cardamom. Steph loves the cardamom and it has totally rubbed off on me.
And then the top! Steph had just recently created a crumble that she fell in love with and that I was super curious about. It consists of oats, brown sugar, and almonds. Am I missing anything here Steph? It’s a nice change to a traditional crust on top. It adds some crunch, with a subtle sweetness. I just wonder if those flavors would be enhanced if they were toasted first. Or perhaps, at the very end of the baking process, to place the pie under a broiler for a few minutes. I bet if that brown sugar melted a bit and those almonds toasted, there would be a mouth explosion involved.
I digress. The pies went into the oven for about an hour and 20 minutes. When I asked my sister how long we should put them in for, my fingers hovering patiently over our timer, she looked at me and simply said “Oh I don’t know. We’ll smell them.” I didn’t quite know how to react to that. I rely deeply on timers. Never for an exact science, but more as a reminder. Like, ‘oh hey, don’t forget there’s something in your oven that needs attention from time to time.’ It also helps me keep track of how long it’s been in there.
These pies were a delight. Not too sweet, but the peaches really shined. Great flavor. Then I had to say goodbye to my sister and Wes, sadly. And say hello to 10 fu@king peaches and what to do with them before they go bad. So this is what happened.
I made peach and goat cheese salads for lunch all week. Super simple. With almonds and aged balsamic vinegar. Added grilled chicken would have made this spectacular. Noted for next time.
I grilled peaches and put them over ice cream. Thanks for this suggestion Steph! Super delicious. Grilling them really caramelizes the exposed parts and mmm. I want more, smothered all over my face.
And somehow, these peaches rolled over into this week, where I made a peach and tomato salad to be paired with chicken and to be eaten before I head to the gym in the early evenings. There will be more on that in my next post, which revolves around cilantro!
All in all, I only had to throw out 1 peach. That my friends, is a victory.
Roaring Tiger 