easy peach pie

Some times when I have things I need to do that feel a touch overwhelming like oh say, planning my daughter’s wedding (yikes! yes! coming soon!) or launching a podcast (yikes! yes! coming soon!), I find something easy to do.

The easy thing for me was to sit and watch more of The Great British Bake Off. I am totally addicted. I love Paul and Mary. And I wanted to buy Martha’s new cook book Twist but then realized I would have to wait til June of 2017 or head over to Amazon’s UK site and I just wasn’t sure about the whole conversion thing. So …. that lead to perusing one of my favorite cook books here at home which lead to making up a batch of peach hand pies.  

Delicate. Lovely. Homey. But in all honesty, a little too much pastry and not enough peaches. So I decided to make my own thing. Maybe you are thinking to yourself, making pie is complicated. Oh but it’s not. I promise. Making a simple peach pie is nothing like being on The Great British Bake Off. Not at all.

Here’s what I mean … look at this easy little recipe.

Easy Individual Peach Pies

4 peaches * 1/2 cup peach preserves

Peel and dice peaches. Stir in peach preserves. Spoon peach mixture into small baking dishes and line the top with pastry dough. Brush on egg wash if desired. Sprinkle with sugar. Bake at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes.

The fantastic thing about these is you make them as desired. One at a time, three in a row. Whatever. Like cookie dough sitting in the fridge. Peach Pie on demand. Yes.

For any pie, you just gotta use homemade pastry not that stuff at the back of grocery store freezer section. The pastry is my favorite part. Here’s the recipe I used:

Single Crust Pastry (adapted from this King Arthur Classic Single Crust recipe)

1 1/2 cups pastry flour * 1 teaspoon salt * 3 tablespoons shortening * 6 tablespoons butter, cubed several times * 4 – 5 tablespoons ice water

Whisk together flour and salt. Add shortening, working it in with your hands til even and crumbly. Add butter, working in with your hands but leave uneven chunks. Add 2 tablespoons of water, toss to combine.  Add more water until you see the dough barely holds together. Dump the dough on wax paper and fold the dough over itself a couple times until flour is incorporated. If the dough seems dry, sprinkle ice water in-between. Shape into disc about 1″ thick, cover entirely in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. When ready to roll, allow to sit rest outside fridge for about 10 minutes to allow butter to soften. When rolling, you’ll need additional flour to keep from sticking.

Now is the time to try this recipe while those sweet summer peaches are still in season.

Happy baking!