Peach Crumble Pie

My father is a fruit eater, and he has a particular weakness for peaches. When he was a child his mom would buy bushels of peaches and can them. Her family would eat the peaches throughout the year, and my father would take some to school for lunch everyday. He ate a lamb sandwich with homemade bread, canned peaches, and a homemade cinnamon roll for lunch every school day. Yum!

The farmers market near my work has fresh, ripe peaches now. They’re delicious, but organic, farm fresh peaches come with a steep price in DC. Nonetheless, I buy a few every week to snack on. I am in a peach state of mind, so I decided to make a peach pie. The peach pie-filling recipe came from taste of home.

The filling required ¾ cup of white sugar, 6 medium size peaches, 3 tablespoons cornstarch, ½ teaspoon of cinnamon, 1/8 teaspoon salt, 1/8 teaspoon lemon zest, and 2 teaspoons lemon juice. In addition you’ll need piecrust for one layer and the crumble ingredients for the top layer. The crumble ingredients are ½ cup white sugar, ½ cup packed brown sugar, 1 cup flour, and ½ cup butter.

I combined 6 medium size peaches and ¾ cup white sugar. I allowed peaches to drain while preparing the crumble and rolling out piecrust. The peaches should drain for around an hour.

Pull the piecrust out of the fridge while preparing the crumble. I mixed the sugars and flour together before adding in the cold cubed butter.

I combined the sugary flour and butter together with my hands but you could use a food processor or a pastry cutter. I put the crumble in the fridge while finishing the rest of the pie because I didn’t want the butter to melt.

It took a few minutes for the crust to become malleable enough to roll out.

I rolled out the crust using the pie pan as a guide for the required diameter. Once it was large enough, I folded it and placed it in the pan. I had to do a little dough maneuvering to make sure the edges were uniform. I put the crust into the fridge to stay cool while finishing the peach filling.

I added the cornstarch, cinnamon, salt, and draining peach juice to a saucepan. I whisked the peach sauce well before heating up the mixture to medium high heat. I boiled the sauce until it was thick. The original recipe suggested boiling the sauce for two minutes.

Once thick, I removed the pan from the heat. I added the lemon zest and juice to the peaches.

I then added the thick, caramel peach sauce and stirred to combine.  Doesn't that peach sauce look amazing!

I removed the piecrust from the fridge and added the peach filling.

I toped the peaches with the crumble. It seemed like too much, but I kept on adding.

I took the pie to a party, so I don’t have a picture of the inside. I brought my camera to take a picture, but in the midst of the festivities, I forgot to take it out. The inside was beautiful though. The crust was flavorful and crisp. The filling was superb. It wasn’t overly sweet, and the peaches were soft but not mushy. I wasn’t crazy about the crumble. If you make this, use a different crumble recipe. A crumble with a little more texture in the form of oats would be excellent.