Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Peaches 'n Cream Pie

Michelle bought me some peaches last week and brought them over on Saturday. I was so excited to do a pie with the beautiful, fresh peaches! But one thing led to another and I wasn't able to get to the pie until today. Unfortunately, the peaches had become overripe and lots of the fruit had to be cut away, so I didn't have as much fruit as I expected.
But I was able to improvise. I didn't want to do a normal, double-crust peach pie anyway. I went over several possibilities in my mind before finally deciding on a pie with a cookie tart crust, a creamy custard layer, and a topping of glazed fresh peaches.

Peaches 'n Cream Pie

Crust:
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 tbsp. packed brown sugar
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 egg

Custard:
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup plus 1 tbsp. all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups milk
1 egg, beaten
3 tbsp. butter, cubed
1 tbsp. lemon juice

Topping:
2 cups chopped peaches (I would have like to do sliced, and have them arranged beautifully on the pie, but like I said they were overripe and didn't slice very well)
1-2 tsp. lemon juice
1/4 cup apricot jam

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Combine all the crust ingredients, and press into bottom and up sides of pie plate. Bake for 10-12 minutes, until lightly browned.

In a saucepan, combine sugar and flour; gradually stir in milk until smooth. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly; cook and stir for 1 minute. Remove from heat. Stir a small amount of the hot milk mixture into the egg; return all to pan, stirring constantly. Bring to a gentle boil; cook and stir for 1 minute. Remove from heat. Stir in butter and lemon juice.

Pour into cooled pie shell. Cover with plastic wrap to prevent a skin forming, and chill in refrigerator at least two hours.

After the custard has set, spoon peaches over the custard. If you've done sliced peaches, arrange them prettily over the custard. Use lemon juice as needed to prevent browning of peaches. Melt apricot jam in microwave, and spread over the peaches. Chill until set.
The verdict: This was a really delicious pie! I especially liked the custard layer. It was very creamy, and held its shape better than other from-scratch cream pies I've made. The peaches and custard complimented each other really well. Next time I might just do a normal rolled crust for this pie, because the crust I used here has a different texture, and sticks in the pan a bit. It took some work to get out a nice, unbroken piece for the pictures! But it all tasted great. And now that I think of it, I could always try to grease the pan, I suppose! :)
This pie could be made using other fruit and jam/jelly combinations. I borrowed the custard from a recipe that used strawberries and strawberry jelly. We thought it would be fun to try a Hawaiian variation with pineapple, banana, and coconut. And it would also work well with a crumb crust instead of pastry.

2 comments:

Hetal said...

Umm...lovely pie,so tempting.

Abby and Greg Christiansen said...

Looks amazing, I am going tohave to try it.