When I inhaled the aroma of perfect summer peaches at the local market last week, I knew I had to bake this Deep-dish Peach Pie in honor of my mother-in-law Solveig (Solie) Johnson. She baked the best pies.
On one of my early trips to the Pacific Northwest as a young bride, Solie introduced me to Tacoma Boys, a fruit and vegetable stand that specialized in seasonal produce from Washington’s fertile Puyallup Valley. There she would buy flats of berries, fruit and vegetables to fill her vast canning and baking needs. On that occasion, a flat of peaches caught her attention. “For pies,” she said. As a then novice baker for whom baking one pie was a challenge, it seemed like too many peaches for a pie.
But later that day I was awestruck as Solie transformed those gorgeous peaches into pies. Solie did not follow a recipe. She worked from years of muscle memory and quickly assembled enough sweet pie dough for three deep-dish peach pies and transformed the raw peaches into filling. When I asked why she baked extra pies, Solie said it was just as easy to bake several pans at once than just one. Solie always prepared extras for freezing, knowing she would have something on hand for Sunday dinners with the extended Johnson-Tayet clan, visits of drop-in guests and for delivery to shut-in friends.
Three large freezers, guarding the entrance to the house just inside the attached garage, were her culinary Fort Knox, storing the product of her labor. One freezer, Solie told me, stored extra fish that my father-in-law Walt caught on Puget Sound, cleaned and prepared for cooking. Another freezer contained assorted casseroles, weeknight meals and extra butter, margarine, shortening and other perishable ingredients. The final freezer was filled with an assortment of family-favorite cookies some Norwegian and some not, loaves of cardamom bread, pans of cinnamon rolls, lefse and pies. Her stashed, frozen assortment of pies, Walt’s favorite dessert, was impressive: blueberry, blackberry, rhubarb, rhubarb-strawberry, apple, peach and many more that I do not now recall. Some were baked, others were ready to bake, but all were tightly wrapped and marked, ready to be baked or reheated in time for dinner.
Over the years, I had other occasions to watch Solie bake pies, but unfortunately, I was not wise enough to take notes nor ask Solie for recipes, although I doubt, she had written versions. So, to replicate those special peach pies, I reconstructed this Deep-dish Peach Pie from memory and trial and error.
A ripe, golden peach is nature’s perfection. In many ways, this is a simple pie that highlights, not alters, the special flavor of freshly picked summer peaches. The pie shell is French pâte sucrée, a sweet shortcrust dough subtly flavored with ginger. This dough for the pie shell and lattice top is buttery, sweet and crumbly, but holds its shape and browns nicely when filled with fresh juicy peaches.
In assembling the filling I followed Solie’s approach of simpler is better– just sliced peaches, assorted sugars and a squeeze of lemon juice to prevent the peaches from darkening. As peaches are close botanical relatives of almonds, also a stone fruit, I enhanced the filling flavor with a bit of almond extract. To have a clear, not cloudy filling, I relied on Clear Jel, a modified corn starch used by commercial bakers in lieu of the all-purpose flour and corn starch that Solie customarily used as a thickener.
I am not sure I achieved Solie’s peach pie perfection, but Weldon, who tasted several versions, says this deep-dish peach pie is “darn good” and brings back lost memories of his childhood. Its intense peach flavor, fragrance and glowing, sunny appearance capture the essence of summer. It is delicious as baked and positively decadent with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. A slice makes any occasion special.
Deep-dish Peach Pie
For the crust:
1.05 ounces (30 g) candied ginger, finely minced
2.62 ounces (100 g) granulated sugar
6 ounces (169.5 g) room temperature butter cut in 1-inch (2.5 cm) cubes
10.5 ounces (300 g) all-purpose flour
1 large egg
For the filling:
3 ½-4 pounds (1588-1814 g) fresh peach slices (about 10 peeled*)
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
½ cup packed light brown sugar
Pinch of salt
½ teaspoon almond extract
½ cup + 1 tablespoon Clear Jel Cooktype **
¼ cup granulated sugar
For egg wash:
1 egg, beaten
1 tablespoon water
2 tablespoons Demerara or turbinado sugar*** (or use regular or coarse granulated sugar)
Preparing crust: Combine candied ginger and sugar in the food processor bowl and process until ginger is pulverized. Add butter and pulse 15 times until sugar is no longer visible. Add flour and salt and pulse again 15 times until butter is in pea-sized pieces. Add egg and pulse 8 times until crumbly clumps form (do not let the dough mass on the blade). The dough is ready when it holds together when pinched between fingers.
Empty dough into large plastic bag and press to form a flat disk. Remove disk from plastic bag and divide the disk into ⅔ and ⅓ pieces. Place each piece on a large sheet of plastic wrap and knead dough a few times until smooth. Place each piece into a separate plastic bag and form into a 6-inch flat disk. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour or overnight.
When ready to bake, remove the ⅔ disk from its plastic bag and place it on a large, well-floured sheet of plastic wrap. (You may need 2 pieces of plastic. I roll the dough between two sheets of plastic wrap to prevent sticking to surface and for easier moving of dough to pan.) Cover disk with another plastic wrap sheet(s) and roll out the ⅔ disk to a 14-inch round, slightly thicker than ⅛ inch. Remove the top layer of plastic wrap, turn over and ease dough without stretching into a deep 10-inch glass pie plate. Remove remaining layer of plastic wrap. Trim dough to a ½ inch overhand and refrigerate while preparing filling.
Preparing filling and assembling pie: Peel peaches as shown in attached instructions.* Pit and slice peaches in ½ inch (1.27 cm) slices. In a large bowl, toss the sliced peaches gently with lemon juice, brown sugar and salt.
Transfer peaches to a colander and set over a bowl to macerate for 30 minutes to exude juice. (About 1 cup of juice will be released.) Drain juices into a small saucepan and cook on medium heat until reduced to ⅓ cup and slightly caramelized. Keep warm.
In a small bowl, combine sugar and Clear Jel. Whisk until no lumps are visible. Toss with peaches until traces of Clear Jel disappear. Add almond extract. Transfer peaches into pie shell and even out the surface. Pour reduced juices over the filling. Refrigerate while preparing lattice.
On a well-floured, plastic wrap covered work surface, roll out remaining disk of dough to a 12-inch round, slightly thicker than ⅛ inch. Cut out one-inch wide strips of dough with a pastry cutter. Remove pie from refrigerator and quickly weave lattice atop the peaches, draping the ends of the lattice over the sides of the pie dish. Trim the overhanging dough to ½ inch. Tuck overhanging edges under dough around the circumference of the pie dish and crimp decoratively.
Whisk remaining egg and water. Brush on the lattice and crimped edges of pie. Sprinkle with coarse sugar. Refrigerate pie while the oven is pre-heating.
Baking pie: Center oven rack and preheat oven to 425°F (218°C). Set pie on a parchment-lined baking sheet and bake in the center of oven for 20 minutes. Cover pie edges with a strip of aluminum foil. Reduce oven temperature to 350°F (180°C) and continue baking for about 1-1½ hours or until the crust is golden on the bottom and the fruit bubbles in the middle. Transfer pie to a rack and let cool to room temperature. (Clear Jel does not begin thickening until pie juices start to cool.) To assure a firm pie, refrigerate for 4 hours or preferably overnight.
Cut into wedges and serve with or without ice cream, whipped cream or sour cream. To warm a slice of pie, reheat for 1 minute at full power in the microwave.
Serves 10-12, one 10-inch pie
*How to peel peaches from thekitchn.com.
Bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil. Cut an X in the blossom end of each peach.
Place peaches, just a few at a time (so as not to crowd the pot), into the water and leave them there for 30 seconds, even if the water stops boiling.
Using a slotted spoon, remove peaches and immediately place them in an ice-water bath to stop residual heat from cooking the peaches. Wait a few seconds, then take the peaches out of the ice water.
Gently rub the skin and peel it off; it should come away from the flesh with minimal effort.
Peeled peaches
** Clear Jel, a modified corn starch used by commercial bakeries for fruit pies, can be purchased online. I use Hoosier Hill Farm Clear Jel Powder Cooktype which requires heat to trigger jelling and works best for pie filling made with uncooked fruit. Please take note that another version of this thickener, Clear Jel Instant does not require heat and jells on contact with liquid but works best with cooked fruit fillings.
**** Demerara and Turbinado sugars, available online from Bob’s Red Mill, are both made from raw evaporated sugar cane juice. Both sugars, available in large, amber-colored crystals of evaporated cane juice, have a crunchy texture with a slight molasses flavor. Demerara crystals are darker than those of Turbinado, but both are considered superb for topping pastry
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