Raspberry Peach Pie

To tell you the truth, R thinks I am totally crazy for all of this food blogging business. He doesn’t really understand the enjoyment I get from cooking/baking and sharing the results with the world. It’s ok – I don’t really get his obsession for hockey. To each, his/her own.

But sometimes, this distinction between me and R causes some strife. Take this pie, below, for example. R would have much preferred that I not bake this pie. Yes, he liked the pie – but I don’t think he likes it more than he hated the number of dirty dishes he ended up washing as a result of it. He would be just as content with a bag of Old Dutch chips (a Canadian name brand of chips/crisps) Unfortunately for R, I have many future baking plans in the work.

Like most of the recipes that I attempt, I got most of this pie recipe from the internet. Actually, this recipe is a compilation of three recipes.

First, is the dough. The dough is from Dorie Greenspan. You can see the full recipe copied out here. If you’d like a great tutorial, here’s Smitten Kitchen's post about making dough.

I made the 9-inch single crust. With all of the talk about not mixing dough too much and keeping everything very cold, I was nervous about screwing it up. I was careful to not blend too much.

I then put the dough in plastic wrap and left it in the fridge over night. Maybe I wasn’t supposed to do this because the dough was quite hard the next day. But I worked it a bit with my hands and it softened up a bit. Actually, by the time I was done with it, it was getting too soft. It’s easy to tell if it’s too soft because it basically starts to come apart in your hand or stick to everything.

Before I could finish setting the dough in the pan, I had to put in the fridge for 5 minutes so that it would stop coming apart on me.

Note: Dorie Greenspan gives instructions for partially baking the crust ahead of time. I didn’t do this.

I knew I wanted to use up some of the fruit that I had bought on the weekend. It’s nice to have fresh fruit (in contrast to the harder, less ripe stuff from the grocery store), but it does require quick usage. In particular, I wanted to use raspberries and peaches.

I searched around for a recipe and finally came upon Zoe Bakes' Raspberry Peach pie filling. I think she uses Dorie Greenspan’s dough recipe too. Check out her great tutorial on lattice tops. It’s something I’d like to try doing.

For the Filling:

8 ripe, but firm white or yellow peaches, washed and chopped with skins on. (You can also remove the skins (if desired) by blanching the peaches in boiling water for 30 seconds and then putting them in an ice bath. The skin should peel off.) – I used 5 ripe peaches.

1 pint raspberries (only a portion of the raspberries I used are visible in the picture, above)

1/2 lemon, juiced

1/4 cup brown sugar (depending on the sweetness of the fruit and your taste)

3 tablespoons cornstarch or potato starch

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

For the filling I chopped up the (at least) 5 white peaches. Toss them with a pint of raspberries and the lemon juice.

Combine the brown sugar with the cornstarch, salt and ground ginger in a small bowl. You want to mix all of these ingredients until they are well combined before sprinkling over the fruit. I ended up just mixing the latter ingredients with the fruit and lemon juice in a bowl and then adding it to the pie crust. (Not for any good reason - I just don't always read directions very closely)

Since I didn’t want a double layer of crust, I decided to top the cake off with a crumble layer. I decided to go with a crumble top recipe, found here.

Crumble Top

3/4 Cup Flour
1/2 Cup Brown Sugar
1/2 Cup Walnuts (optional – I didn’t add this)
1/2 Cup Oatmeal
1/2 Cup Butter (cold)
1/4 Teaspoon Salt

I just mixed the ingredients together with a fork and spread it evenly on top of the filling. Actually, I had too much crumble, so I only used about 2-3 of the crumble mixture for the pie.

I then put the pie in the oven at 350 F for about 45-50 minutes. You may need longer in your oven, mine is fast.

Verdict:

The pie was excellent. Between the colour, flavour, and texture, I think this was a success.

I’m submitting this pie to Joelen's Pie in my Eye Adventure.