Peaches and Cream

Anyone who's known me for the last four or five years probably knows that I've become obsessed with pies. I don't really know why. I've always liked pie ok...but I truly preferred other desserts. But for some reason in the last few years pie has become my favorite dessert. Particularly fruit pies which is also weird for me.

I think part of this obsession is from Phil. He loves pie too - any kind of pie and probably loves pie more than me. He really likes peach pie and since I was a bad wife this year and didn't make him a birthday cake (sorry honey) I decided to make a peach pie a few days later.

I have a wonderful book called Pie by Ken Haedrich (same guy who did one of my other favorite cookbooks, Apple Pie Perfect). There were several peach pies but one that caught my attention first was Peaches and Cream pie. The description says that it tastes like peach ice cream. I had to try it. Also it was the only peach recipe that said frozen peaches worked well in it. Since the fresh peaches at my grocery store didn't seem ripe enough - or overly ripe - I decided to use frozen.

So here's the recipe. I'll give my thoughts at the end.

Single Crust pie pastry (I make my own but you could use store bought)
2 1/2 - 3 cups peeled, pitted and sliced ripe peaches or one 1-lb bag frozen sliced peaches, partially thawed
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar, sifted
Big pinch of salt
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar

1. If you haven't already, prepare the pastry and refrigerate till firm enough to roll, about 1 hour.
2. Roll out the pastry into a 13" circle. Place the pastry in a 9 1/2" deep dish pie pan. Tuck the pastry into the pan, without stretching it and sculpt the edge so it is more or less flush with the top of the pan. Place in the freezer for 15 minutes. Preheat oven to 400F.
3. Distribute the peach slices evenly in the chilled shell. Combine the cream, confectioners' sugar, salt and vanilla in a medium-size bowl and whisk to blend. Slowly pour over the peaches. Use a fork, if necessary, to rearrange the peach slices evenly in the shell.
4. Place the pie on the center oven rack and bake for 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and reduce the temperature to 350. Sprinkle the brown sugar evenly over the pie, then return it to the oven, placing it so that the part that faced the back of the oven now faces forward. Bake until the filling is bubbly and the top is caramel-colored, 15-20 minutes. The filling will still be liquidy.
5. Transfer the pie to a wire rack and let cool thoroughly. Cover with loosely tented aluminum foil and refrigerate for at least 4 hours or overnight before serving.

My crust was, as usual (if I may say so myself), perfect. I didn't make a super flaky crust for this one but it was delicious. I thought the pie was quite tasty. But it was NOT attractive at all. I expected it to be creamier (given the fact that it's a peaches and CREAM pie) but it wasn't. It didn't taste quite like peach ice cream to me but it was better than a plain peach pie, as far I'm concerned. Of course, I have to turn to the peach pie expert - Phil. He gave it "two thumbs up" for sweet peachy flavor. He thought the cream part was good and off-set the peaches very well.

I also expected (from reading the recipe) that there would be a caramely layer on top from the brown sugar. Instead the brown sugar immediately started melting into the pie as I was sprinkling it on (duh). When it came out of the oven, there were brown blotches on the pie where the sugar had settled. So instead of looking like a caramelized layer on top, it looked like I had overcooked the pie (which I hadn't).

So I think the pie gets good points for flavor (let's say 5 - I'm making up the scale now) but 0-1 for appearance.