Summer of '25 Peach Pie, & problem analysis

 

Peach Pie

Bubby asked very nicely why we haven't had pie, specifically Peach Pie, this Summer.  I know the feeling, the Summer of 2025 was difficult and disappointing in several ways for us and we didn't get to do a lot of our usual activities.  Over the past few years we've had summer get togethers with the extended family and I've usually brought pie.  When I spotted some beautiful organic peaches at just the right ripeness at Trader Joe's, I knew it was time to make that pie Bubby had been wanting!

Lovely peaches in my vintage Jadeite bowl

I've used this recipe from Sally's Baking before. I was confident that aside from the work involved in following all the steps it would be pretty straightforward to make the pie. How silly of me!

The plan was to make the pie crust on Tuesday to let it sit in the fridge overnight, make the pie on Wednesday, and enjoy it on Thursday evening.

I used this recipe also from Sally's Baking for a butter pie crust.  Since I've been annoyed by crusts "cracking" while being rolled out, I decided to see what happened if I added more water.  So I added 1 (or maybe two?) extra tablespoons of water in addition to the 1/2 cup the recipe calls for.  All this in spite of the humid weather!

I purchased 10 medium-sized peaches from TJ's but after peeling them I realized I was short on peaches for the filling. Luckily we also had 3 large peaches in the refrigerator that had been bought for snacking purposes.  The large peaches were pretty firm and had tinges of green on the top, so I was afraid they would be bitter.  But instead, when I taste tested to compare, these under-ripe peaches were far better than the Trader Joe's peaches!  With these three peaches I ended up having exactly the right amount I needed for the filling. 

It's not in the recipe but based on my notes from previous times making the recipe I added 1 tsp of vanilla, 1/4 tsp of almond extract, and a dash of nutmeg to the filling. 

When I took the crust out of the refrigerator to roll it out, I was surprised by how tender it was.  When flouring the counter, I used flour a bit more liberally than usual because I noticed more butter than usual sticking to the rolling pin.  I rolled out the bottom crust and had a bit of trouble arranging it just so on the pie plate, had to take it out and ended up having more success centering it by folding it in half and then in half again than in transferring it on the rolling pin like I usually do because the rolled out crust kept slipping all over the place. 

For the top crust, I wanted to try a wider lattice because I like the look of lattice crusts with wide strips that I've seen online.  So instead of the usual 1-inch strips, I measured out six 2-inch strips with a ruler. 

When arranging the lattice, this created some problems because there just didn't seem to be enough strips to position nicely. The center strip was too long, and the end strips were too short.  The top crust ended up looking like a mess, so much so that I cut out three little pie crust hearts to cover up patchy spots.  In truth, I didn't bother to read the instructions on the recipe which called for trimming extra overhanging dough, folding it over and crimping it with a fork.  Instead I just rolled everything down and pressed the pie crust edge with my thumb and finger into the usual "wave" pattern.

Pie crust hearts covering up imperfections

The recipe calls for baking the pie at 425F for 20 minutes then turning down the oven temperature to 350F for another 45-50 minutes.  After 50 minutes however, the pie was underdone, the crust wasn't browned and the juices weren't bubbling.  It took an additional 15-20 minutes until the internal temperature reached 200F, which is what the recipe says to look for, and til the crust looked done.

When we cut into the pie, I immediately noticed the crust was underdone.  The lattice was underdone, the edge was underdone, and the bottom was underdone. I just could not believe it, after so long in the oven!

What happened?  I can think of several problems here:  

1. The 2-inch lattice creates several large-ish areas where the strips overlap and is a pretty thick spot of crust.  It's hard for that to cook all the way through. 
2. The crust rolled out so easily, due to the generously-floured counter and how tender it was, that I didn't need to roll it out as much as usual to get to a 12-inch disc. As a result of not having to "stretch" the crust to reach the width I needed, the edges of the crust were thicker than usual. 
3. Between folding down the crust on the edges instead of cutting it, and joining those thick strips to that, it made for quite a thick edge which also could not cook through. 
4. I'd placed a pretty wide aluminum-foil pie crust shield at the 20-minute mark because I noticed that the crust on the very middle of the pie browned immediately.  This makes sense, because it was the tallest spot on the pie.  But fearing the edges would burn, I covered up not just the edges but too much of the top crust.  
5. About 40 minutes in, again afraid the entire pie would get too brown and hoping to speed up the baking, I covered up the entire pie with foil.  So, this likely created a "steam" effect that made the crust soft and the filling mealy.  
6. And finally, let's not forget those extra tablespoons of water when I made the crust and how tender the crust seemed even coming out of the fridge.  This likely prevented the crust from reaching its potential for flakiness.

Very pale crust at one o'clock and seven o'clock

In addition to the crust problems, the filling was not the best either. The peaches themselves were very tasty, but the filling was kind of mealy with blobs of cooked flour & juices. So that was a strange thing to have and kind of an unpleasant mouth feel.  Although I diced the ginger quite finely, there were some pieces of undercooked ginger that were also unpleasant to bite into. There were small chunks of butter that hadn't melted into the filling, too.  I think dotting the pie with two entire tablespoons of butter is too much.  The filling overall tasted kind of bland and I think instead of ginger there should be something else to add to give it more "zing".

Here is what I would like to do differently next time:

1. Bake the pie on a lower rack. This pie was dead center in the oven.
2. Add less water to the crust.
3. Roll out the edges of the crust more finely.
4. Use 1.5 inch strips instead of 2-inch, maybe have 8 instead of 6 strips. 
5. Trim the edges of the crust before joining them.
6. Press down the edges of the crust with a fork, as is called for in the recipe.
7. Use a narrower pie shield.
8. Don't cover the entire pie with a shield so soon into the baking process.
9. Make sure juices are bubbling in the middle and not just along the edges.
10. Leave the pie in the oven longer if needed for the entire crust to look brown. Even if it takes more than the additional 20 minutes this pie took!
11. Use less flour in the filling or use cornstarch.
12. Use 1 tablespoon of butter to dot the filling instead of 2 tablespoons.
13. Use a mixture of brown sugar and white sugar and perhaps a bit of extra sugar to enhance the taste.
14. Consider using additional almond extract.
15. Consider using bourbon, if available.

I've used this recipe before and from what I recall once it was underdone but I thought that wouldn't be a problem if I just looked for the juices bubbling.  I just don't remember having these problems with the crust, but of course I'd had to stretch it further while rolling, and I'd used a 1-inch lattice yielding 12 strips.

These irksome problems aside, it was still fun to cap off our summer with this Peach Pie.  We had an end-of-summer dinner on our new patio table with turkey burgers, arugula and endive salad, tomatoes with basil, and baked potatoes.  My guys enjoyed their servings of peach pie and, even though I know I can do better next time, nobody complained.  On the contrary!

Sorry to see Summer go... how it flew by is my main complaint!