White Peach Pie

August and September are peach months. Late summer is also the season for wildfires in Montana (and most of the Western US.) And the laziest, warmest time of year for us. Right before school starts. When it seems like our summer hours compress and speed by faster each day.

So, smokey air. Sweet juicy peaches. Lazy afternoons. Thunderheads building in the blue, blue sky. Perfect time for a peach pie. Especially if you are having a cooler-than-normal day when you can have the oven on and not bake yourself out of the house!

I used white peaches for this pie because they were calling my name at the market this week. The scent of these peaches was far more powerful than that of the usual peaches. Or the nectarines. And they were ready to be cut as soon as I got them home. Mmmmm-mmm!

White Peach Pie

• Pie crust for top and bottom crust (see recipe here)
• 7 large white peaches (or regular peaches or nectarines)
• 1/3 cup sugar (or 1/4 cup maple syrup or honey)
• 1/3 cup flour
• juice of 1 lemon
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp cardamom

PREPARATION

1. Make your pie dough and chill while you put together the filling
2. Peel the peaches if you want to. I peeled half of them and left the peel on the other half. Slice. The slices don’t have to be perfect. Chunks are fine.
3. Sprinkle the lemon juice, flour, sugar and spices over the peaches and gently toss to coat the peaches. Set aside while you roll out the crust.
4. Roll out half of the chilled pie dough. Sprinkle a little flour in a glass pie plate, then place bottom crust into the plate. Pour in the peaches. They should totally fill the pie, mounding up a bit in the center. If you don’t have enough peaches at this point, slice up a couple more and just add them to the top of the filling. No need to stir the filling any more.
5. Roll out the other half of the pie dough. Follow the instructions here for a lattice crust, or just get that dang pie in the oven quick by skipping the whole weaving thing.
6. Gently place the top crust on the peach filling and trim the edges about 1″ all around. Don’t worry if you don’t have an inch of extra crust. Pie eaters are forgiving.
7. Pinch the edges or crimp with a fork.
8. Some people like to brush the top of the dough with beaten egg yolk. I just sprinkle a little raw sugar on top.
9. Cover the edges of the pie crust with 2 or 3 inch strips of aluminum foil to prevent them from burning or getting too brown.
10. Bake in oven for about an hour. If you are using a glass pie dish, you can lift it to see underneath, so you can tell if the bottom crust is done. When the middle is getting golden, you can take off the foil strips so your edges will also brown lightly.
11. Remove from oven when it’s done, and cool. Admire your pie. Admire your lattice if you were ambitious!
12. Serve with whipped cream, vanilla ice cream, or just like it is! Leftovers are delicious especially reheated a little.