Baking Feature: Peach Pies

My sister and I took my nephew to Baugher’s farm/orchard in Westminster, MD where we picked our own peaches. I love the smell and taste of peaches and Jeff spent several years living in Georgia, so he has some fondness for them, as well. We don’t get them often even when we are in a big fruit kick because I do not like eating the fuzz and I don’t take the time to cut them up, and I guess Jeff just doesn’t think of it? I’m not sure why he doesn’t get them.

Whatever the reason, I got some while we were at the orchard and I needed to use them. I decided to make a peach pie, which would officially be the first pie I’ve ever made. I’ve heard stories from several people saying that making a pie crust is a pain and often doesn’t turn out, so I decided for my first pie to just buy a Pillsbury one and call it good. For the rest of the pie, I used a Crisco recipe out of a cookbook my sister had.

The book had a pie crust recipe in it that you were supposed to use, and it specified to skip baking the crust for any time before the pie is fully assembled, so I assumed that would be the same for my pie. It was not the same for my pie.

The Pillsbury crust definitely needed to bake a little as when I removed the pie from the oven, the filling was over baked and the crust was under baked. Harrumph.

We ended up throwing most of that pie away (though it looked SUPER cute with the little crust cutout shapes on it).

I was very upset at my complete failure at pie and was determined to try again, so Jeff and I returned to the orchard and got more peaches for take 2. Conveniently, the orchard had little recipe slips for a peach crumb pie, so I thought I’d try this one instead because they are really well known for all of their awesome baked goods.

Rather than a traditional crust, this one calls for a crumb mixture that you press into the pan to make a crust, and sprinkle on top of the filling for a topping. I liked this crumb mixture, but after eating some pie, I think it was too bland and I would take out some flour and add brown sugar to it. Also, when they say to butter the pan, they aren’t messing around; my pie doesn’t come out of the pan despite the buttering I gave it. It’s more of a peach cobbler crumble by the time you wrestle it onto a plate.

Overall, this pie turned out better than the first one, but it still isn’t very good. I’m starting to think that the main problem may be that I don’t actually like peach pie…

Immediately after taking a bite of the second pie, Jeff said “you should make it with blueberries.” I think I agree; the crumb part seems like it will work well with blueberries, but I would definitely sweeten it for that. I also think I would try the blueberry with the original pie recipe (with the Crisco crust) because I like the crumb topping on that one more. Perhaps there is a blueberry pie entry on the horizon…