Baked Sunday Mornings: Peaches & Dream Pie

PEACH DREAM PIE JUST OUT OF OVEN

I've never made a peach pie with a creamy or dreamy filling.  My favorite peach pie recipe is from Williams-Sonoma and is their Georgia Peach Pie recipe...I highly recommend it.  That said, I was up for something new and a challenge, although I had no idea how this finished pie should turn out.

Well, I know one good reason for canned peaches over fresh...actually 3 good reasons:  

1.  Peaches in AZ are not like real peaches...the ones found in the cooler states.   Our one variety ripens in May.  When freshly picked they are juicy and delicious, but they are only the size of apricots, they are about as easy to peal as apricots, and the fruit clings to the pit about like unripe plumbs.  The efforts are not really worth what you get...and since peach season is such a short season and this fruit is  not grown in quantity, they are expensive.

2.  I found other peaches at Costco that looked beautiful, but after a day in my hot AZ house, they were wrinkled and withered, and not juicy at all.  They tasted a little bitter and even though they appeared to be great peaches when purchased, they were not worth the money.  And I know it's scary, but these were my peaches for this anticipated dessert.  Not a good way to begin.

3.  In AZ the yard needs to be watered almost constantly, well, at least every day.  We are not expecting any rain of any kind of measurable rain in the foreseeable future.  So while I bake, I move the water...we do have sprinklers for part of the yard, but between kids and dogs these are more work than hand watering.  After peeling and slicing the peaches I ran out to move my water...but it took about 10 minutes to get it all going nicely...and when I returned to my kitchen, my not-so-great peaches were turning brown and uglier than ever.

Canned peaches would have solved all my problems, but I tried to be smarter and more wonderful with my baking and wanted fresh peaches.

WHISKING PIE FILLING INGREDIENTS

Then trying to save my peaches, I hurried and put my pies together.  When the peaches were covered with the filling, the pies were actually looking good and then I added the crumb topping.  It was skimpy, but the pies were ready to overflow, so I figured the recipe made an adequate amount of crumb topping and so into the oven they went.

WITH THE CRUMB TOPPING THESE PIES ARE OVEN READY

My disappointment mounted as I watched through the oven door as the crumb topping melted into the liquidy filling.  By the time the oven timer went off, my crumb topping had completely disappeared somewhere into the pie.  I felt like I should have piled the peaches higher into the pan and covered them with less filling.  Then the crumbs would have had a substantial base to rest on while baking?  Like apple crumb pie.  

JUST OUT OF THE OVEN...WHERE IS MY CRUMB TOPPING?

After cooling, I sliced the pie and it appeared custardy and with the ingredients used I  guess that is how it should be.  It tastes good.  We had 9 people show up for dinner and everyone tried the pie.  They all enjoyed the pie...the grandkids each ate 2 pieces; Penguin had great praise for the pie.  Whew...a relief, but I still don’t really know how this pie should look when baked???

WELL...THE INSIDES OF THIS PIE DON'T LOOK TO BAD???

I tried to find a similar recipe with a photo on the internet to see how this pie should turn out, but all the recipes I read were quite different from the one we are baking...no help.  I am very interested to see how my friends on Baked Sunday Mornings fared with this pie.  I may discover that I erred while moving around too many sprinklers, or I may find that others had similar issues.  And that is one of the great parts of this group.  We share ideas and successes, and even failures.  We are encouraged to move forward and receive  tips for doing better next time.  So...I’m ready for all my critics and am excited to learn better ways.

MY PIECE OF PIE TASTES PRETTY GOOD

NOTE:  This pie does not keep...the crust gets a bit soggy.  I like a nice well baked crust that keeps its crustiness. 

ANOTHER NOTE:  Later I found this internet picture...the closest I can come to our pie, however, the recipe is quite different (uses buttermilk and other different ingredients), but I think this is the idea and this crumb topping is actually similar to mine.

INTERNET PHOTO