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Fresh Peach Pie + Three More Easy Summer Peach Recipes |  |
Some lucky summers, it can be all about the peaches, a veritable "Peach Festival"! Here are four of my very favorite peach recipes.
First up, a luscious peach pie, a recipe I've been making for many years, kissed with a little orange that somehow makes the peaches just a little bit more "peachy". I call it "Fresh Peach Pie" because the peaches are aren't even really cooked, they're sweet and slightly firm, so so fresh!
Then three simple summer recipes, a chilled Peach & Cantaloupe Soup (or wait, isn't that kind of a peach smoothie? you decide), a savory Peach Appetizer, and the oh-so-luscious Roasted Peaches, one of my favorite simple summer desserts.
Oh, do you know the muffin man, the one that lives on Drury Lane? You may recognize this old nursery rhyme but do you know the peaches man, the one at Kirkwood Market?
My nearby "peach man" lives at CJ’s Produce where he sells sun-blushed Eckert peaches from now til Labor Day. St. Louisans are lucky to have over-the-sink eatable and pie’n’preserve-perfect peaches grown just across the river on farms where fruit trees first blossomed 145 years ago. Lucky us, for a few summer weeks, life can be all about the peaches.
Fresh Peach Pie really lets the peaches shine. The fruit softens more than cooks. The light orange sauce deepens and brightens the peach flavor. It’s a winner.
SAVORY PEACH APPETIZER
Just stir a few red pepper flakes, a couple of drops of Tabasco, some minced jalapeño and a fresh chopped peach into peach preserves. Spread over Homemade Ricotta, cream cheese or goat cheese and serve with crackers or thin slices of bread. PEACH & CANTALOUPE SOUP
In a blender, just mix four skins-on peaches, half a cantaloupe, 1/2 cup nonfat yogurt, 2 tablespoons orange liqueur, 2 tablespoons fresh mint, the zest and juice of a lemon, plus sugar to taste. The soup is especially pretty served in clear glass bowls. For a starter, top with crumbled feta; for a dessert, drizzle with cream. Or serve it in a glass, like a peach smoothie! ROASTED PEACHES
For a simple dessert, just put a teaspoon of brown sugar and butter into peach halves, top with a little cinnamon, a sprinkle of good salt and a few strands of fresh basil. Roast for 20 minutes at 350F, then top with a tiny spoon of sour cream. Peach-licious! If using the orange zest garnish, keep it fresh and supple by leaving in soaked water until ready to use, then dry between paper towels.
What do you do with summer peaches? Share a favorite recipe that other Kitchen Parade readers might like via recipes@kitchen-parade.com. If you like these Kitchen Parade recipes, consider a free e-mail subscription. Once or twice a week when a new recipe is published, you'll be notified via e-mail. How to print a recipe on Kitchen Parade. If you like Kitchen Parade, forward these recipes to a friend who might too!FRESH PEACH PIE
Time to table: 2 – 3 hours
Serves 8
- 1 pre-baked and cooled pie crust (such as Flaky Tender Pie Crust or Almond Pie Crust, see notes below or the Almond Press-In Crust from Blueberry Cheesecake Pie)
-
PEACHES
- Water to cover
- 6 large fully ripe peaches (about 2-1/4 pounds/1020g)
-
FILLING
- 1/2 cup (100g) sugar (Splenda also works great)
- 3 tablespoons (27g) cornstarch
- Zest of an orange
- 1 cup orange juice (fresh-squeezed is wonderful)
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1 teaspoon almond extract
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WHIPPED CREAM TOPPING
- 1 cup whipping cream
- 2 tablespoons sugar (again, Splenda works great)
- 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
- Orange zest for garnish, optional
BLANCH & CHOP THE PEACHES Remove the peach skins by "blanching". Here's how. Bring water to boil in a big saucepan. Two or three at a time, drop peaches into the boiling water for 1 minute. (Set a time, no longer!) Remove the peaches with a slotted spoon and let cool to the touch. Repeat with the remaining peaches. Once the peaches are cool enough to touch, slice to the pit lengthwise, slip off skins. Slice each half into six pieces, then halve the pieces.
COOK THE FILLING Meanwhile, stir together the sugar, cornstarch and zest in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Slowly stir in the orange juice and cook until the mixture thickens, stirring often. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the butter and extract. Gently combine the hot filling with the sliced peaches and turn the mixture into the prepared pie crust. Cover the filling with plastic wrap (avoid the crust's edges so they don't get soggy) and refrigerate the pie for 2 – 3 hours until thoroughly cold and set.
WHIPPED CREAM TOPPING Just before serving, whip the cream with an electric mixer. While still beating, slowly add the sugar and extract, then beat the cream until stiff peaks form. Spoon the whipped cream into a freezer bag, snip off a corner and squeeze whipped cream decoratively onto the pie. If you like, garnish with orange zest.
WEIGHT WATCHERS Old Points 10 & PointsPlus 11 & SmartPoints 20PEACH PIE WITHOUT THE CRUST – OR TURNING ON THE OVEN! To save a whole pile of calories, I converted my recipe for Fresh Peach Pie into Peach-Pie Pudding!
A Festival of Peaches (Recipes All Above)
PRIZE-WINNING PEACH PIE! When recipes appear on Kitchen Parade, I like to think each one is "the best" of its class, the best apple pie recipe, the best peach pie recipe, and so on. Fresh Peach Pie has been my go-to peach pie recipe since the 1980s, so delicious and fresh-tasting that I had no reason to seek out another. And then. And THEN I judged my town's peach pie contest and discovered First-Prize Peach Pie with a Lattice Crust. So now Kitchen Parade has two peach pie recipes! The two pies are entirely different, one tastes light and fresh and creamy, the other is deep-flavored and totally peachy. So you'll need to choose one or the other – or make both and decide if you have a favorite! Me, there's no choosing between the two. LOW-SUGAR, LOWER-CALORIE FRESH PEACH PIE In 2012, I experimented with an almond meal crust, it was great! For the crust, mix 1-1/2 cups (130g) almond meal with 3 tablespoons melted butter and 3 tablespoons Splenda. Press the mixture into a pie plate with the back of a spoon and bake at 350F/180C for about 15 minutes or until golden. Let cool before filling the crust. Do know, the crust is soft and doesn't "stand up" to slicing the way a traditional crust does. That makes it a little messy to plate but the taste is excellent! WEIGHT WATCHERS Old Points 3 & PointsPlus 3 & SmartPoints 5NUTRITION INFORMATION Almond Crust & Pie, Made with Splenda, Per Slice: 327 Calories; 24g Tot Fat; 11g Sat Fat; 55mg Cholesterol; 51mg Sodium; 24g Carb; 4g Fiber; 15g Sugar; g Protein.
WEIGHT WATCHERS Old Points 8.5 & PointsPlus 10 & SmartPoints 14An Even Bigger Festival of Peaches
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~ cantaloupe ~
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~ Peach & Cantaloupe Soup (Smoothie) ~
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I've never seen a peach pie recipe quite this simple. It sounds amazing!
ReplyDeleteyum -- and i bet adding almond extract to the whipped cream is awesome! looks so pretty and seasonal!
ReplyDeleteThat pie recipe is so simple, how could the peaches not stand out?
ReplyDeleteI loved this pie-thanks for the recipe!
ReplyDeleteI dorked up the sauce (used lemon zest instead of orange, used vanilla extract instead of almond, added a dash of cardamom because I saw it while looking for almond extract, and turned on the burner under the sugar/cornstarch/zest before referring a fight between the kids) but it STILL tasted terrific!
Nice way to use up the last of the half bushel of peaches I picked up at the farm stand on the way home from the beach.
kirsten
Can't think of a better way to use up those peaches on my counter before they go bad!
ReplyDeleteHere’s another simple peach recipe: Use your favorite tortilla or wrap. Fill with a generous swipe of lemon basil pesto, sliced peaches and sliced Brie. A quick taste of summer.
ReplyDeleteWhoah! That sounds fabulous -- and right up my summer simple alley! Thanks so very much!
Delete