Fresh Peach Pie

Kate here again with one of my family's favorite desserts during peach season. 

You need one pie shell cooked and ready to go.

First boil a pot of water for removing the peach skins. I like to use my pasta pans because of the ease of draining, but you can use a large saucepan or stock pot and a pair of tongs to remove the peaches.

Once the water is boiling, drop 3 peaches in. Yes, I realize there are eight in the picture--that's for later. Just use your imagination. Let the three peaches sit for 30-60 seconds and then...

Remove them to a bowl of ice water. After 30-60 seconds you can begin removing the skins. (When I'm canning peaches I scrub the kitchen sink and then fill it with ice water for the ice bath.)

The way I like to do this is make a slice all the way around the peach. Then I use my thumb to slide the skin off.

Easy as...pie! You knew I'd say that. Now I insert my thumb into the slice I made earlier and pull the peach apart. Then I lay the halves in my palm, slice them, and place in the blender.

Blend in blender:
3 fresh peaches, peeeled and pitted
1/2 cup sugar
3 T. cornstarch
1/2 cup water

Pour into saucepan. Cook until mixture boils, about 5 minutes. Stir in 1/4 tsp. almond extract and 1 T. butter. Cool in fridge.

Meanwhile dip 8 more fresh peaches in the boiling water and cool in ice bath.

Remove skins, pit and slice into pie crust.

Pour glaze over sliced peaches. You will have to lift the peaches and let the glaze run under and around or it will spill over. See the bottom portion of photo that I conveniently cropped off? Spillage. Now it wouldn't do that if I would just follow the original recipe and only use 4-5 fresh, sliced peaches. But we like a lot of fruit in our pie!--and there's plenty of glaze to spare for 8 peaches. Now put the pie in the fridge for 2 hours--no less!

Okay, okay. If it's a school night and ten to eight and this is the FHE treat and you know there won't even be a crumb to capture on film after your family gets through with the pie, then, and only then, you can remove the pie from the fridge after only one hour. But I'm warning you, it won't be completely set and will be a little hard to photograph because it wants to ooze all over the plate instead of hold its shape--but the taste is divine--because it was never cooked it has a scrumptious fresh peach taste. Top with whipped cream unless of course your fresh cream refuses to whip and you're too lazy to skim another gallon of milk to see if it has thicker cream. Then serve plain and...Enjoy!

Fresh Peach Pie

Ingredient list:

1 pie shell, cooked
3 fresh peaches, peeled and sliced for blender
1/2 cup sugar
3 T. cornstarch
1/2 cup water
1/4 tsp. almond extract
1 T. butter or margarine
8 peaches, peeled and sliced (Can use only 4-5)

Blend in blender:
3 fresh peaches, peeeled and pitted
1/2 cup sugar
3 T. cornstarch
1/2 cup water

Pour into saucepan. Cook until mixture boils, about 5 minutes. Stir in 1/4 tsp. almond extract and butter. Cool in fridge while slicing remaining peaches into prepared pie crust . Pour glaze over peaches, lift and stir when necessary; chill. Top with whipped cream if desired.

(I also frequently omit the pie crust and stir the glaze and peaches together and serve as a fruit salad or dessert cup.)