Peaches & Cream Pie (Would you like crust with that?)

I wish we had a peach tree in our own backyard.  Let me rephrase that. I wish we could plant a HUGE peach tree in our own backyard, and that we could have beautiful peaches by this summer.  I've hinted around with my Green Thumbed Husband, but so far I have the company of one Meyer Lemon Tree, one Eureka Lemon Tree and one fledgling Lime tree.  Now that I think of it, I wish we had an orchard of every kind of apple and stone fruit that grows well on the Central Coast of California!  Somehow, I don't think our little home plot of land could support my dream orchard. So, I wait for the first signs of California peaches at my local farm stand.  At last, the first peaches were spotted, but they weren't quite ripe.

I was craving peaches, and then I remembered a recipe in the June 2011 issue of Cook's Country Magazine that I had bookmarked.  Peaches and Cream Pie isn't anything new.  In the style of the family of Cook's Illustrated and America's Test Kitchen, Cook's Country wanted to re-work the recipe so that the pie crust doesn't get soggy.  In order to accomplish this, this recipe required the roasting of the peaches, with a little sugar,  to release it's moisture. That made sense to me.  The pie crust is also partially blind-baked with pie weights and aluminum foil.  I'm not posting how I make my pie crust, as I have several different versions. If you want to use a commercially purchased one, please do so.  Otherwise, my favorite  pie crust recipe,is a mixture of shortening and butter and a "how to" is posted here.

The peaches are roasted, for about 30 minutes,  on the top rack of the oven, while the pie crust is baking below.  I liked the time-saving convenience of this procedure.

 Then it hit me.  I forgot to peel the peaches, before roasting them. D'oh!

After chewing myself out, for not following the directions that were clearly there, I was saved by discovering that the peels came off quite easily.  No harm, no foul.

The peaches are quartered and layered into the pie crust.

The filling comes together in a snap-- flour, salt, heavy cream, vanilla and egg yolks (the yolks helps the filling to set better.)

The filling is poured over the roasted peaches, and then baked until firm in the center-- 45-55 minutes.

While the pie was cooling, I noticed that the crust had shrunk quite a bit.  I'm guessing it's because I used a large deep-dish pie pan and I didn't quite have enough pie dough.  I decided to remove the pie and serve it like a tart. It worked quite well.  Meanwhile, back at the ranch...

...I had leftover peaches and filling. On a whim, my leftovers filled two ramekins. These were baked for about 30 minutes and came out bubbling and smelling wonderful. Ooooooooooh, crustless pie!  I have a confession to make.  Ready?  I'm not a huge fan of traditional pie crusts.  That's why I prefer fruit  crumbles or crisps.  The day before I made this pie, I made a creme anglaise and a raspberry coulis sauce.  I had an idea...

I served the pie slices, to my husband and guests, with the Creme Anglaise and Raspberry Coulis sauce. They loved the pie and the crust.  One of our dinner guests is from Atlanta, Georgia.  He should know what good peaches are all about! 

As for me-- I ate one of the crustless pies from the ramekin. Oh, boy!

TASTING NOTES:  Though the peaches weren't quite ripe, this recipe roasted and baked them to perfection.  I loved the crunchy and chewy texture of the pie filling, while the peaches tasted like "summer".  The edges of the ramekins had slightly caramelized the pie filling.  The pie crust was not soggy! The Creme Anglaise with the Raspberry Coulis sauce made this a glorified Peach Melba, in my book. Vanilla ice cream would be a perfect substitute.  I intend to make this same recipe, using fresh berries and I think it would work extremely well with apricots-- but I'm going to use all ramekins.  This pie disappeared within two days. As for that second ramekin-- I hid it.  It was all mine!  

With or without a pie crust, this is a pretty simple way to enjoy peaches. This recipe goes into my Family Favorites recipe file.  I hope you try it.  A printable recipe is at the end of this post.

Enjoy!