This Peach Pie is the Goldilocks of Pie!
This peach pie is not too sweet, not too tart, not too runny and not too thick. It has the perfect amount of spice to enhance the peachy flavor. The crust is lightly sweet and tender and buttery. It’s juuuuussst right!
Peach pie is the ultimate old fashioned summer dessert. Honestly, if summer days and sunshine had a taste, it would be sweet, juicy peaches.
The sweet and luscious filling combined with a buttery, tender crust results in a floral, tangy flavor that will bring you back to childhood summers. Top a slice off with a generous scoop of vanilla ice cream and boom, perfection.
What makes peach pie great is the variety of textures from the smooth peaches to the juicy, syrupy filling and buttery, tender crust. The ingredients in this recipe call for only enough sugar and spices to enhance the peachy flavor. The sugar and spice are not the star like we see in autumn pies. You can adjust the level of spice to your taste.
The beauty of this pie is that you can adjust all of the ingredients to your taste. This recipe isn’t too sweet because summer peaches are usually very sweet on their own. I use brown sugar because it adds a hint of caramel to the pie giving the flavor a little more depth. The lemon juice and lemon zest provide a brightness to the pie and also provide an acid to prevent the peaches from browning.
Taste the filling as you go and see if you prefer more or less sugar and more or less spices to your liking.
The Thickener:
I use Clear Jel powder, which is a modified corn starch, as opposed to quick-cooking tapioca starch or regular corn starch, flour or fruit pectin. I think this is the best thickener because it’s clear and bright and doesn’t make the pie claggy and stodgy (like flour does), it thickens evenly throughout the pie (unlike quick-cooking tapioca starch) and you don’t have have to pre-cook it like sure-jell fruit pectin. That is waaay too much work.
Clear Jel powder is stable and doesn’t break down and make the pie runny as it sits for a day or two if there are leftovers. It’s even stable enough to freeze the pie uncooked and then bake it off later! Other starches can’t stand up to those conditions.
If you can’t find Clear Jel (or other brands of modified corn starches like E-Z Gel or King Arthur Instant Clearjel), you can still use traditional thickeners like tapioca starch or regular cornstarch. They’ll be ok, just not my favorite. Here is a link about pie thickeners and how to substitute amounts if you need it.
In this recipe, you can adjust the amount of Clear Jel, to make your pie either juicy and runny by adding a little less or tighter and thicker by adding a little more. The amount I use is between runny and thick. It’s juicy but holds together well.
Again, it’s the Goldilocks of pie.
The homemade pie crust:
Truth time: The thought of making a pie crust used to send me into a apoplectic fit. I would rather perform an appendectomy on myself than make pie crust. I’d probably be better at it. Ha. despite my best effort, it would become a pile of mushy goo even when using frozen butter. It would stick and rip when I rolled it out. No matter how much I hydrated it, it would still be too dry and crack and fall apart. If I added one drop too much water, it would be too gluey or sticky.
I was a knotted mess of Pie Anxiety.
However, I much prefer the flavor and texture of homemade crust over store bought. Even if my result was an ugly Frankencrust, it still tasted better. I challenged myself to figure out a recipe that even I could make. After many attempts and much researching, I found the one pie crust that works every single time!
The pie crust even for the “Crustily Challenged”!
This recipe for pie crust is actually, truly easy. Not like the recipes that say “easy”, “bestest”, or “foolproof” pie crust…Lies! All lies! Since my pie crust ineptitude had no bounds, I tried them all with disastrous results. I tried the recipes using all vegetable shortening, mixed shortening and butter, all butter, the ones with vodka (hey wait a minute, vodka sounds interesting…). Nope, Nope,Nope and big NOPE! The only thing vodka was good for was drowning my sorrow when everything went to pot. These recipes were easy for pie wizards and those who bake for a living.
This recipe however, is easy even for me (and maybe for you)! It’s a pate brisee shortcrust that uses egg, butter, flour, salt, confectioners sugar and ice water. The egg is where the magic is. It makes the dough silky, pliable and easy to roll out. I use confectioner’s sugar for sweetness instead of granulated sugar because it keeps the dough light and fluffy but not sticky. Trust me, it works every time.
To make things even easier, I recommend using a food processor to mix the all pie crust ingredients. It’s not completely necessary and I included instructions how to do it by hand if you don’t have a food processor.
The peaches:
There are two types of peaches that you’ll come across to make your pie: Freestone peaches and Clingstone peaches.
Freestone peaches have a flesh that is easily removed from the pit. In many cases, the pit literally falls out of the peach once it’s sliced. These are much easier to use when making pies.
Clingstone peaches, are aptly named because the flesh clings heartily to the pit and is difficult to remove.
They are both wonderful tasting but the clingstone peaches make it a little more work in slicing. So, if you can find Freestone peaches, use them. If you can only find Clingstone peaches (like I did for the pie in this post), not to worry, there is a trick!!
Pro Tip Time:
Thanks to a genius tip from home chef, Lori Woosley Uden’s TikTok video, a great tip for pitting clingstone peaches is this: using a long and clean needle nosed pliers or stainless fish boning pliers, insert the opened pliers into the top of the peach (where the stem would be), squeeze and grab the pit. Rotate the pliers while grasping the pit and pull the pit straight out! Boom! Instant pitted peach!
Enjoy your wonderful summer Peach Pie!
Goldilocks Peach Pie with Sweet and Tender Homemade Pie Crust
Equipment
- 9 inch pie dish
- food processor optional, you can do by hand
- Rolling Pin
- zester or microplane
Ingredients
Pie Dough – Easy Double Pie Crust
- 2 1/4 cups all purpose flour (270 grams)
- 15 tbsp unsalted butter (213 grams) cold, cubed into small pieces
- 1 1/2 eggs (chilled) **save the other 1/2 of egg for egg wash on top pie crust
- 2-3 tbsp ice water, plus more if needed
- 3/4 tsp table salt
- 5 tbsp confectioner's sugar (1/4 cup plus 1 tbsp)
Peach Pie filling
- 3 1/2 lbs peaches (approximately 8-10 peaches depending on size) peeled, pitted and sliced into 8ths
- 1/3 cup granulated sugar *can add more to taste if peaches are less sweet
- 1/3 cup brown sugar *can add more to taste if peaches are less sweet
- 1 lemon zested for 1 tsp of zest and 2 tsps lemon juice
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp table salt
- 4 tbsp clear jel powder *can substitute quick cooking tapioca
Instructions
- For the pie dough: Whisk together flour, salt and sugar and add to the food processor food processor.
- Add the chilled, cubed pieces of butter to the flour mixture.
- Pulse the flour and butter a several times until the mixture looks sandy.
- *If not using a processor and doing by hand: rub the butter between your fingers to break the larger pieces into smaller pieces while lifting the flour butter mixture to make it more airy. Do this until it looks sandy or bread crumbs.
- In a small bowl, whisk the 2 tbsp ice water with the chilled egg, reserving more ice water if the dough needs to be hydrated more.
- Add the egg/water mixture to the flour/butter mixture in the food processor and pulse a few time until it just starts to form a ball of dough. If it needs more hydration, use more water, 1 tbsp at a time until desired texture.
- Be careful not to overmix the dough. This dough will be silky and pliable with small butter pieces still visible.
- *If by hand: mound the flour/butter mixture and form a well, pour 2 tbsp ice water/egg mixture into the well and using a metal spoon, stir into the flour mixture until it gets a little lumpy then combine with your hands, working quickly. You don't want to handle the dough too much because it will make the dough tough. Mix with your hands until the dough forms a ball and isn't sticking to the bowl. Use more ice water, 1 tbsp at a time if the dough is too dry until dough is just sticking together.
- The dough should not be sticky or gluey and stick to your hands. It should be silky and a little stiff.
- Divide the dough into 2 balls and flatten into disks. Wrap separately in plastic and refrigerate for at least 15 minutes. (You can start peeling your peaches for pie filling while waiting to chill).
- Remove one disk of dough from the refrigerator. Let it stand at room temperature for a few minutes to soften slightly.
- Add 1/2 the sugars to the peaches along with, lemon juice, lemon zest, cinnamon, salt. Let the fruit mixture sit for 10 minutes to allow the juices to render.
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees and put the rack low in the oven.
- On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out to a 12 inch circle, about 1/8" thick, trying to work quickly and not overwork the dough, again it will make the dough less light and flaky to more you work it.
- Transfer the dough to your 9 inch pie pan with dough hanging over. Refrigerate for a few minutes while finishing the peach filling.
- Remove the second pie dough disk from the refrigerator to soften slightly.
- Whisk the rest of the sugars and the Clear Jel together and add it to the peach filling and juices. Toss to combine.
- Remove pie shell from the refrigerator and pour the peaches and juices into the pie shell. If there is too much juice, leave some out so it doesn't overflow.
- Roll second disk of dough on a lightly floured surface to a 12"-diameter circle.
- Top the pie with the second dough round and trim the dough to 1/2 inch beyond the lip of the pie pan. Fold both top and bottom crusts under, flush with the edge of the pie plate and then crimp with either a fork or pinch with thumb and fingers to create a scalloped edge.
- Brush the top of the pie with the egg wash and sprinkle some granulated sugar on top for sweetness and crunch.
- With a sharp knife, add five 2-inch vent holes around the center top of the pie to allow the steam to escape.
- Place the pie on a parchment-lined, rimmed baking sheet to catch any spills. Place it in the oven on a lower rack, and bake for 20 minutes at 400 degrees. Reduce the oven heat to 350°F and bake for an additional 30-40 minutes. If the top of the pie is getting too dark, cover with foil to prevent burning. The filling should bubble and the crust is golden brown.
- Transfer the pie to a wire cooling rack. Let it cool for at least 1 1/2 t0 2 hours until it comes to room temperature. This allows time for the juices in the pie to thicken.
