Sweetness

Apparently they don't shut down your blog for lack of activity...holy smokes it has been awhile.  I appreciate all the gentle nudges (and threats of violence) from those of you who were apparently missing the occasional EZ Peas-Z post over the past year (yikes).  Seriously though, you are motivating for me and I appreciate it more than you know.

The 5 recipe a week thing I had originally set out to do turns out to be a little ambitious for this lady - so get ready for spontaneity and randomness (and a slightly new recipe format).  I am aiming to keep you on your toes so that you have to check in more regularly (or sign up as a follower for those handy emails notifications...) in order to check out the latest hotness coming out of the Flickinger kitchen.  Keep calm, they will still be easy and delicious since that is what we do here.  Again, thanks for keeping after me and it feels good to be back!

I'm drooling...trust me, it was good.

Peach Pie - enough said?  If I could only eat one type of dessert for the rest of my life, it would be pie.  If I had to pick one pie...I would be in trouble.  But peach would be up there!  Peach Pie is relatively new to me.  It is a little more time consuming than any other fruit pie which does not involve a pit (cherry pie straight up frightens me), but I assure you, it is well worth the effort.  I am really into making mason jar pies these days so I'll include both the traditional as well as the mason jar instructions.  I know it is early but I made my first peach pies of the season this past weekend and they were pretty tasty if I do say so myself.  Don't be afraid of making a crust (it's not so bad...just keep it cold!) and enjoy the sweet reward at the end:

Peach Pie
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

Crust:
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup shortening
5 - 8 tablespoons ice cold water

Filling:
About 3 1/2 lbs peaches (so you end up with 6 cups sliced)
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup light brown sugar
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
sprinkle of nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons tapioca

To make the crust:
Combine flour and salt in a medium bowl.  Cut in shortening using a pastry knife or 2 butter knives.

Sprinkle water into flour mixture one tablespoon at a time, tossing lightly with a fork.  When it starts to come together, pick it up and form it into a ball.  Divide the ball in half and flatten each half into a disc.  Wrap each half in plastic wrap and refrigerate (it is SO much easier to work with cold dough if you are rolling it).

To make the filling:
Peel the peaches - if they are kind of hard, a vegetable peeler works just fine.  If they are pretty soft, the peels may come off pretty easily.  If it is giving you trouble, boil a big pot of water (and get an ice bath ready), make an "x" on the bottom of each peach and throw them in the water.  Poach them for 2 minutes, take them out, and put them in the ice bath.  Once they cool down a bit, try peeling them again and hopefully this helps!

Half and pit your peeled peaches and cut them into 1/3 inch slices.  If you are doing the "mini" pies, chop them up roughly.  Toss the peaches in a large bowl with the lemon juice.

In a small bowl, combine the sugars, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, and tapioca.  Toss this in with the peaches and stir to combine.

Put it all together:

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

For mason-jar pies - grab your 4oz mason jars and press pie dough into each jar, covering the bottoms and up the sides.  You will want to use about half the dough.  I probably start out making 7 jars just so I don't over-do it since you can always whip up a few more if you have too much filling.
Spoon filling into the jars up to the top.  You can go a little over if you are going to bake them right away and don't need to worry about screwing  the cap on.  Go a little lighter on the filling if you are going to freeze them.
Once all the jars have filling in them, roll out the rest of the pie dough on a heavily floured surface with a heavily floured rolling pin.  Use the lid of one of the jars to cut out circles in the dough and press it on top of the pie filling in the jar (push it down in there a bit so it is "in" the jar - it can get a little messy).  Put a few slits in the top.
Place all the jars you are cooking on a foil lined baking sheet and bake for about 1/2 hour or until the pies are bubbling and brown on top.

For a traditional pie - take out your chilled dough discs and roll one of them out with a heavily floured rolling pin on a heavily floured surface.
Place the rolled out dough into a 9 inch pie plate.  Lightly press it into place so there are no gaps between the crust and the pie plate.  Pour the peach filling inside.
Ditto the rolling process with the second disc of dough (or make a lattice top if you are feeling fancy...).  Gently place the second crust on top of the peach filling.  Press the edges of the top and bottom crust together.  Make some slits in the top of the pie and rub the crust with a little bit of milk (this makes it brown up reaaaal niiiice).
Bake pie for 20 min, reduce oven to 375 degrees and bake for another 30 to 40 min or until bubbly and brown (if browning too much, cover the pie loosely with foil).  Cool pie completely if you don't want it to run (I dare you to try and cool this completely before devouring it).

NOTE: For the mason jar pies, if you want to freeze some for later, screw the lids on the pies before you bake them and stick 'em in the freezer.  When you feel like having pie, take them out, remove the lids (important!), and place them on a foil lined baking sheet.  Put the baking sheet with the pies in the oven and turn the oven on to 425 degrees and bake for about 45 minutes.  The pies will defrost nicely in the preheating oven.  Just keep an eye on them and take them out when they are bubbly and browning.  MMMM...pie.