Peaches Peaches everywhere....

I love peaches, and right now is the end of peach season in Utah. My husband comes from a town in northern Utah where they are famous for their peaches, and celebrate it with a big town festival/fair type thing each September.  As such, we have sort of a tradition in our family to have peaches in several different ways in early September, and sometimes, if we are lucky, we can make it last a bit longer...  I realized I have not posted all of the recipes associated with this tradition, and so I am going to post the last two recipes here.

The first of those traditions is to have peach pie every year.  We love peach pie.  Hubby grew up with fresh peach pie, which is basically fresh peaches and a bit of sugar put in a baked pie shell.  I like that version okay, but my favorite way to make peach pie is to bake a double crust pie like I usually do for apple pie each Fall.   Here is my favorite recipe for that.

Peach Pie

1 recipe basic pie crust, recipe below, tutorial here
about 5-6 cups peeled, pitted, and sliced peaches (6 whole peaches usually)
1/4 c granulated sugar
1/4 tsp almond flavoring
4-6 tbsp quick tapioca
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp butter

Crust recipe (see tutorial for detailed instructions for this part)

2 1/4 c all purpose flour
1 tsp salt
3/4 c cold shortening
3 tbsp cold butter
6-8 tbsp cold water

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Mix together peaches, sugar, almond flavoring, tapioca and lemon juice.  Set aside.  Roll out pie crust to 1/4 inch thick, then lay into a 9" pie plate.   Fill bottom crust with peaches, dot with butter, and then roll out top crust and lay it over the top.  Slit the top crust with a paring knife and then fold the top crust edges under the bottom crust edges and pinch closed. Crimp together with your thumb and forefinger.  Bake at 425 for 30 minutes, then drop the heat and bake another half hour at 350 degrees.  Allow to cool for about 10-15 minutes, and serve.  I like it best with some vanilla ice cream on top.  YUM!


The second tradition Hubby likes to keep to is peach cobbler. I actually prefer peach crisp or crumble rather than cobbler, just because I like the texture of the topping better. I made a peach crumble/crisp tonight, and the recipe is rather simple.  Here we go...

Peach Crisp or Crumble (or in general, fruit crisp)

1/3 to 1/2 c all purpose flour
1/3 c rolled oats
1/4 c packed brown sugar
1 stick of butter, cut in pieces
5-6 peaches, peeled, pitted, and sliced
1 tbsp lemon juice
1/4 tsp almond flavoring
1/2 tsp vanilla
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Mix together peaches, vanilla, almond flavoring, and lemon juice.  Set aside.

In a medium mixing bowl, using a pastry blender, cut butter into flour, sugar, and oats.  It will kind of start to look like loose cookie dough.  You want it to kind of be in clumps.

Pour peaches into a medium baking dish, and then top with the crisp topping.  Bake at 350 for approximately 25-30 minutes.  Serve warm with ice cream.

Thirdly, and lastly, Hubby likes to make peach ice cream.  You can find the recipe for that, here.

Enjoy your peaches!!!!