Peach Pie with Lattice Top

This may have been even better than the Marionberry pie. I used exactly the same crust recipe, and it worked very well. The peach pie filling recipe is from the Baking Illustrated book.

How did it taste?

Pretty much like summer perfection. I was hoping for a bit more peach blast. But I think this is actually a good balance: not too tart, not too sweet. Definitely the taste of fresh summer peaches. I sort of craved more cinnamon, more lemon, more sugar- but all of those might have actually made it taste less like the fruit itself, and the fruit is what's important here. Next time I may be tempted to experiment a bit more but for now it's just right.

How Was The Texture?

Good. I'd put in a bit less starch next time, since it had a slight tendency to gumminess; but the texture of the peaches themselves seems unaffected, and the filling had great structure and wasn't loose at all. 

The crust recipe I used is Mark Bittman's and can be found on the first post of this blog (along with a link to instructions for the lattice top). For the filling I used farmer's market peaches and a recipe in the Cooks Illustrated baking book, Baking Illustrated (a pretty wonderful book). I substituted tapioca starch for potato starch, since that's what I could find. Here it is:

Lattice-Top Peach Pie

1 recipe Pie Dough for Lattice Top Pie
Flour for dusting the work surface
6-7 medium, ripe peaches (7 cups sliced)
1 tbsp lemon juice
pinch ground cinnamon
pinch freshly grated nutmeg
pinch salt
3-5 tbsp potato starch or Minute tapioca (see note)
1.  Remove the dough from the refrigerator (if refrigerated longer than 1 hour, let stand at room temperature until malleable). Roll the larger piece of dough to a 15 by 11-inch rectangle about 1/8 inch thick; transfer the dough rectangle to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. With a pizza wheel, fluted pastry cutter, or paring knife, trim the long sides of the rectangle to make them straight, then cut the rectangle lengthwise into 8 strips 15 inches long by 1 1/4 inches wide. Freeze the strips on the baking sheet until firm, about 30 minutes.
2.  Roll the smaller piece of dough on a lightly floured work surface or between 2 large sheets of parchment paper or plastic wrap to a 12-inch circle. Transfer the dough to a 9-inch pie plate by rolling the dough around a rolling pin and unrolling it over the pan. Working around the circumference of the pan, ease the dough into the pan corners by gently lifting the edge of the dough with one hand while pressing it into the pan bottom with the other hand. Leave the dough that overhangs the lip of the pie plate in place; refrigerate the dough-lined pie plate.
3.  Remove the dough strips from the freezer. If they are too stiff to be workable, let them stand at room temperature until malleable and softened slightly but still very cold. Form lattice top crust on a parchement lined baking sheet, then place in the freezer until firm, about 15 minutes.
4.  Meanwhile, adjust an oven rack to the lowest position, place a rimmed baking sheet on it, and heat the oven to 500 degrees. Bring 3 quarts of water to a boil in a large saucepan and fill a large bowl with 2 quarts of cold water and 2 trays of ice cubes. Peel the peaches by blanching them. Cut a small “X” in the bottom of each peach, dunk them in the boiling water for about 40 seconds, remove them and place in the ice water. The skins should slip right off. Halve and pit each peach, and cut into 3/8 inch slices.
5.  Toss the peach slices, lemon juice, 1 cup sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, and potato starch in a medium bowl.
6.  Turn the peach mixture into the dough-lined pie plate. Remove the lattice from the freezer and place on top of the filled pie. Trim the lattice strips and crimp the pie edges. Lightly brush the lattice top with 1 tbsp water and sprinkle with the remaining 1 tbsp sugar.
7.  Lower the oven temperature to 425 degrees. Place the pie on the baking sheet and bake until the crust is set and begins to brown, 25 to 30 minutes. Rotate the pie and reduce the oven temperature to 375 degrees; continue baking until the crust is deep golden brown, and the juices bubble, 25 to 30 minutes longer. Cool the pie on a wire rack for at least 2 hours before serving. 

Note that the whole bit about freezing the lattice top seems strange and difficult. I didn't do that-- I just waited until the filling was in before rolling out the top. It seems like the dough would be too stiff to handle if it was frozen. But the Cooks' Illustrated folks sure know what they're doing, so it might be worth a try.

I found that when I'd tossed the peaches with the other filling ingredients, I had a very wet soup. I put in a lot of tapioca starch, maybe 9T worth. I also scooped out the peaches and left a small mason jar's worth of peach juice at the bottom of the bowl (which I suppose I'll make a sauce or something out of now).

I pre-baked the crust again, with good results.

Here's what it looked like with filling put in: 

Here's the lattice strips, just cut:

Here's the lattice being woven. I screwed up the order and there's a gap in my strips. I hope the pie police don't arrest me.

Further along:

About an hour later, looking pretty enticing:

It's a good thing we were running late for a friend's family picnic, or I would never have had the willpower to let this cool for 3 freaking hours. But I'm glad I did. It was a great evening snack. (Now I'm wondering if it's wrong to eat pie for breakfast).