Peach and Apple Pie with Lattice Top

A splendidly unseasonal pie, using farmers' market peaches that we froze back in early September, and thawed for peach pie (by request for a treasured guest). Since the frozen peaches shrank in volume and looked like a dilapidated brown pool of limp dishrags when thawed, I added a sliced apple and some dried cranberries. The filling, amazingly, turned out terrific. This is also my first part-shortening crust, and the results were good enough (though I wound up underbaking the bottom crust) that there will be many more. Details, as always, below.

I made the bottom crust a couple days in advance, using the Baking Illustrated recipe. 

The rest of the recipe is in a previous post, but I didn't include the crust that time, so here it is below. (The full recipe is also available in a nice printable version here: http://www.americastestkitchen.com/recipes/detail.php?docid=5263)

Serves 8

If your peaches are larger than tennis balls, you will probably need 5 or 6; if they’re smaller, you will need 7 to 8. Cling and freestone peaches look identical; try to buy freestones, because the flesh will fall away from the pits easily. Potato starch can usually be found in the Kosher section of the supermarket. If you don’t have or can’t find potato starch, substitute an equal amount of pulverized Minute tapioca. Serve the pie with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream. See illustrations below for Peeling the Peaches and Weaving and Crimping the Lattice Top.

INGREDIENTS

Pie dough

• 3cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 2tablespoons granulated sugar
• 1teaspoon table salt
• 7tablespoons vegetable shortening , chilled
• 10tablespoons unsalted butter (1 1/4 sticks), chilled, cut into 1/4-inch pieces and frozen for 30 minutes
• 10 - 12tablespoons ice water

Peach filling

• 6 - 7medium peaches (ripe, about 6 cups)
• 1tablespoon lemon juice from 1 lemon
• 1cup granulated sugar
• 1tablespoon granulated sugar
•  Pinch ground cinnamon
•  Pinch ground nutmeg
•  Pinch table salt
• 3–4tablespoons potato starch (or substitute pulverized Minute tapioca)

INSTRUCTIONS

• 1. Pulse flour, sugar, and salt in food processor workbowl fitted with steel blade until combined. Add shortening and process until mixture has texture of coarse sand, about 10 seconds. Scatter butter pieces over flour mixture; cut butter into flour until mixture is pale yellow and resembles coarse crumbs, with butter bits no larger than small peas, about ten 1-second pulses. Turn mixture into medium bowl.
• 2. Sprinkle 5 tablespoons ice water over mixture; with rubber spatula, use folding motion to evenly combine water and flour mixture. Sprinkle remaining 5 tablespoons ice water over mixture and continue using folding motion to combine until small portion of dough holds together when squeezed in palm of hand; add up to 2 tablespoons more ice water if necessary. (Dough should feel quite moist.) Turn dough onto clean, dry work surface; gather and gently press together in cohesive ball, then divide into 2 pieces, one slightly larger than the other. Flatten larger piece into a rough 5-inch square and smaller piece into a 4-inch disk; wrap separately in plastic wrap and refrigerate 1 hour, or up to 2 days, before rolling.
• 3. Remove dough from refrigerator (if refrigerated longer than 1 hour, let stand at room temperature until malleable). Roll larger dough piece to 11 by 15-inch rectangle, about 1/8-inch thick; transfer dough rectangle to cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. With pizza wheel, fluted pastry wheel, or paring knife, trim to even out long sides of rectangle, then cut rectangle lengthwise into eight strips, 1 1/4-inches wide by 15 inches long. Freeze strips on cookie sheet until firm, about 30 minutes.
• 4. Roll smaller dough piece on lightly floured work surface or between two large sheets of plastic wrap to 12-inch disk. Transfer dough to pie plate by rolling dough around rolling pin and unrolling over 9-inch pie plate or by folding dough in quarters, then placing dough point in center of 9-inch pie plate and unfolding. Working around circumference of pie plate, ease dough into pan corners by gently lifting dough edges with one hand while pressing around pan bottom with other hand. Leave dough that overhangs lip of pie plate in place; refrigerate dough-lined pie plate.
• 5. Meanwhile, adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 425 degrees, bring 3 quarts water to boil in large saucepan, and fill large bowl with 2 quarts cold water and 2 trays ice cubes. To peel peaches; first, with a paring knife, score a small x at the base of each peach. Next, lower the peaches into boiling water with a slotted skimmer. Cover and blanch until their skins loosen, about 2 minutes. Use a slotted skimmer to remove the peaches to ice water and let stand to stop cooking, about 1 minute. Finally, cool the peaches, then, starting from the scored x, peel each peach, halve and pit it, and cut into 3/8-inch slices. Toss peach slices, lemon juice, 1 cup sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, and potato starch or Minute tapioca (3 tablespoons for moderately juicy peaches, 4 tablespoons for very juicy ones) in medium bowl.
  
  6. Turn mixture into dough-lined pie plate. Remove dough strips from freezer; if too stiff to be workable, let stand at room temperature until malleable and softened slightly but still very cold. Following "Weaving and Crimping the Lattice Top," below, form lattice top and place on top of peaches. Lightly brush lattice top with 1 tablespoon water and sprinkle with remaining 1 tablespoon sugar. Place pie on baking sheet and bake until crust is set and begins to brown, about 25 minutes. Rotate pie and reduce oven temperature to 375 degrees; continue to bake until crust is deep golden brown and filling is bubbly, 25 to 30 minutes longer. Cool on wire rack 2 hours before serving.

So, yeah. It works. The half-shortening makes for a much softer, gooshier dough than the all-butter version, and at first I didn't add enough water as a result, which meant that it wouldn't stay together in a ball, much less roll out. Once I splashed a bit of water around (just getting my hands wet and rolling the dough around a bit did the trick), it got very manageable. I even managed to make a pretty crimped edge. Then I covered it with plastic wrap and stuck it in the freezer.

The following day I pulled the frozen peaches out and thawed them. When I put them in they were delightful summer peach slices, full and ripe and, well, peachy. When they finished thawing they were droopy, dark brown, and took up about 3.5 cups instead of 7+ cups. This was alarming.

I shook the 1/4 cup or so of dried cranberries that I had on hand in, then sliced up an apple. This helped. The recipe calls for lemon juice but for once I only had bottled lemon juice on hand. Usually I hate that stuff, but I didn't mind or even notice it this time. And it seemed to improve the color of the filling:

I followed the cookbook's instructions to make a lattice top, then froze it. Surprisingly easy. The short answer is, you cut it with a pizza wheel. Roll, roll, snip. Lay four down, bend every other one back, lay down verticals, alternate, repeat. 

Easy as pie.

I froze the lattice for a half-hour to prepare it. Here's what my tidy, organized workstation looked like:

I dumped in my filling mixture, and it wasn't quite tall enough (freezer shrinkage), so then I added the sliced apples, arranging them on top (after dunking them in the leftover liquid). I added some candied ginger too, then regretted it and fished most of the pieces out. (Some did remain, and wound up adding a nice light zing). 

Once the filling was in, it was easy to transfer the lattice.

I love cinnamon, so I went a bit crazy cinnamoning the top.

I made a crucial and disappointing mistake when it came time to put the pie in the oven: the recipe says to pre-heat a baking sheet, then put the pie on the sheet. I did that, except the pre-heating.

What happened as a result: mushy, goopy, disappointing bottom crust. 

 It looked pretty good when it came out.

The filling tasted delicious- not as fresh as in summer, of course, but richly spiced and surprisingly real and potently tasty. The lattice top and sides were terrific: light, fluffy, crisp. I'm not sure they're better than the all-butter version, but it's definitely an appealing option. It's a real shame the bottom crust turned out wet and slimy...

Here's a cross-section for your analysis.

Lastly, an overhead camera angle.