I had frozen peaches (put away last September from the bounty of the local farmer's market), and I wanted to use them. I also was craving ginger. So I did some googling and decided to use this recipe (I also found this and this, in case you're doing a survey of the literature).
I decided to stick with my current favorite dough recipe, from Four and Twenty Blackbirds, found here and first described in this post. I also had a new pastry cutter courtesy of my darling wife, so I was eager to try a known recipe and see if I could see an improvement.
The filling recipe, minus pie-dough prep, runs thus, with my notes added in:
For the filling:
2 3/4 pounds peaches (about 8 medium), peeled, pitted, and sliced into 16ths (mine, obviously, were frozen, and about twice this quantity, though it wound up being just the right amount)
2 tbs grated fresh ginger (I'd actually use ground ginger instead next time... and I love fresh ginger)
1 tbs fresh lemon juice (I used tangelo, because I had one... and didn't have a lemon)
1/4 cup + 2 tbs (3 oz) sugar (I used honey)
Pinch salt
4 tsp cornstarch
1 egg, lightly beaten with 1 tbs of water (for egg wash)
Place peaches in a large bowl and sprinkle on the ginger, lemon juice, sugar and salt. Toss to coat evenly, and let macerate for at least 30 minutes, up to 1 hour. Place peaches in a fine mesh strainer set over a bowl and drain off the excess liquid – the peaches will release about a cup of liquid. Transfer peaches to a clean bowl and toss with the cornstarch until all of the cornstarch disappears.
(I found that my frozen peaches didn't generate much drained liquid, which was surprising. Perhaps lemon juice would have helped? Or perhaps I should have thawed longer than a couple hours?)
Pour the liquid into a small saucepan and boil over high heat until syrupy and lightly caramelized – it will reduce to about 1/3 of a cup. Pour the syrup over the peaches, tossing gently. Transfer mixture to the empty pie shell.
Remove the second disk of dough from the refrigerator and roll between lightly floured pieces of parchment paper until 1/8 inch thick (it should be slightly larger than the diameter of the pie). Freeze for 20-30 minutes.
Remove from freezer and, using a ruler and straight edge, slice the dough into 1 inch strips. Place strips over pie in a lattice pattern. Cut off lattice excess so that it is even with the edge of the pan. Fold over overhang from the bottom, to form a neat edge. Crimp edges with a fork, or your fingers. Lightly brush lattice and crust with egg wash and sprinkle with extra sugar. To help relax the pastry and help the pie hold its shape, refrigerate for at least 1 hour before baking.
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Bake pie for 40-50 minutes, until the juices in the center of the pie bubble thickly. If the crust begins to over-brown, wrap the edge in foil. Let pie cool on a rack at least 3 hours before serving. (As usual, I rushed my serving time, though I know from experience that cooling is an important step)
Frozen fruit is interesting. It loses crispness of course, and becomes mushy. But it also deepens flavor in unexpected ways. This pie was only a half-success: I added too much ginger (and ought to have cooked the ginger in with the juice in the third step, to mellow it a bit!) and overall the flavor and texture were both dull (more lemon juice needed perhaps?) and a bit mushy. It tasted pretty great cold the second day, but the evening it was first served was a little disappointing. My crust technique seems to be pretty strong at the moment though. (This was also my first try at using my new pastry cutter, which made it much easier to mix in the butter without manhandling the dough for too long, which seemed to make a noticeable improvement).
And now for the photos:
Dough, shaped to the pie pan:
Frozen peaches, mixed with other ingredients and looking mushy:
The filled pie:
Perhaps my most sloppy lattice top yet. (I thought I was supposed to be getting better at this!)
Egg wash!
And, finally, what a slice looked like!
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