Southern Peach Pie
This recipe for Southern Peach Pie remains the best I’ve ever tried. When I tell you that the bourbon really makes a difference, I’m not kidding. It helps the crust get super flaky, and it makes your peaches sing. You’ll just have to try it for yourself!
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From the Archives: Southern Peach Pie
August 2017: Hooray! We’re in our new house and I’ve been a baking fiend since we got moved in. The first thing I baked in our new oven was a homemade cherry pie, which was a total experiment, but that recipe is going up as soon as we finish eating this peach pie!
After the cherry pie, there was an apple pie, brownies, peanut butter cookies, and chocolate chip blondies. All recipes I want to share… except the brownies…
I’m still trying to figure out how to stupid-proof (AKA Stanley-Proof) a brownie recipe and still get the consistency I’m looking for. A little while back, on Facebook, I posted a recipe that I thought had to be easy enough… and of course, I fudged it up (haha) and they somehow came out over baked and dry. Back to the drawing board.
So, about this peach pie.
This Crust is My Favorite
This crust is officially my go-to, and I know what you’re thinking. That’s an awful lot of stuff in your pie crust. Well, yes. Maybe you’d like it better without the sugar and spices. That’s your prerogative. Feel free to use your own pie crust recipe.
But let me tell you something.
The crust is so good you can literally take the pieces you don’t use and bake them up and eat them like graham crackers. Make a s’more with it, seriously. It takes the pressure off the pie filling to be gelatinous and gooey so that instead it can be subtly spicy and fragrant with fresh, juicy peach flavor.
A lot of the recipes I’ve been looking at have a ton of sugar in the filling and when you take a bite it’s this too-sweet goop inside a bland flavorless crust. Why not let the fruit shine and balance the sweet and spice throughout the pie as a whole?
Bourbon Makes it “Southern”
Oh, and the bourbon? Yeah… that’s what makes it southern. This is my thank-you to Nashville for being our new home and the place I finally put down some roots.
I was about to use my Corsair Quinoa Whiskey (Update: sadly, they are discontinuing this whiskey) to really seal this pie with a Nashville kiss, but I poured myself a little glass instead and decided it was too good for baking.
The bourbon plays off the peaches in a beautiful way. The peaches are sweet and a little sour, and the bourbon is warm and woody, creating a backbone for that delicate peachy taste to stand tall on.
In short, if you dread the idea of a sickly sweet peach pie, you’re in the right place. This baby comes with a complex flavor palette that goes beyond sugar and peaches and elevates the fruit to a more adult standard. You’ll never want another peach pie again.
A Note From the Present-Day
Today is Pi-Day, and I thought it was as good as any a day to share my favorite pie recipe with you. Honestly, I don’t have much more to say about making this pie, though.
What I do have to say is this, I sure hope you’re out there being safe, but not paranoid. Yes, you could get sick, and yes, you could spread germs but never be sick. That’s all very scary.
You know what else is scary though? Those in our community with weakened immune systems who suddenly do not have access to general necessities like toilet paper because selfish hoarders went and bought a lifetime supply this week.
Stay Safe, and Be a Good Neighbor
Please consider donating part of your stash to food banks and checking in (by phone first) to see if your neighbors need anything. Self-quarantine is a good way to help flatten the curve, but don’t forget to be a good neighbor, still.
While we’re on that subject, check in on your friends who have kids home from school for an extended period of time. Lack of childcare and, for some, proper meals for their kids is just as terrifying as the prospect of getting sick.
So, again, if you are sitting on a throne of canned vegetables that could feed you for two lifetimes, donate some to the food bank. There are definitely people who are going to need help in the coming days.
One Last Note: Pray for Nashville
This is probably the most controversial I’ve ever gotten in a post, but I don’t feel like it’s much of a political statement to tell you to keep your friends’ and neighbors’ welfare in your heart. Just be a good human.
And since I’m getting preachy, I’m going to throw one last note out there: Please pray for Nashville.
Last week, a massive tornado took out a lot of people’s homes. My office was without power for the week, but at least it was undamaged. A lot of families, though, are finding themselves dealing with homelessness on top of this wild Coronavirus lockdown.
Just imagine how apocalyptic the lives of these people must feel at this moment. Pray for them. And please, reach out and donate whatever you can. Here’s a site for some great resources.
Anyways, this post was supposed to be about my favorite recipe for Southern Peach Pie. I hope you’ll make yourself up a delicious pie today to celebrate Pi Day, and that you’ll consider ways to practice being a conscientious neighbor during these crazy days. All my love!
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Southern Peach Pie
Ingredients
Pie Crust
- 2 cups All-Purpose Flour
- 1 stick butter frozen
- ¼ cup pure cane sugar
- ½ tsp pink sea salt
- ½ tsp cinnamon
- ¼ tsp nutmeg
- ¼ tsp ginger
- ½ cup ice water
Peach Pie Filling
- 6 medium to large ripe peaches washed
- ¼ cup pure cane sugar
- ¼ cup bourbon
- 3 Tbsp corn starch
- 1 tsp pink sea salt
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- ½ tsp ginger
- ¼ tsp nutmeg
Optional Finish
- 2 Tbsp egg whites
- 1 Tbsp turbinado sugar Optional
Instructions
- Slice up your peaches into quarter inch wide slices. Toss in a medium bowl with the sugar, bourbon, corn starch, salt, cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg listed under the Filling ingredients. Cover, and refrigerate for 4 hours.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, salt, and spices for pie crust. Use a cheese grater to quickly grate in the frozen butter. With clean hands, gently work the flour into the butter just a little bit until the mixture looks coarse. Add ¼ cup of ice cold water (no actual ice though) into the mixture and stir with your hands. Continue adding a little drizzle of water to the mixture until the dough can form a ball. Cut the dough ball in half, and form each half into a disc. Cover in plastic and refrigerate for 2 hours.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F.
- Remove the dough from the fridge. Roll the first disc out until it is less than a 1/4 inch thick. Place into your favorite pie dish. Evenly arrange your peaches in the pie crust. Roll out the second disc of dough to less than 1/4 inch thick, and cut into ribbons. Lay the ribbons across the pie to form a lattice. As a bonus, you can lightly brush egg whites across the ribbons and sprinkle a little turbinado sugar on top for a bakery finish.
- Bake for 40 minutes, then remove to a cooling rack for half an hour to an hour. Cool completely before serving. Refrigerate the leftovers.
