Peach Pie

About the Fruit Wagon:

Doug and Leslie Balsillie have enjoyed establishing our orchards, berry plantations, market gardens and our retail Fruit Wagon along the shores of Lake Erie. It’s been a work in progress since 1984, and we have enjoyed having our four daughters growing up on the farm and helping out over the years. Our main harvest is fresh apples for commercial packers and for the Toronto Food Terminal. We harvest daily for our retail business on our roadside wagon from May until November. We also fill our van every Saturday from June until Thanksgiving for the Downtown Windsor Farmers Market on Pelissier Street in Windsor.

Ingredients:

  • 1 double recipe of pastry (2cups flour + 1 cup Crisco + 4 Tbsp water)
  • 4 cups peeled, sliced peaches + 1 Tbsp lemon juice
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 2 ½ – 4 Tbsp corn starch (depends on juiciness of peaches and desired thicknesss)

Making Peach Pie

Crust: Place flour in a large bowl, and place the Crisco in the centre. Using a pastry cutter, push the Crisco into the flour to form small uniform crumbles coated with flour. Add 4 T. cold water and mix lightly with your finger tips to wet crumbles. Form into 2 balls of pastry with a minimum of handling. Sprinkle flour on your rolling surface and roll your pin in the flour. Place the first ball in the middle of the flour, sprinkle lightly with flour and press with your hand. Use your pastry roller to make a round about 2” larger than your pie plate. Roll the pastry onto your pin and transfer to the pie plate. Repeat with the 2nd ball to form the pie top. Cut steam vents before rolling onto your pin.

Mix together and pour into pie crust. Do not overfill. Top with pastry with vents. If desired, sprinkle cinnamon sugar on top. Bake at 450F for 15 minutes, then turn oven down to 350 F for 35 minutes. Pie is done when peach filling is bubbling through the steam vents. Cool and serve.

Fresh peach pie is delicious, but to enjoy this in the winter, I freeze the filling like this: Line your pie plate with freezer paper or plastic wrap larger than the pie plate. Mix the filling using fresh sliced peaches + sugar + corn starch. Pour filling into pie plate, and leaving the paper or plastic open, place in freezer overnight. Remove frozen filling form by pulling the plastic away from the pie plate. Tape plastic wrap shut with masking tape. Put frozen pie filling in a second plastic bag, labelled, and return to the freezer. To bake, line pie plate with fresh pastry and remove plastic from frozen filling. Cover with top pastry. Put in microwave on high for 10 minutes to begin thawing filling. Then bake as usual in regular oven at 450 F for 15 minutes, and 350 F for 35 minutes.

Note : For 10″ pie plates, I use 6 cups of fruit + 1 ½ cups of sugar + 4 Tbsp of corn starch.