Fresh Glazed Peach Pie

So I lied. It took me about three days after I said I was going to make peach pie to actually make my peach pie. But to be fair, I was waiting for my peaches to ripen (heh). In the end, it took me three days to assemble this pie, and that was with help from both my parents (but not my cat, Mashka. She just kind rolled around on the floor seeking to get fed. We did not give her pie.)

I made the pie crust on Thursday night, and the filling and pastry cream on Friday, and then finally, after refrigerating both the filling and the pastry cream over night, assembled the pie on Saturday. I don't think anyone else would need all that time to finish making a pie, but I'm pretty sure I have ADD, so hence, once I'd finished one part of the pie, I'd get distracted and start watching HBO or trying to finish reading "The Exorcist," which has, incidentally, kept me awake for about three nights now.

I spent the better part of an hour trying to find a recipe for a fresh peach pie online, partly because I remember tasting the most delicious peach pie at a family friend's house in Taipei one summer, and partly because I'm really not a fan of warm cooked fruit. Plus, it's peach season here in Beijing, and it just seems a terrible waste to cook these lovely ripe peaches.

This recipe from Salad in a Jar looked amazing (it helps that this woman's pictures are just so pretty), and I used another one of her recipes for the pie crust, which was amazing, and so easy to make. Here's what the pie was supposed to look like: http://www.salad-in-a-jar.com/family-recipes/glazed-fresh-nectarine-or-peach-pie

And here's the crust I used (scroll down to find the pat-in-the-pan crust): http://www.salad-in-a-jar.com/family-recipes/the-best-glazed-fresh-strawberry-pie

Here's what my pie ended up looking like:

I pretty much followed the recipe from Salad in a Jar exactly, only I used lemon jelly instead of peach jelly, because procuring peach jelly in Beijing has so far proved impossible. Granted, I didn't really go on an extensive hunt for peach jelly, but I figured lemon would work just as well, and might cut the sweetness of the recipe a bit anyway. It ended up working out fine, especially when my dad instructed me to add a generous tablespoon of Kirsch to the glaze mixture. That worked out nicely, especially considering people in my family really like their fruit liqueurs. Aside from the jelly and the Kirsch though, I also added a layer of pastry cream under the peaches, another suggestion from my dad, our resident baking guru. The man is a legend, and pretty much all I know about baking (not a whole lot, but enough not to burn a pie crust) comes from having watched him for nearly twenty years.

When I was little, I used to wreak havoc by poking holes in all my dad's freshly baked cakes as they were cooling on wire racks. I have a vague recollection of doing so, in fact, although I only remember doing it once and then getting yelled at, whereas my parents tell me it was a common occurrence. I still like squishing things today, but don't tend to poke my own baked goods for obvious reasons, such as the fact that I'm turning twenty in a month, and that would just be weird.

Anyway, back to baking: for the pastry cream, I just googled a recipe, and found this one, which turned out beautifully: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/pastry-cream-2/



It turned out to be just what the pie needed, although half the pie was filled with pastry cream, which might have been overkill. We didn't have enough peaches in the end though, so the pastry cream served a two-fold purpose. All in all, this was a pretty easy pie to make, just time-consuming. But baking with the family is always fun, and here are some pictures just to prove that I'm not a fraud :)



This is my Dad. According to Bridget Jones's Diary, you should always introduce people with thoughtful detail. My dad teaches Chinese to foreigners in Beijing and reads dictionaries for fun. His other hobbies include piano-playing and playing with Mashka.