MAKE A PEACH PIE!

MAYBE TWO?

Actually, the title of this post should be “When friends give you a bushel of peaches….”   Our great friends (and neighbors) went for a long trip during the Summer, and asked us two important favors. “Use our swimming pool as often as possible” and “Harvest all our veggies and fruits and enjoy them”. !!!!!!

Yes, you are all allowed to be jealous, not everyone has the same good luck…   These friends are beyond special for many reasons, the pool and the fruits don’t even make it into the top five!

Besides being fantastic folks, they are great gardeners.   If my beloved husband and I would ask you to stop by to  “harvest and enjoy” our garden, you’d be lucky to leave with a skinny zucchini (Skinny Zucchini, too bad I already named my blog!), a few unripe tomatoes, and a tiny bunch of basil.  This is not the case with our neighbors, who mean business in the garden.  We had a major peach invasion of our home:  at least one hundred (probably  more, we stopped counting after a while) gorgeous pieces of fruit!

DH came to the rescue, as he usually does in fruity situations. As a matter of fact, if a pie has a lattice, then you can be sure I wasn’t involved.  This time I took a completely secondary role, washing the dishes and admiring my beloved’s skill producing two gorgeous pies after 10pm on a work day. Sorry, ladies, he’s definitely taken!   😉

PEACH PIE
(recipe adapted from Joy of Cooking, 2nd edition)

Para receita em portugues, visite o Cantinho Brasileiro na pagina seguinte

10-12 peaches, white or yellow fleshed
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/8 tsp salt
1  + 1/2  Tbs cornstarch
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1  + 1/2  T butter
1 Tbs lemon juice
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg yolk, beaten with a little water (egg wash)

1 recipe of pie crust (click here for my favorite) or store bought, good quality pie crust

Heat the oven to 450F.

Peel, core, and cut the pieces into slices and add to a large bowl.  Combine the brown sugar, salt, cornstarch, cinnamon, and nutmeg, and sift the mixture all over the fruit, mixing well.

Roll half of the pie dough to cover the bottom of a 9-inch pan, and add the fruit mixture to it.  Sprinkle lemon juice all over, and dot with butter.

Roll the second half of the dough, and form a lattice. Cover the pie, brush the crust with egg wash, sprinkle with a little cinnamon and sugar, and place it in the oven. After 10 minutes, reduce the temperature to 350F and bake for 35 to 45 minutes more, until the crust is golden, and you can see the juices bubbling through the opening.

Cool it over a rack, and serve with or without whipped cream (freshly whipped, of course!)

ENJOY!

Here are some photos of the pie in the making….

Gorgeous peaches, thanks to our dear neighbors

Assembling the pies….

Into the oven they both went…

CANTINHO BRASILEIRO

TORTA DE PESSEGOS

10-12 pessegos maduros
1/2 xicara de acucar mascavo
1/8 colher de cha’ de sal
1  + 1/2  colher de sopa de maizena
1/4 colher de cha’ de canela moida
1/8 colher de cha’ de noz moscada moida
1  + 1/2  colher de sopa de manteiga
1 colher de sopa de suco de limao amarelo
1 colher de cha’ de baunilha
1 gema de ovo batida com um pouquinho de agua

1 receita de massa de torta de sua preferencia

Aqueca o forno a 230 C.

Descasque e corte os pessegos em fatias finas, coloque em uma tigela grande. Combine o acucar mascavo, sal, maizena, canela e noz moscada e peneire sobre a fruta, misturando  bem.

Abra metade da massa para cobrir uma forma de torta (cerca de 23cm de diametro), adicione a mixtura de frutas, respingue o suco de limao por cima, e coloque a manteiga em pedacinhos sobre a superficie.

Abra a segunda metade da massa e forme uma grade para cobrir a torta. Pincele a superficie com a gema de ovo, e salpique com acucar e canela (opcional).  Coloque no forno, e depois de dez minutos reduza a temperatura para 175 C. Asse por mais 35 a 45 minutos, ate’ que a massa fique bem dourada e o recheio estiver  borbulhando.

Deixe esfriar e sirva com creme chantilly, feito na hora…

BOM APETITE!