My old Betty Crocker says that you can make either an apple pie or a blueberry pie “Dutch” by pouring a little heavy cream into the filling, either before you put the top crust on your blueberry pie, or 15 minutes before your apple pie is done through the pie slits. They don’t say and I have no idea what makes this Dutch, but it seems to me a no-brainer to add cream to a peach pie. So, I’m just going to make a regular peach pie with a cutout top, and pour in some cream before it’s completely baked, as suggested for the apple pie. I think a lattice would look nice, but I’m not in a weaving mood, so I’m cutting out some shapes from what would be the top crust to semi-cover the top—and make it easier to pour in the cream. I have a pretty good idea about the mess I would make trying to pour cream through pie slits.
Since I still have buttermilk from the recent pot pie, I’m going to make another buttermilk crust, but this time with the food processor. The only hard part of this pie is peeling the peaches—the boiling water, the ice water, the mess. I better go do that now. Take note that if your peaches are firm, like mine are, the peel may not peel off after dropping in boiling water then ice water, but you should still do that routine, because it makes it easier to peel with a vegetable peeler without taking off too much valuable flesh.
After sitting in the sugar-flour-cinnamon mixture, my peaches created a ton of juice. I think it might be a messy pie. One advantage of making a pie with a lattice or cutouts is that there are a lot of open spaces so juices will not have to bust out of the edge. If such a pie makes way too much juice, use a baster to remove some of it before it boils over.
Buttermilk Pie Crust
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
Optional: 1-2 tablespoons sugar (better in a dessert pie)
1 cup cold butter (2 sticks) cut in small cubes
1/2-3/4 cup whole buttermilk, depending on your humidity
heavy cream and decorating sugar for top
- Mix together the flour, salt, and sugar (if using) in a food processor.
- Pulse in cold butter until uniformly distributed, but not too finely.
- Add in buttermilk through the processor chute until the dough holds together but is not overly sticky. I had to use a little more than the 1/2 cup, but not quite as much as 3/4 cup.
- Knead the dough lightly into a fairly smooth ball, cut in half, and shape each half into an 8 inch disc. Wrap each disc in plastic and refrigerate for about an hour.
- Roll each disc to a circle about 2 inches bigger than your pie dish. My dish is a regular 9 inch dish, not too deep.
- Fit one crust into your dish, trimming the overhang. Turn under the edges and crimp. Cover the edges with foil if you think the crust will become too dark. I did not.
- Fill the crust, then place crust cutouts in pattern of your choosing.
- Brush the cutouts with heavy cream and sprinkle decorators sugar on top.
- Bake at 425° for about 45 minutes. About 30 minutes into the baking, pull the rack out and pour 2-4 tablespoons of heavy cream into the filling, trying not to hit the cutouts. I put a large piece of foil under my dish, because I could see there was going to be a juicy overflow.
Peach Filling from the old Betty Crocker’s New Picture Cook Book (1961):
6 large peaches, peeled and sliced
1 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/3 cup flour
My addition: 2-4 tablespoons heavy cream
Mix all together and let sit while the dough chills. If you are concerned that all the juice won’t thicken in the pie, you could always cook the filling first in a saucepan, which wouldn’t be much different from using a canned filling, but it would still be your own. I have made many pies in my life that just didn’t work right, when either the fruit didn’t cook enough or the juices didn’t thicken. Oh, well.
It turned out very well, if a little juicy. I might try cornstarch instead of flour next time so more of the juice thickens. The cream adds a little richness to the filling and it looks nice swirling among the thickened juices—I’m not sure that shows in my pics.
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