Fresh Peach Pie

One of the foods I really dislike is cooked peach pie or cobbler.  Yuck!  Why ruin the delicious flavor of fresh peaches by cooking them.  I had ruled out peach pie entirely until I came across this recipe.  It is AMAZING!  I am in love with the flavor of almond and it is so good along side fresh peaches.  Combine those with a great homemade pie crust and I'll tell you what you have...heaven!

Pie Crust
1 1/3 C. Flour
1/2 tsp. Salt
1/2 C. Shortening
About 5 T. Cold Water

Mix together flour and salt.  Add shortening and cut in with a pastry cutter or two knives until it looks like bread crumbs.  Add water and mix with a spoon until you have a soft ball of dough.  On a floured surface rollout dough into a circle and transfer to your pie plate.  Tuck extra dough behind edges of dough to thicken dough around the perimeter of your crust.  Pinch edges of your crust however you like or use a fork to press designs into the crust.  Prick your crust all over the bottom with a fork to create air holes.  This prevents the crust from bubbling up while cooking.  Bake crust at 425 degrees for 15 minutes or until edges turn light brown. 

Peach Filling
3 Peaches, peeled and sliced
1 C. Sugar
4 T. Corn Starch
1/2 C. Water
2 Peaches, diced small
1/4 tsp. Almond Extract
3 T. Butter
1 small container whipped topping

Place the sliced peaches into the bottom of your cooled pie crust.  In a small sauce pan combine the sugar, corn starch, water and diced peaches.  Heat to boiling and boil for 1-2 mintues stirring constantly until mixture becomes very thick.  Add almond extract and butter.  Stir to combine then pour over fresh peaches.  Top with whipped topping and refrigerate at least 1 hour before serving.

Pear Crumble Pie

A lady in my ward asked me if I would use the pears off of her tree before they went to waste.  I plan to bottle most of them but my mother-in-law told me that every time she bottled pears she would reserve 6 or 7 and make a this pear pie.  She started making it in college and it has become a tradition in their family.  I decided to surprise my husband and try it out for family night.  It was so good!  I think she said the recipe came from the 1960's version of the Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook. 

Filling:

6-7 medium Pears

3 T. Lemon Juice

1/2 C. Sugar

2 T. Flour

1 tsp. Lemon Zest

1 9" pie crust, unbaked

Crumble Topping:

1/2 C. Flour

1/2 C. Sugar

1/2 tsp. ginger

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 tsp. nutmeg

1/4 C. Cold Butter or Margarine

Combine all Crumble Topping ingredients except butter in a small mixing bowl and mix well.  Add butter and use a pastry blender or two knives to cut butter into flour mixture until it resembles crushed gram crackers or bread crumbs.  Slice 5 pears into chunks and Cut the remaining pear(s) into 6ths.  Sprinkle pears with lemon juice.  Mix sugar, flour and zest.  Stir into pear chunks.  Spoon filling into pie pastry then lay pear wedges over top.  Sprinkle with Crumble Topping.   Bake at 400 degrees for 45-50 minutes.  I liked this pie best completely cooled off.