This makes a great peach pie. The spices and the vanilla will remind you of peach cobbler. The slurry, with the spices, is a rich translucent caramel color which contrasts nicely with the golden peach slices.
Occasionally, we teach pie-making classes. Attendees always are surprised when we slip the whole pies from pans to platters to cut and serve them. (That way, you don’t mar your nonstick surfaces cutting the pies.) You can do that with a nice pie pan with a good nonstick surface.
3 cups fresh peaches, peeled and sliced 1/2 inch thick (from about 6 peaches)
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1/2 cup Original Clearjel (see note)
2/3 cup cold water
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (optional)
Prepared Pantry Professional Pie Crust Mix
1 tablespoon melted butter
1 tablespoon turbinado sugar
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
- Combine the sugar, cinnamon, allspice, and Clearjel in a medium saucepan. Mix well. Add the water and lemon juice. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly with a whisk, until it thickens and just begins to bubble. Take it off the heat immediately. Do not overcook. The slurry will thicken more when baking. Add the peach slices and vanilla and stir.
- Form the pie shell. Add the filling to the pie shell. Add the top and crimp the edges or make a lattice top. Brush the butter over the crust and sprinkle with the turbinado sugar. Unless you are using a lattice top, cut slits in the crust to allow the steam to escape.
- Place a pie shield over the crust edges to avoid over-cooking the edges of the pie crust. Bake for 45 minutes or until the crust is lightly browned and the filling is bubbly.
Baker’s note:
This recipe was developed in the test kitchen at The Prepared Pantry. Our testers declared this a very good peach pie recipe, maybe the best ever. There was some debate over whether it was sweet enough. If you would like a sweeter pie, use one cup sugar. The lemon juice in the recipe makes the pie a little tart — but the testers liked the tartness.
Clearjel is a starch product produced by National Starch Company. It produces a clearer, more jelly-like filling than does cornstarch. Clearjel can be purchased at The Prepared Pantry and other online retailers. Cornstarch may be substituted.
We started this recipe with 1/4 cup Clearjel to 2/3 cup water plus the lemon juice. The pie filling was too runny. One-half cup made a nice firm filling that, once cooled, sliced nicely without running.
