Just picked up my order from The Peach Truck this week and am prepping for some yummy peach eating! I’m all about promoting our agricultural communities and I love the story of this family who is bringing fresh Georgia peaches to our communities!
I set those peaches out on the counter yesterday to ripen them up and a few were ready to go, so we had to eat those right away! Yum! A farmer friend calls them bathtub peaches, cause they’re so juicy you need to eat them in the bathtub! The Peach Truck people remind you to grab yourself a napkin! So true!
I sorted a few of the ripest Georgia peaches out to freeze them first. The ripe ones are those that are a bit heavier, pinker, and have a little give when pressed with your finger. When prepping for freezing your peaches, make one cut from stem all the way around the circumference of the peach.
Make another cut so that the peach is divided into fourths. Twist the peach away from the pit and peel each fourth. Slice each fourth into several more slices, add a tad of lemon juice and sugar (optional) and put them in a quart bag, making sure to get as much air out of the bag as possible.
The quart size bag is perfect since it can hold about 4 peaches. That is perfect for pies, cobblers, and several smoothie recipes!
Another peeling option is to cut a small X through the skin of the bottom of the peaches, without cutting deeply into the flesh. Place the peach in a pot of boiling water for 10-15 seconds. Remove from boiling water and place immediately into an ice bath to stop the cooking process. Once cool, remove from the cold water and grab the corner of skin at the base of the X with your paring knife. Peel towards the stem. The skin will come right off!
Mother’s Summer Peach Pie
- 3 cups Georgia peaches, peeled and sliced
- 2 eggs, slightly beaten
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 3 tablespoons flour
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup heavy cream
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
Chill unbaked pie crust in refrigerator for approximately 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Lay peach slices into a chilled 9 inch pie pastry. Set aside.
Whisk the eggs in a medium bowl slightly with a fork. Stir in sugar, flour, and vanilla. Gradually, stir in the cream and mix until just combined. Pour the cream mixture over the peaches evenly. Dot with butter.
Prepare pastry for lattice style top crust
Roll out pie dough for top crust on flour or between two pieces of pastry paper. Cut 1/2 inch strips with a pastry cutter. Lay half the strips on top of the filled pie, spaced evenly. Weave in the rest of the strips by folding every other strip back onto itself and laying another strip across it to create a criss cross pattern. Fold the strips back across and repeat until completed.
See below for directions on how to crimp the edges of the pastry together.
Bake 10 minutes at 400 degrees. Reduce heat to 350 degrees and continue baking for about 40 minutes. Make sure the center is set and the top is lightly brown. Cover edges with foil if getting too dark.
Let cool slightly and serve warm with vanilla ice cream! Refrigerate and enjoy cold pie later or warm back up – YUM!
Grandmother’s Pie Crust
My mother and grandmother whipped pies up quite often and always had a batch of extra dough. We loved to eat it raw or they would roll it out and cut it into thin strips with a pastry cutter. They were cut 4-6 inches long and left plain or sometimes sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar. Bake at 425 degrees or until slightly brown. These made for a yummy snack!
Double this recipe for a top lattice crust that is so so pretty!
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/3 cup Crisco shortening, cold
- 2-4 tablespoons ice water
Sift flour before measuring. Sift measured flour with salt added. Cut shortening into the flour with a pastry blender or pulse with a food processor until the mixture resembles course meal.
Add cold water a little at a time until mixture sticks together with a fork. Do not overwork the dough or crust will not turn out flaky.
Press dough together into a ball that is still rough, not smooth and wrap in a sheet of plastic wrap. Press into a small flattened disk. Refrigerate for 1-2 hours.
Roll out onto floured board or between two sheets of pastry paper until it spreads slightly beyond circumference of 9 inch pie pan. Fold in half and lay it over the pie pan. It should drape over the sides. Trim with kitchen scissors to make it even all the way around leaving just a bit of dough to work with for the edges.
Crimp the edges by repeatedly pressing the thumb and forefinger of one hand, held about an inch apart, along the inside rim of the crust. At the same time pushing into the space between these fingers along the outside rim with the forefinger of the other hand.
Check back for more old-fashioned family recipes using these yummy peaches!
Yummy Peach Bread
- 3 cups sliced Georgia peaches
- 6 tablespoons sugar
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup shortening
- 2 eggs
- 1/2-1 cup sliced almonds
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
Puree peaches and 6 tablespoons sugar in a blender or Nutribullet. Set aside.
Combine flour, baking powder, soda, salt and cinnamon in a small bowl. Set aside.
Combine sugar and shortening in a large bowl. Add eggs and mix well. Add peach puree and dry ingredients and continue mixing until smooth. Stir in nuts and vanilla.
Spoon batter evenly into two well greased and floured 9 x 5 x 3 inch loaf pans or 4-6 mini loaf pans. Bake at 325 degrees for 55-60 minutes for regular size pans. Reduce time for mini loaf pans by about 20 minutes or until a knife in the middle comes out clean.
Cool 10 minutes in pan. Loosen all edges with a spatula. Turn onto a rack to cool completely.
