Carolina Peach Pie

Our local Farmer's Market had a sale on 25lb crates of peaches for just $15 and I decided I would try my hand at making some semi-homemade peach pies. I am a big fan of Sandra Lee and Semi Homemade. Even though I am able to cook 100% homemade, I have learned some nifty tricks to making a big baking project (or family dinner) a whole lot quicker by using as little as 1 pre-made item.For the pies, that pre-made item was the piecrust. Southern Home is a popular store brand here in the Carolinas, and I used a ready made crust by Southern Home as the foundation for my Fresh Peach Pie.

Now, having never made a Fresh Peach Pie before, I was unaware of the fact that you needed to peel the peaches before slicing them and putting them in the pie. So my first pie included the peach skins. (once it was baked you couldn't even tell the difference between the peeled and not peeled peaches).

After a little giggle, my mother informed me that I needed to blanch the peaches briefly in boiling water and then submerge them in an ice bath to make the skins peel right off in one easy swipe. This process left me with a bowl full of glistening gorgeous peaches.


After that, I cut them in half, removed the pit, and sliced them up.


Then I added 1/4 cup flour, 1 cup sugar, and 1/2 tsp cinnamon to the peach slices, gently folding it in until all the peaches were coated. The blanching causes the peaches to soften a bit and release their juices, so the added sugar and flour creates a sweet golden colored glaze on the peaches. Once that was done, I poured the prepared peach mixture into the pie crust. It was so pretty of course I had to take a picture of it.

I topped that off with another ready-made pie crust, pinching the edges, I cut four small slits along the top for the steam to escape, covered the edges with foil and popped it in a 400 degree oven for about an hour to an hour and ten minutes.

The result was a scrumptious Fresh Peach Pie with just the right combination of sweet and tart in the filling.

Of course I topped each piece off with some Ready Whip!

I used 8-10 peaches per pie and made 4 pies with all those peaches:-)