Foodie Friday #5: Peaches. Caramel. Pie. What else could you want?
Except that, really, there is more that you could want: honey and bourbon.
When I saw the photos on Sassy Radish (some time ago), I knew it wouldn’t be long before I made it myself, though in actual fact I didn’t get around to it for about six weeks. I was waiting for the Ontario peaches to show up, and it feels like that took a while. (And now, I feel like I’m oversupplied; can’t complain about luscious, brightly flavoured, amaretto-kissed peach butter though!)
My standard peach pie usually involves sliced peaches topped with a sour cream-based custard, and it’s pretty damn good. However, the caramel won me over in a big way. I’ve done a similar thing with apple pie: a co-worker once told me that he was making a cabernet-infused caramel apple pie, and I’ve been kicking myself for the past three years for not extracting a recipe. My hack was tasty, but a bit more liquid than I prefer. This peach version worked immensely better.
I used Deb’s excellent all-butter pastry crust recipe for this; although I’ve been making my pie dough without a recipe for years, I do like this one a lot.
Sassy Radish’s Honey Bourbon Caramel Peach Pie
You’ll need a batch of your preferred pie pastry, of course, enough for a 9″ double-crust pie.
For the filling:
3 lbs ripe peaches, sliced (I followed Sassy Radish’s example and didn’t bother with peeling the peaches; no harm done. I refuse to peel peaches.)
2 Tbsp corn starch
1 1/2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
For the caramel:
1/4 cup liquid honey (recipes always say mild honey, but I generally buy and use Credit Valley Gold liquid buckwheat honey, and it is delicious. What’s with this mild honey thing?)
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 Tbsp bourbon
2 Tbsp water
3 Tbsp unsalted butter
1 Tbsp whole milk or cream (I never have whole milk on hand, but cream is fine)
1 Tbsp sugar (if you can find it, try Turbinado sanding sugar)
Pre-heat the oven to 425F, and make sure that you have a baking-sheet (lined with foil, if you’re really on top of things) to catch the drips (this pie will drip). If you don’t have a baking stone, preheat the baking-sheet along with the oven.
Start by tossing all of the filling ingredients together in a large bowl. I find this part is a bit tricky, because you don’t want to squish all the lovely slices of peach but I tend to have a bit of a heavy hand for things like this; you just want to make sure that the corn starch, flour, salt, and lemon juice evenly coat the peaches. I think you could experiment with the cinnamon – perhaps cloves would also be nice? (I’m a big fan of cloves.)
To make the caramel, bring the 1/2 cup sugar, honey, bourbon, and water to a boil in a heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium-high heat; wash down any sugar that sticks to the sides with a spatula or water-dipped brush. Let the caramel boil, swirling the pot occasionally, until dark amber, about 5 minutes. Remove the pot from the heat and stir in the butter, swirling until it has melted. Pour the caramel over the peaches and toss to ensure they are evenly coated.
Split your pastry into two parts, and roll it into a roughly 13″ round. Fit it into a 9″ pie plate and trim the edges so that there is about a half inch of overhang. Chill the lower crust while you roll out the upper. If you are going to have a solid top crust, roll it into a roughly 11″ round. Personally, I got fancy, so I cut it into strips to make a lattice-top.
Mound the peach filling on top of the lower pastry crust, and top with the upper crust. Press the edges together and crimp them. Brush with a little milk or cream and sprinkle with a tablespoon or so of sugar or sanding sugar. If you are going with the solid top, make sure you cut several steam vents into it.
Bake the pie on the hot baking sheet for about 20 minutes, then lower the heat to 375F and bake for another 40 – 50 minutes or until the crust is golden-brown and the filling is bubbling. (Ovens differ, so be careful with the times; mine was actually done in about 35 minutes.)
Let the pie cool for several hours before you dig in. If you can.
