Tips for Baking Fresh Peach Pies

With summer, come the most delicious tree-ripened peaches that make for heavenly pies. And it’s true that tree-ripened peaches are the juiciest there are, so how do you avoid a pie that’s runny or soupy? Here are my tips:

• A lot of pie recipes out there don’t account for tree-ripened fruit, so you’ll want to add a tiny bit more thickener. For example, If your peach pie recipe calls for 3 tablespoons of flour, increase the flour to 4 tablespoons.

• A juicy pie is bound to spill over once the juices begin to bubble. If that happens, the juices will burn on the bottom of the oven and get smoky, resulting in a smoky tasting pie (and a smoky kitchen). To avoid this, prior to heating the oven, line the oven shelf below the shelf your pie will be baking on with aluminum foil.

• No matter what the baking time for your recipe, make sure to bake the pie until the CENTER juices are bubbling. This can mean the pie will take A LOT longer to bake than the recipe calls for. (Make sure to cover the crust with foil once it’s golden brown to avoid a burned crust with the extended baking time).

• Allow the pie to cool until lukewarm, so the thickener can do its work. If you cut the pie while it’s hot, the thickener will not have time to set and the pie will be soupy.

• If you do end up with a soupy pie, serve the slices in bowls, along with scoops of vanilla ice-cream and it will be the most delicious soup you’ve ever had! 🙂

You can find my recipe for Peach Pie here and my Huckleberry Peach Pie recipe here.

My Pie Crust recipe can be found here.