A taste of summer

    There are few things that I love as much as desserts made with fresh summer fruit... except for maybe making them :-). A couple of weekends ago, I picked up some peaches and they were spectacular! We cut them up and served them with whipped cream and raspberries, we made a cobbler (sadly, it was gone too quickly to take any pictures...) and finally, I decided to use the rest for a pie. Not only do I love making pies, I was pretty excited to break in our new kitchen. It's only the second time I've made peach pie (the first time was the streusel top one that I made last summer), but I thought it would be fun to take elements from a couple recipes and put them together to make something more interesting than the standard. I also strayed from my standard all-butter crust and opted for one that was half butter and half shortening. Overall, the effect was pretty great- I made it again last week, and I think it's damn near perfect :-).
    So, what did I do different? I've already mentioned the crust, but for those of you who don't know, crusts made with lard or shortening tend to be more tender and flaky, but butter crusts (at least in my humble opinion) have better flavor. I saw a crust recipe that used half shortening and half butter, and thought that it might just be the happy medium. I also substituted honey for some of the sugar, which I think was a good move. I found a recipe that made a honey caramel sauce and added it to the peaches prior to baking. Frankly, I thought this sounded like a pain in the butt, especially when you're already going to the trouble of peeling, pitting and slices all of those peaches AND making a crust from scratch. I can't say it's not worth it because I didn't try it, but I'll just say that I have my doubts. I used cinnamon, nutmeg and cardamom, which I think goes well with the fresh peaches and honey.
   Overall, I thought it ended up being pretty delicious. The peaches were the star (as it should be), but the crust was flaky and had good flavor, and the combination of honey and spices was subtle and complimented the flavor of the fresh fruit. It was not as sweet as many pies, but the honey adds an extra dimension to the flavor, and my husband won't eat things that are super-sweet, so I consider this a win. As a side-note, make sure that you pick ripe fruit or wait for them to ripen- crunchy, tasteless fruit will absolutely ruin any dessert.

Lattice Top Peach Pie

Crust:
12 Tbs cold unsalted butter
3 cup flour
1 tsp finely ground sea salt
1 Tb sugar
1/3 cup frozen shortening
1/2 cup ice water

Filling:
3 1/2- 4 lbs fresh, ripe peaches
1/3 c sugar
1/3 c honey
1/4 c cornstarch (heaping)
1 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp lemon zest
1 tsp ginger
1 Tb cinnamon
1/4 tsp cardamom
1/4 tsp nutmeg

-To make crust, pulse the flour, sugar and salt in a food processor, then add the cold shortening and butter and pulse until it is chopped to about the size of small peas. Then, slowly add the ice water as the food processor is running until the dough comes together.
-Divide the dough in half and form each into a round disc, wrap it in plastic wrap and chill for at least 30 minutes before rolling out.
-While the crust is chilling, peel peaches and remove the pits. I like to cut them in half and start peeling from the top (where the stem comes out) after the pit is removed and then cut them lengthwise. But, you can do it however you like :-).
-Mix the prepared peaches with the sugar, honey, lemon juice and zest, cornstarch and spices and set aside.
-Roll out one of the crust disks till the diameter is about 10 inches. Place it in a pie pan and trim off the edges so that there is about 1/2 inch overhang. Cover the pan with plastic wrap and put it back in the fridge.
-Roll out the second disk to about the same size and cut it into 1/2 inch strips.
-Pour the peach mixture into the pie shell, dot the filling with small pieces of butter (~3 Tb) and weave the strips into a lattice. I like to make the lattice right on the top of the pie, because transferring the lattice can be difficult. If you've never done this before, just start at the edge of the pie and alternate between adding one vertical and one horizontal strip and place the lattice directly on the pie (see the picture below). I found a video here that shows how to make the lattice: http://www.hulu.com/watch/35675/cooking-up-a-story-how-to-make-a-pie-top-lattice.
-Trim the edges of the lattice and crimp the edges with your fingers.
-Bake the pie for 1 hr- 1 hr and 20 minutes at 375 F. The crust should be golden brown and the juices bubbling. If the crust is brown but the pie doesn't look like it's quite done, cover the top with aluminum foil so the top doesn't burn.