Everything's Peachy: Peaches and Cream Pie

The hot summer days continue, and sometimes it seems too hot to enjoy eating. I never thought I would say such an outrageous thing, but it has been uncharacteristically hot for a typical Asheville summer. As usual, though, my attitude changed when I started thinking about pies. Fresh peaches abound, and peaches have always been my favorite summer fruit. I had already made several tasty peach pies, and then decided to try a different take on the usual peach pie. I flipped through my pie book,The Four and Twenty Blackbirds Pie Book by the Elsen sisters, and there was a picture of an unusual pie called the "Peaches and Cream Pie". This had fascinated me for quite some time, not to mention I needed to continue my quest to make every pie in this delightful book, so I got to work.

This pie uses fresh peaches, granulated sugar, and brown sugar, as is common for most peach pies. However, added to this is cream cheese, sour cream, allspice, and egg. The mixture is spooned on top of an oatmeal crumble crust,instead of  a regular butter crust. This pie is baked in a metal pan, as opposed to the typical glass pie plate. It is recommended that this pie can be served either at room temperature or chilled. The cream cheese/custard mixture is a nice, refreshing topping for the sweet peaches. Although it does not have the succulent flavor of other pies in this book, it is a nice light pie that is particularly good when chilled, and is easy to make. The allspice really stands out as a great taste with the peaches. As usual, the pie was eaten quickly, so I would make it again! The book recommends using other fruits, such as nectarines or berries, when peaches are not available.

Because good peaches are so abundant now, I decided to make another pie, this one with peaches and fresh blueberries, which are also in season now. This recipe was one that I created myself, combining parts of several recipes. I love the peach/blueberry combination, and this pie was was a hit with my out of town guests. In fact, it was so popular that I only got one piece! Vanilla ice cream was the perfect companion. I plan to make another of these as soon as possible! One piece of pie baking advice that I am sharing with you  is that I prefer using ground arrowroot instead of corn starch for fresh fruit pies. The corn starch often overwhelms the fresh fruit, while arrowroot provides just the right amount of thickening.

Now that I have made several good pies, I have an appetite again! Of course, fresh vegetables from my husband's garden have also been delicious, and something that I can look forward to in this steamy weather. I will continue my pie making, including a re-do of a limoncello cream pie that was not so successful. I have developed a strong liking for this after dinner liqueur after my Italy trip. If at first you don't succeed, try try again, particularly if it involves limoncello!