Mom is in the same boat as my husband when it comes to birthday desserts. She'll take pie over cake any day. Her favorite pie is peach, and she has a weakness for crumb topping. So, I made this humdinger with local CT peaches (from Whittles) to celebrate her 60th birthday. She was content to settle for walnuts in the topping, but I had her pick up some pecans special. Using something other than pecans with peaches would have been sacrilegious. I'm sure any true Southerner would back me up on that. After taking the pie out of the oven, I ran back into the house to fetch something and caught her picking a couple pecans out of the steaming pie. She claimed they were just the burnt ones. Here's the recipe; it really does a good in-season peach justice:
Peach Crumb Pie (makes one 9" pie)
ingredients:
buttery pastry dough for bottom crust
1 scant c. white sugar
11 smallish peaches (peeled, pitted, and sliced)
4 heaping T. cornstarch
juice from half of one lemon
crumb topping:
1/2 c. all-purpose flour
1/2 c. brown sugar, packed
1/2 c. chopped pecans
3 T. unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
Mix filling ingredients in a large nonreactive bowl. Roll out bottom crust and place in pie dish. Fold and crimp edges. Freeze crust for 10 min. while oven preheats. Pour filling in. Put ingredients for crumb topping in a medium bowl and rub together with your fingers until it is all crumbly. Pile topping onto top of pie. Bake at 400 F for 25 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 F and continue to bake for another 35-40 minutes. Cool and serve. Mom likes hers with a generous dollop of Cool Whip.
Current Pie Tally: 143
