Peach Blueberry Pie

It's peach season in the South so naturally we've been eating all we can.  I love to can peaches but haven't had time this year, so we've just been eating them fresh.  However, to change things up a bit I decided to try a pie.  Blueberries are my husbands favorite so when I saw this recipe I thought it was perfect.  Also, I had a handful of raspberries in my refrigerator so I threw those in too.

I loved the flavor of this pie.  Sweet and interesting because of the multiple fruit flavors.  The mixture is perfect and held up very well when sliced and served up. Perfect with some ice cream or whipped cream.

I just used a store bought crust which is not what I normally do, but it was still delicious.  If you make a homemade crust it'll be the hit of dessert!  I hope you can try this one this summer with some of your local peaches.

Peach Blueberry Pie
Recipe from Taste of Home

Ingredients

• 1 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/8 tsp ground allspice
• 3 cups peaches, sliced and peeled
• 1 cup blueberries, fresh or frozen
• pastry for double crust 9 inch pie
• 1 Tbsp butter, at room temperature
• 1 Tbsp milk
• cinnamon sugar

Cooking Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 400º
2. Make the pie crust and put it in the pie plate (or use pre-made)
3. In a large bowl, mix together the sugar, flour, cinnamon and allspice and whisk. Add the fruit and stir to coat.
4. You can either top the pie with a full pie crust and cut to ventilate or create a lattice top.
5. After you've added the top crust, cut off the excess crust around the edges leaving about 1/2 an inch overhand so you can tuck it under the bottom crust and seal with your fingers or a fork.
6. Use a brush to spread milk over the top and then sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.
7. Bake for 40-45 minutes, until golden. Let cool slightly before serving.

Peach Cobbler

Being in the South, it's imperative to have these classics available.  Especially when the peaches here are some of the best you've ever tasted!  My daughter and I love to go peach picking at a local farm nearby.  Peach picking doesn't start here for about another month but the farm still had some available when we went there to pick blueberries.  I quickly brought them home and before we ate them all I knew I'd have to make this cobbler.  

Very simple to assemble, no fancy ingredients and even if you're not a baker, this one is easy. The finished result is wonderful.  Sweet crust with a tiny bit of chewiness around the edges.  The peaches are sweet, tender and juicy.  We topped this with some of the homemade ice cream I made recently and it was amazing. 

Peach season will be here soon!  Time to get ready!

Peach Cobbler

Recipe from Southern Living My Recipes

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 cups granulated sugar, divided
• 1 Tbsp baking powder
• pinch of salt
• 1 cup milk
• 4 cups fresh peach slices
• 1 Tbsp lemon juice
• ground cinnamon or nutmeg (optional)

Cooking Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 375º
2. Melt the butter in a 9x13 inch baking dish or you can melt it in a small bowl and pour it in the dish.
3. In a medium bowl combine the flour, 1 cup of sugar, the baking powder and salt. Add the milk and mix just until its all moist.
4. Pour over the top of the butter. Set aside.
5. In a saucepan, combine the peaches, lemon juice and the remaining 1 cup of sugar and cook until boiling, stirring constantly.
6. Pour over in the prepared dish but DO NOT stir.
7. Sprinkle with cinnamon or nutmeg if desired.
8. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes.

Fantastic Fruit Salad

We finally made it back home!  It was a long, long process.  I had such a good time visiting my family in Montana that it overpowers our struggles to get home. I will be posting pictures soon, I still need to figure out how to get some off of my phone....I guess I'll google that.

While we were there, my aunt made us several meals and this fruit salad was at two of them.  It was a definite hit.  Even though I didn't make this myself, I felt it had to be shared.

Talk about the perfect summer fruit salad.  Since there isn't any dairy this can be brought on a picnic where refrigeration isn't possible.  The pie filling made the salad smooth and added a nice sweetness.  I really liked the use of fresh strawberries vs frozen, I would definitely make this again.

Fantastic Fruit Salad

Recipe from my aunt Cathy

Ingredients

• 2 cans mandarin oranges, drained
• 2 cans (15 oz) pineapple chunks, drained
• 1 (16 oz) package frozen strawberries (she used fresh)
• 1 can peach pie filling
• 1 can apricot pie filling (she couldn't find this so she used 2 can's of peach)
• 2 banana's, sliced

Cooking Directions

1. Add all of the ingredients into a medium bowl and gently mix together.

Some 4th of July Favorites

This Crepe Cake is a show stopper.  If you're looking for a dessert that will make people's eye's grow wide and mouth start to water, this is it.

Sour Cream Blueberry Pie has 4th of July written all over it!

PW's Barbecue Sauce will make any barbecue better.

Nellie & Joe's Tropical Ice is so cool and refreshing that it'll cool you down from the 4th of July sizzle.

Fudge Pop's are a family favorite, just try to find a kid who doesn't like them!

Blueberry Raspberry Cobbler has all the 4th of July colors! Doesn't hurt that it's delicious too.

How about a yummy Peach Margarita to cool you off?

Peach Cobbler is one of my favorites!  This recipe will rock your world.

I hope you all have a safe and happy 4th of July!

How to Freeze Peaches

So, you may remember that several weeks ago I went with my friend Melissa to go Peach and Blueberry picking.

Well, turns out this is WAY too many peaches for me to try to eat while keeping them fresh.  So, I had two choices in my book.  Peach jam (yum) or freeze them.  It sort of takes two people to make peach jam so I decided to freeze them.

Here's how I did it.

First wash the peaches, then give them a quick dip in boiling water. They only need to be in there for 20-45 seconds.

Now put them in a bowl of ice water. This will make the skins come right off.

Peel off the skins and slice.  Put into a container and pour in the lemon juice.  Make sure all the peaches have been covered with some lemon juice so they don't start to turn dark.  Next, add the liquid of your choice.  I used apple juice but you can also make a syrup using water and sugar.

Put them in (I used quart sized) freezer bags and freeze.

This is the greatest resource ever if you want to make jam, jellies, freeze fruit or find a place near you that has fruit picking and so on. Pick Your Own

I found the instructions for freezing peaches here

What you'll need:
5 good sized peaches (make sure they are freestone, or cling-free)
4 Cups of fruit juice
1/4 Lemon juice

What to do:
Wash the peaches
Place them in boiling water for 20-45 seconds
Remove them and place them in a dish of ice water.
Peel the skins off
Take the pit out.
Cut into pieces
Pour the lemon juice over the peaches and stir around to make sure all the peaches get covered.
Pour in the apple juice.
Bag in freezer bags.
Freeze

For much more detail about using syrups instead of juice and other details please view the link above for freezing.

Strawberry Peach Icebox Pie

A couple of weeks ago a co-worker of mine let me borrow her HUGE pie cookbook.  Since then I've marked probably about 50 pies that I'd like to try.  I think this amount is pretty good considering there were over 600 pages in the cookbook.  This icebox pie is the first one I've attempted so far and I think it was pretty darn good.  I did do some modifications when it came time to make the crust because the directions in this book are pretty in depth and it didn't adhere to my last minute nature....but all the same I think it was just fine. 
Here is a link to the cookbook, if you're interested: Pie: 300 Tried-And-True Recipes for Delicious Homemade Pie

First things first, lets make the crust OR if you're short on time go buy a graham cracker crust.  There are a million different recipes out there for homemade crust and I used the one for a single crust made with shortening from this cookbook.

Add the flour and sugar

Salt

Shortening (it was supposed to be cold, but mine wasn't).

Use your pastry blender until you get pea sized pieces of shortening.  This makes for a flaky crust.

Use ice cold water to mix the dough until it forms a ball - do not overuse the water. Just add water until the dough comes together.

Roll the dough out until it'll fit the circumference of your pie dish. 

Fold it in half...

Place it in your dish and unfold.  Patch up any torn spots by pressing the dough together.

This is where you might want to do something differently.  I'm not a huge fan of too much crust so I cut mine off as shown above.  If you like more crust you'll want to leave enough around the edges to fold under and use your fingers or a fork to flute the edges.  You'll also want to account for the dough shrinking up a bit in the oven and leave some room for that.

Poke holes along the bottom to prevent it from puffing up.  You can also use baking beans if you have any.

Bake in a preheated oven until golden.  As you can see, mine shrunk up in the oven - but that's OK with me.  I'm in it for the filling anyway. Refrigerate this so its nice and cool for the mixture.

Time to prepare the fruit.  Fresh Strawberries and Peaches, washed.

Skin and pit the peaches.

Cut the peaches into bite sized pieces.

Place the peaches in a medium sized sauce pan and add sugar.

Zest a lemon.

Add the zest to the peach/sugar mixture.

Turn the heat on and let the peaches come up to a boil for about 5 minutes.

Get the lemonade and cornstarch ready.

Mix the cornstarch into the lemonade right before its needed in the peach mixture.

Pour the cornstarch/lemonade mix into the peaches.  This will thicken very quickly.

Once it's thickened, pour the mixture into a large 9x13 inch dish to let cool. Spread it out as much as possible to speed things along.

While the peach mixture cools, cut up your strawberries.

Once the peach mixture is cool, pour the cut strawberries in and mix together.

Pour the fruit mixture into the cooled pie shell, cover with plastic wrap and put into the freezer for at least 3 hours.

I had to take mine out after two hours to try it.  It was late and my bedtime was quickly approaching and I just wanted some OK?

I made a quick whipped cream to top this with.  What a great summertime treat.  Healthy (OK not so much) but it's filled with fruit so that's how I'm going to justify it. You get three important food groups here, wheat, dairy, fruit so it's practically diet food. 

I hope you'll give this a try on a hot day this summer.  Its very refreshing and delicious.

Strawberry Peach Icebox Pie

Crust:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup cold shortening (mine wasn't)
1/4 cup ice cold water

Filling:
4 cups Peaches, peeled, seeded, cut into bite sized pieces.
2 cups Strawberries, hulled and cut into bite sized pieces
1 tsp Lemon zest
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/2 cup lemonade
1/2 cup sugar

Whipped Cream:
1 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp. vanilla

Prepare your pie crust, bake and leave to cool.

Combine the peaches, sugar and lemon zest in a medium sized saucepan.  Cover and cook on medium heat and bring to a low boil stirring frequently.  Cook for about 5 minutes.
Reduce the heat to medium low or low and add the cornstarch/lemonade mixture.  Sauce will thicken quickly so keep stirring for another 2-3 minutes. Pour this mixture into a shallow dish and let cool to room temperature.
Fold the strawberries into the peach mixture.  Once combined, pour the fruit mixture into the pie shell, cover with plastic wrap and put in the freezer for at least 3 hours.

Shortly before serving, make the whipped topping by putting the heavy cream in the bowl of your electric mixer using your whisk attachment.
Whip the cream on medium to medium high until the cream has stiff peaks.  Add the sugar gradually while whisking on low speed, then add the vanilla and serve immediately.

Enjoy!

Peach Cobbler

Since I made peach jam this past weekend I have a lot of peaches left.  I thought about making a pie, but a co-worker suggested a cobbler.  Can't argue there, I love cobbler.  I also love that I found this recipe, its a keeper for sure.  The crust is to die for! My mouth is watering just typing about it.

I know I've said it once already, but boy am I glad I live where there are some delicious peaches.  For this recipe you'll need about 8 medium sized peaches.

Peel, pit and thinly slice the peaches.

Add some sugar...

Brown sugar...

Cinnamon, Nutmeg...

Lemon juice

Cornstarch

Mix until well combined.

Pour the peaches into a small oven proof casserole dish and bake for 10 minutes.

While that's baking, get another dish and add the flour, brown sugar, white sugar, baking powder, salt...

Cold butter that's been cut up for easier mixing.

Mix with a pastry blender or two forks until it looks like small pea sized pieces.  Add some boiling water until the dough comes together.

Top the peaches with the dough mixture, breaking it up and spreading it out as much as possible.  It's OK if you don't cover every single inch of the dish.

Sprinkle the top with the brown sugar/cinnamon mixture.

Now put it back in the oven for about 30 minutes or until the crust is golden brown.  I was able to take mine out after about 25 minutes.

This is one of those dishes that you really need to let cool slightly before digging in or you'll get a serious mouth burn.  Some nice vanilla ice cream goes perfectly with this. 

Peach Cobbler

Recipe from AllRecipes

Ingredients

• 8 fresh peaches, pitted, peeled and sliced into thin wedges
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup light brown sugar
• 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1 tsp fresh lemon juice
• 2 tsp cornstarch
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup light brown sugar
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 6 Tbsp unsalted butter, cold and cut into pieces
• 1/4 cup boiling water

Mix Together

• 3 Tbsp granulated sugar
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 425º
2. Mix the peaches, 1/4 cup sugar, 1/4 cup brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, lemon juice and cornstarch together in a bowl until evenly coated. 
3. Bake for 10 minutes. 
4. Meanwhile mix together the 1/4 cup sugar, 1/4 cup brown sugar, flour, baking powder, salt and then add the cold butter pieces.  Use a pastry cutter to blend it together.  Add the water and combine. 
5. Remove the peaches from the oven and top with the mixture you just created.  Sprinkle the cinnamon sugar mixture over the top and bake until golden, about 30 minutes.