Peach Pie: Frozen Core

On a recent visit to family I took some of our CSA peaches.  Not realizing they were from the CSA my family raved and raved about the peaches.  I offered to make them a pie for an upcoming visit at our place.  I had peaches from the week we were visiting family that my friend saved for us and this week’s peaches too.  Just enough to get a pie put together.

 

Alton Brown has a method for blueberry pie that you freeze the core of the pie and bake it later from frozen.  I wanted to use this methodology (they won’t be here till after Labor Day), but needed a recipe for peach pie.  I found a yummy and helpful step by step method at Smitten Kitchen. 

 
Peach Pie: Frozen Core

Printable Version

3 1/2 pounds peaches
1 T fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup light brown sugar
1/4 t ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon table salt
2 tablespoons minute tapioca
 
Bring a large saucepan of water to boil. Prepare an ice bath. Make a small x at the bottom of each peach. Once water is boiling, lower peaches, doing this in batches if necessary, into saucepan and poach for two minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer to ice bath for one minute to cool. Transfer peaches to cutting board and peel the skins.

Slices peaches into pieces about 1/3-inch thick. Add to a large bowl and toss with lemon juice. In a small dish, stir together sugars, cinnamon, salt and tapioca until evenly mixed. Add to peaches and toss to evenly coat.

Line a pie plate with aluminum foil and transfer pie filling to the pie plate.  Place in freezer for 6-8 hours to freeze completely.  Then remove from freezer, remove foil, and wrap in plastic wrap.  Place in a freezer bag for storage in freezer.

If you are ready to bake, use your favorite pie crust and bake at 325 degrees for 1.5 hours, placing the frozen core directly into the pie crust.  Let cool for 1.5 hours.  Alton has good directions for this step in his recipe.  I’ll post more later when I do this step.

NOTE: check out the Smitten Kitchen link for the reasons why granulated and brown sugar are used.  There is also a great joke about if poaching the peaches to peel them doesn’t work.  It worked great for me, so I think it is worth the time.  I haven’t decided what crust to use yet.  I’ll post again on the final results of this pie.