Peach Pie with Orange Essence baked in, yum. It’s a little twist on a classic peach pie, but I am not the first that came up with this combination. I am simply the messenger for this super tasty combination. Orange is the new lemon (some of the time).
So, with fresh peaches, a little sugar, and a splash of orange juice & zest, you’ve got peach perfection. Peachy, right? Right.
And to celebrate fresh peaches I broke out my flower cookie cutter collection and just had some fun. Side note: I am also a cake decorator, so technically these cutters were made for fondant flowers. Any flower cutters will do, try and mix them up, like an English garden.
I started with a few leaves on the the crust & a layer of big flowers. Pro Tip: Use the back of a butter knife to make leave imprints BEFORE attaching to crust. If you need gluten free crust, click here for the pie lady’s gluten free flour mix and crust instructions. I use Bob’s Red Mill products, which are superb. There are detailed instructions for making gluten free pie dough cutouts in the recipe notes.
Next step: Layer on all sizes and shapes of flower cutouts with abandon. The flower cutouts will naturally leave spaces for venting the pie while baking (yahoo). Dab on some milk and lightly sprinkle with sugar and bake for about 60 minutes @ 375 F.
And the final peach project from the oven…indescribably beautiful, but not too pretty to eat!
Perfectly peachy keen peach pie deliciousness awaits. You’ve got this no matter what type of crust you make.
Perfect Peach Pie
Ingredients
Peach Filling
- 4-1/2 to 5 cups fresh sliced peaches
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 3 tablespoons Clear jel, cornstarch or tapioca starch
- 3 tablespoons orange juice
- Zest of half of an orange
- 1 recipe Grandmas Pie Crust for Double Crust Pie
- 2 tablespoons butter, cut into pieces
Grandma's Pie Crust
- 2 cups all-purpose flour (or gluten free flour mix, see recipe notes for making gluten free flower cutouts)
- 1 cup vegetable shortening or butter
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/8 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 cup cold water
Instructions
Grandma's Pie Crust – Double Crust 9-inch pie
- Place all of the dry ingredients into a large bowl. Using a large fork or pastry cutter, cut in the shortening (or butter) into dry ingredients until there are crumbly pea-sized pieces.
- Add the cold water all at once and mix just until forms a ball (do not kneed or over mix).
- Divide dough in half (this will be rather soft). Roll out one half on heavily floured counter top about 1 to 1-1/2 inches wider than pie plate. Unroll onto pie plate,cut extra dough off edges and crimp. Save other half of dough to roll out and cut shapes for top.
Peach Filling & Assembly
- Preheat oven to 375 F.
- In a large size bowl, mix dry ingredients together, sugar, starch.
- For easy peeling, place the peaches in boiling water for about 15 seconds and then plunge them into very cold water. The skins will slip right off.
- Add the sliced peaches, orange juice and orange zest and spoon into prepared bottom crust. Dot with butter.
- Roll out remainder of pie dough and cut into desired shapes. I used different sizes of flower cookie cutters, first layering on the large flowers and then adding the smaller ones to cover some of the gaps (leaving some spaces open for steam to escape). (See notes below for using gluten free pie dough.)
- Carefully brush and dab the top of flowers with milk, placing flowers/shapes back into place. Sprinkle with a couple of tablespoons of sugar.
- Bake 375 for 60 minutes (cover the edges with foil or pie shield the last 15 minutes of baking time to keep edges from burning).
