Your Problems with Summer Pies Are Fixed!

Not enough time, but too many pies. It’s time to bake a pie now that you’ve finished your weekly run to the farmers’ market and have a cache of delicious fruits and berries. How do you start? Save your seasonal fruit and cold cream instead of wasting them on a single-serve pie. There’s nothing better than a stunning pie this season to share with loved ones. When making pies, there are some faults that are easily preventable. To avoid baking errors and guarantee that your pie turns out flawlessly each and every time, heed our recommendations. For the greatest pie on the block, follow these easy instructions. It won’t take long for you to get flawless pies.

Overflowing with Fruit Filling

Especially with lattice pies, leaks can occur. If the pie has two crusts, create steam vents and crimp the edges firmly. To collect any drips, make sure the pie is baked on a baking sheet lined with parchment.

Making sure the pie isn’t overfilled is another way to prevent spillage. Up to about ½ of an inch from the top, fill the pie pan. The filling will not boil over; instead, it will decrease.

Crumbly Cookie Crust

When making a cookie crust for an icebox pie, make sure the cookie crumbs are coated evenly with melted butter and are not too dry. For a nice thick crust, press into a pie pan with a measuring cup. Press the crumb crust into a pie pan just until it’s firm. Applying too much pressure will turn it gummy and make it stick to the bottom of the pan.

Weeping Meringue

The key to meringue pies is to top the pie with the meringue when the filling is still hot. This “cooks” the bottom of the meringue and prevents beads of liquid from rising to the top. That’s why it’s important to have the meringue ready to go by the time the filling is done.

Other Reasons Your Pie Might Be Weeping:

Overbaking

Meringues are like Goldilocks, they only work when you bake them “just right.” While underbaking meringue can make it weep, overbaking it causes the egg whites to shrink and release moisture as well.

Humidity

It’s best to avoid baking meringue pies on humid days, as the excess moisture in the air can also make the meringue weep.

Not Spreading The Meringue To The Crust

When the meringue is spread all the way to the edges of the crust, it seals in the filling and helps prevent weeping.

Pro Tip: Try adding a pinch of cream of tartar, or a splash of lemon juice or white vinegar to the meringue. All of these ingredients will help stabilize the egg whites and prevent weeping.

Runny Fruit Filling

Baked fruit can release a lot of liquid. Make sure that your pie filling includes a thickener (such as flour, cornstarch, or quick-cooking tapioca) and that the pie is baked for long enough. Pre-cooking pie fillings before adding them to the crust can also ensure they aren’t watery or undercooked. Lastly, make sure you allow your pie to come to room temperature after baking, as the filling will thicken as it cools.

Freezer Peach Pie Recipe

What’s better than peach pie in summer? Peach pie in winter! Imagine a freezer full of frozen peach pies fillings, ready to just drop into a piecrust and bake into a sweet and fragrant taste of summer. Try this genius freezing method to get your pie fix anytime. With this recipe, you mix the pie filling, pour it into an aluminum foil lined pie pan, and freeze it. Once frozen, simply remove the filling from the foil, place it in a freezer storage bag, and store in the freezer until you are ready to bake a pie. Then simply drop the frozen filling into a piecrust and bake. Just make sure you make enough to last you until winter. These might go faster than you think.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 pound fresh peaches, peeled and sliced (about 3 cups)
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 tablespoon plus 2 tsp. cornstarch
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 (14.1-oz.) pkg. refrigerated piecrusts

Directions

STEP 1

Toss together fresh peaches, sugar, cornstarch, ground ginger, ground cardamom, and ground cinnamon in a large bowl, making sure spices are distributed throughout. Line a 9-inch pie pan with aluminum foil, and transfer peach mixture to the pie pan. Cover and freeze 8 to 12 hours. Remove frozen peach filling from pan, discard foil, and place filling in a ziplock plastic freezer bag. Return to freezer until ready to use. Peach filling will keep up to 6 months in the freezer.

STEP 2

To make pie, preheat oven to 450°F. Unroll 1 piecrust, and fit into the same 9-inch pie pan. Fold edges under, and crimp. Place frozen filling on crust.

STEP 3

Unroll second piecrust on a lightly floured surface, and cut into 8 (1-inch-wide) strips. Arrange strips in a lattice design over filling; gently press ends of strips, sealing to bottom piecrust. Shield crust edge with foil to prevent the crust from burning.

STEP 4

Bake in preheated oven 10 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 350°F, leaving edges covered with foil, and continue to bake until top crust is brown and filling is bubbly, about 40 minutes.

Easy Peach Cobbler Recipe

If you ask people what they love the most about summers in the South, more than likely “fresh fruit cobblers” will be in your list of top five answers. Along with long, lazy weekends, minor league baseball games, going to the lake, and making homemade ice cream, a sweet, simple cobbler made with juicy, seasonal fruit is about as close to heaven as you can get on a summer’s afternoon. Pies are fantastic for when you want to impress your guests—it can take a real baker’s talent and a lot of time in the kitchen to make excellent homemade crusts—roll them out, place them in the pie pan without tearing them, then cut strips and place them into a lattice top. A cobbler is much easier; the crusts or toppings are very simplified and it doesn’t take nearly as much time. This unpretentious six-ingredient recipe comes together in just 10 minutes, and you don’t have to fuss over fitting a pastry crust into a pan. Simply melt butter in the baking dish, then mix flour, sugar, milk, and vanilla together and pour onto the butter. Then spoon peaches over the batter mixture and bake. It can’t get any easier, or any more delicious. This deliciously simple recipe from Jessica and Stephen Rose, of The Peach Truck, will serve six people. “Or, probably more accurately, two—if I’m one of them,” Stephen says.

Ingredients

• 1 ¾ pounds fresh peaches
• ½ cup (4 oz.) salted butter
• 1 cup self-rising flour
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup whole milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

STEP 1

Preheat oven to 350ºF. Gently rub the peaches under running water to remove fuzz, and slice peaches. (You will have about 4 cups.) Place butter in an 11- x 7-inch baking dish; place dish in oven until butter melts. Stir together flour, sugar, milk, and vanilla in a bowl, and pour onto melted butter. (Do not stir.) Spoon peaches over mixture. (Do not stir.)

STEP 2

Bake in preheated oven until brown and bubbly, 45 to 50 minutes.

Easy Individual Peach Pies

Personal-sized peach pies. The perfect summer dessert.

There may be some debate over when exactly peach season starts and ends in the South, but one thing is for sure: If the succulent fruits are growing on our trees, we’re picking them and eating them every way we know how.

One of our new favorite ways to enjoy the juicy goodness of peaches is in these simple and adorable mini peach pies. Here, learn how to make, serve, and store these handheld desserts.

Why Make Mini Peach Pies?

As much as we’d like to take the time to knead, lay, and crimp the homemade dough and assemble the filling for our favorite peach pie, sometimes there just aren’t enough hours in the day. Plus, al fresco dining doesn’t always lend itself to slicing and serving up dripping pieces.

Enter these individual peach pies, which are more like tiny peach galettes. First, we rely on refrigerated piecrusts to keep things moving fast, and we use a muffin tin to ensure each individual pie holds its shape.

Then instead of topping the filling with a second piece of crust, we simply fold in the edges, galette-style. This keeps the filling from spilling out, plus displays the gorgeous peaches so you can devour the treat with your eyes before popping it in your mouth.

Individual Peach Pies Ingredients

All the ingredients for peach pie are use din these mini versions. Here’s what you’ll need:

• Peaches: Look for fresh, ripe, and juicy. You don’t even need to peel them since you’ll be cutting them so thinly.
• Brown sugar, cornstarch, lemon juice, cinnamon, cardamom, and salt: This combination of ingredients makes up the rest of your decadent pie filling. Brown sugar, cinnamon, and cardamom for sweetness and spice, cornstarch for silky texture, lemon juice for a pop of brightness, and salt to bring it all together.
• Refrigerated pie crust: We use a package of two rolled pie crusts as opposed to the ones already in a tin.
• Egg, water, and sugar: Brushing the tops of the pies with an egg and water mixture and sprinkling them with sugar before baking creates a caramelized sugar crust on top.

How To Make Individual Peach Pies

• Step 1. Make the peach filling: Mix together all the filling ingredients in a bowl. This includes the peaches, light brown sugar, cornstarch, spices, and lemon juice. You don’t have to peel the peaches because they’ll be sliced so thin you won’t have to worry with getting a big piece of skin. But if you prefer to, peel the peaches before you combine the ingredients. That’s up to you.
• Step 2. Cut the crusts: Take out your muffin tin, and generously spray all the wells with baking spray—this is key to preventing your pies from sticking to the pan. Next, roll out both pie crusts on a lightly floured surface. Use a 6-inch round cookie cutter to cut out eight rounds. You’ll have to reroll the dough scraps once or twice as needed until you have all eight.
• Step 3. Add crusts to pan: Then, press each of the 8 pie crust rounds into the wells of the greased muffin tins.
• Step 4. Fill individual pies: Once the pie crusts rounds are in place, spoon the Individual Peach Pie filling into the wells. Each pie will hold about a half cup of filling. You can move the peach slices around to make sure you’re getting as much as possible in each pie pocket.
• Step 5. Fold crust edges: Once all the filling is in the crusts, fold the edges of the dough up over the filling. The center will still be exposed, and that’s OK.
• Step 6. Dust crust with sugar: In a small bowl, whisk together the egg and water. Grab a pastry brush, and lightly coat the pie crusts with the egg-and-water mixture. This egg wash will help seal the crusts and keep the sugar on the crust while it cooks. Sprinkle the egg washed crusts with sugar. We call for granulated white sugar, but you could also use turbinado sugar.
• Step 7. Bake the pies: These Individual Peach Pies will be fully baked in about 30 to 35 minutes. The crust will be golden-brown, and the sugar will be gently caramelized. For even browning, you’ll want to rotate the muffin tin about half way through the baking time so the pies are all baked equally.
• Step 8. Cool: Once the pies are out of the oven, leave them in the muffin tin for 15 minutes to cool slightly. Then, grab a butter knife or, better yet, a small offset spatula, and run the blade around the edges of each pie to release any stuck-on spots. With the offset spatula, lift the pies out of the muffin tin, and gently place them on a wire rack to cool.

How To Serve Individual Peach Pies

Individual Peach Pies can be served warm or at room temperature. We love adding a scoop of vanilla ice cream or a dollop of whipped cream on top.

How To Freeze Individual Peach Pies

If your crowd doesn’t polish these off in one sitting, you can freeze your cooked pies for up to three months. To do so, place your completely cooled pies on a baking sheet or a plate and freeze them until solid.

Then, transfer them to a zip-top bag for more efficient storage. When you’re ready to enjoy them, thaw completely at room temperature.

Editorial contributions by Alyssa Sybertz.

Ingredients

• 5 medium (5 oz. each) peaches, unpeeled and thinly sliced (about 3 cups)
• 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
• 2 Tbsp. cornstarch
• 2 tsp. fresh lemon juice (from 1 small lemon)
• 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp. ground cardamom
• 1/4 tsp. kosher salt
• Baking spray with flour
• 1 (14.1-oz.) pkg. refrigerated piecrusts (such as Pillsbury)
• All-purpose flour, for work surface
• 1 large egg
• 1 Tbsp. water
• 2 tsp. granulated sugar

Directions

1. Prepare peaches:Preheat oven to 375°F.Toss together peaches, brown sugar, cornstarch, lemon juice, cinnamon, cardamom, and salt in a medium bowl until fully coated. Set aside.ALISON MIKSCH; FOOD STYLIST: MELISSA GRAY; PROP STYLIST: CHRISTINA BROCKMAN
2. Prepare crusts:Generously coat 8 wells of a 12-cup muffin tray with baking spray. Place 1 piecrust on a lightly floured work surface, and roll into a 13-inch round. Cut dough into 3 (6-inch) rounds using a 6-inch round cutter. Reroll dough scraps once, and cut out 1 more round. (Discard any remaining dough scraps.) Repeat procedure with the remaining piecrust to make a total of 8 (6-inch) dough rounds. Fit each dough round into 1 well of prepared muffin tray, leaving about 1/2-inch of dough overhang.ALISON MIKSCH; FOOD STYLIST: MELISSA GRAY; PROP STYLIST: CHRISTINA BROCKMAN
3. Add filling to crusts:Spoon about 1/2 cup peach mixture into each dough-lined muffin well.ALISON MIKSCH; FOOD STYLIST: MELISSA GRAY; PROP STYLIST: CHRISTINA BROCKMANFold dough edges up and over filling. (Dough will only partially cover filling). Whisk together egg and water in a small bowl. Lightly brush dough with egg mixture, and sprinkle evenly with granulated sugar.ALISON MIKSCH; FOOD STYLIST: MELISSA GRAY; PROP STYLIST: CHRISTINA BROCKMAN
4. Bake mini pies:Bake in preheated oven until crust is golden-brown and sugar has caramelized, 30 to 35 minutes, rotating muffin tray from front to back halfway through bake time. Remove from oven, and let cool in muffin tray on a wire rack for 15 minutes. Gently run a small offset spatula or knife around edge of each pie, and gently transfer pies from muffin tray to wire rack. Serve warm, or let cool to room temperature, about 30 minutes.