Recipe: Blackberry Peach Pie

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PIE-A-DAY #45

Today,  Becky Reams of The Delicious View offers her recipe for Blackberry Peach Pie. You shall eat not only blackberries and peaches, but bourbon caramel too.

Read below for Reams’ recipe and some of her pie memories, and click here to learn more about the 4th Annual Good Food Pie Contest on Saturday, September 8th at LACMA. It’s less than a week away!

Reams says:

Pie for me brings back my fondest childhood foodie memories. My first encounters being in the kitchen, was making pie with my mom–I was in charge of discarding extra scraps that were trimmed from the crust edges (and by discarding, I mean typically eating, despite my mothers best efforts of chastising against it). This blackberry peach pie highlights the beautiful bounty of summer’s sun-kissed fruit, with a little extra oomph coming from a bourbon caramel. A fairly straightforward and approachable recipe that will certainly satisfy any craving for America’s favorite dessert. And do yourself a favor, pickup a quart of vanilla bean ice-cream to play sidekick, you won’t regret it…

Blackberry Peach Pie

(From Becky Reams of The Delicious View)

Ingredients

Pie crust
2 C AP flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 T vodka
1 tsp granulated sugar
2/3 C butter, diced into small cubes, then chilled in freezer for 7 minutes
scant 1/4 C ice water (more or less as needed)

Filling
7-8 large ripe peaches
1 pint blackberries
1/4 C cornstarch
1/3 C brown sugar (or less depending on ripeness and sweetness of peaches)
Large pinch of salt

1 beaten egg + 2 tablespoons water (whisked together, for egg wash)

Bourbon Caramel
1/2 C granulated sugar
1/2 C minus 1 T  heavy cream
1 T bourbon whiskey

Make  the crust

Dice butter, and  put it in the freezer to chill–you want it very cold. In a food processor bowl, combine flour and salt- in small pulses, add butter until its all combined, resembling the texture of lumpy sand. Pulse the machine and slowly add in the vodka and ice water. Add water one tablespoon at a time, until the dough comes together more or less– remove a portion of the mixture and squeeze it together, if it stays together, its good, if it crumbles apart, put it back and add more water while pulsing.
When its a good consistency, remove it from the processor bowl, and press together in a large piece o plastic wrap. Separate into two slightly flattened disks, wrap in plastic wrap and put in the refrigerator to chill.

Boil a large pot of water, slice a small ‘x’ in the tops of the peaches and blanch for 1 minute. Remove and shock in ice water. Remove from water and peel skins off. Slice peaches into thinnish wedges. Combine peaches, sugar, salt, cornstarch and blackberries in large bowl and toss together. Set aside.

Remove dough from refrigerator and roll out into two large rounds to fit a 9 inch pie plate. Grease a pie plate, them slowly fold one dough circle
In half, then transfer to pie plate and unfold to fit. Press around to make sure dough is flush with the pie plate. Slice other round into strips. Pour filling into pie. Lattice the top with the pie dough strips. Press edges into bottom crust. Flute the edges then trim. Brush the dough with egg wash, and sprinkle with sugar.

Bake in a 350 degree oven for 1 hour. If the edges begin to brown too quickly, cover with strips of aluminum foil, and remove in the last 15 minutes of cooking.

You know the pie is ready when the rosy colored juices start to bubble up through the lattice. Remove and allow to cool for at least 30 minutes.

Make the caramel

In a small saucepan, combine sugar, 1 tablespoon of water and cream of tartar. Cover with a lid, and allow to boil for 5-8 minutes, until the color changes to an amber caramel color.  Pull pan off the heat, and stir in cream and bourbon. Stir until the spitting and sputtering subsides. Allow to cool.

Serve pie with a drizzle of bourbon caramel , a scoop of vanilla ice-cream, and good friends. Bon appétit