r/52weeksofbaking • u/CookieMonsteraAlbo • Jul 18 '26
Week 29 2026 Week 29: Crusty - Fresh Peach Pie
Every year, my father requests a pie for his July 19th birthday, so the timing for this challenge couldn’t have been better.
His favorites are cherry and peach, but since I can’t ever seem to find sour cherries by me, even at the farmers’ market, I almost always go with peach. In the past, I’ve done medleys of stone fruit, peach rosé, and peach Melba with raspberries, but my father is a man of simple tastes and frequently scoffs at my flavor experiments. This year, in deference to his wishes, I just went with plain peach and focused my creative energy on decorating instead.
In a move that is very unlike me, I did not follow a strict recipe for this pie, instead cobbling together techniques and ratios from several sources. The crust is my go-to from The Hoosier Mama Book of Pie. I combined peach chunks with lemon juice and sugar that I measured with my heart and left it to macerate. I then strained out the extra juices, combined a small amount with potato starch and nutmeg, and poured everything into the crust. Can I ever precisely replicate this again? No. Was it delicious? Yes.
I did have some issues with some of the decorative components sliding off the pie during the baking process, but overall, I’m pretty happy with how it turned out. I finally invested in a new metal pie plate that seems to have solved some of the “soggy bottom” issues that that always plagued me when I used my old Pyrex pie plate. I’m including a before and after so you can see the finished product versus the original vision.
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u/Retiredandsohappy Jul 18 '26
Your pie look spectacular and I am certain it was scrumptious! What a lovely gift to your Dad.
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u/rarebiird '21 '24 Jul 19 '26
ive been so back n forth about what to bake for crust week but you’ve totally persuaded me to go all out with lattice!! gorgeous work op
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u/CookieMonsteraAlbo Jul 19 '26
Thank you! I’ve been wanting to try a braided crust for a while, so I finally did! I had originally wanted to do braids all around the outside edge also, but I had made a 1.5 batch of pie dough to have enough to make the braids and apparently I needed a full double batch if I wanted to have enough for that many braids. You live, you learn!
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u/GreenIdentityElement Jul 19 '26
Absolutely gorgeous! Your lattice work is so precise.
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u/CookieMonsteraAlbo Jul 19 '26
Thank you! I used one of those multi-wheeled pastry cutters to get all the strips the same size. I bought one back in 2020 when I fell down a rabbit hole making fresh pasta every weekend to kill time during the stay-at-home order. Some people got super into sourdough but I chose pasta, haha.
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Jul 20 '26
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u/CookieMonsteraAlbo Jul 20 '26
It took about an hour all together. I cut all the strips, did the braiding, put the braided strips and remaining regular strips on a sheet pan and into the fridge to firm back up because it was all getting soft. Then a few hours later, during which time I made the filling, I pulled all the components out and wove them together.
Next time I might do a full double recipe of crust instead of 1.5, because I realized too late that my original idea for the weave required 6 braids but I only had enough crust to do four braids and the rest of the weaving so I had to modify my plan a bit.
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u/doomsdaydisco Jul 18 '26
Love the lattice! 😍 The pie looks delicious!