What's for Dinner Wednesday-Homemade Peach Pie

Well, how about dessert.  

I promise baking isn't that bad.  I know a lot of people are intimidated by baking and stay far, far away.  The first thing to baking is making sure you have plenty of time to bake.  If you feel rushed, then you are likely to mess something up, at least I am.

Here are the ingredients

For double pie crust:
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
3/4 tsp salt
2/3 cup shortening
8-10 tbsp. water
For filling:
2 cans sliced peaches, drain 1 can
3/4 cup sugar
2 tbsp. all purpose flour
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp. ground nutmeg
milk (optional)

Start by making your crust.  Dump the flour, shortening, and salt into a bowl.  You can use your hands, a pastry mixer, or (the quickest way) a mixer. 

Mix the ingredients with a little water.  Remember you can always add more water, but you can't take it out.  When the dough is mixed it should be a little stiff, but stick together. 

I like to take my dough and wipe the excess flour off the side and roll it into two balls with my hands.

Sprinkle some flour onto the surface you will roll your dough on.  Then place one of the dough balls on the floured area and pat the dough into a circle with your hands.  The flatter you get the dough, the less you have to do with a rolling pin.  Sprinkle the dough with flour.

Roll out your dough to the size of your pie plate.

Carefully lift you dough and place into the pie plate.  Press the dough down with your fingers so it fits well.

Combine the peaches, sugar, spices, and flour into a bowl.

Stir the mixture together with a spoon.

Pour the mixture into the pie shell.

Take your second dough ball and roll it out.  If you have a hard time picking up the dough and transferring it to the pie, then you can roll the dough out on a floured piece of wax paper.

Transfer the top crust to the pie.

Remove wax paper if you used any.

I can never seem to get the dough to just the right size so I have to do a little patch work. 

If you desire you can coat the top of the pie with a small amount of milk.  2 tbsp. would be plenty.  I use a pastry brush and just brush the milk over the top of the pie.  This will help the pie brown.  Don't forget to cut slits in the top of the crust to allow the steam to escape.

Take a sheet of aluminum foil and tear it in half, then fold each piece in half. 

Wrap the aluminum foil around the edge of the pie crust.  This helps prevent the edges from burning or browning faster than the rest of the crust.

Bake at 375 for 40 minutes with the foil.  Remove the foil and bake for another 20 minutes.  I like to place a cookie sheet under my pie while it bakes to catch anything that might run out of the pie.

Take the pie out and let it cool for a couple of minutes before serving.  You can always reheat the pie and it will be just as good!  Enjoy!!

Happy Baking!!