BEST Fresh Peach Pie Recipe with All Butter Pie Crust (2024)

FAQs

Should I Prebake a pie crust for fruit pie? ›

You do not need to pre-bake a pie crust for an apple pie or any baked fruit pie really, but we do freeze the dough to help it stay put. Pre-baking the pie crust is only required when making a custard pie OR when making a fresh fruit pie. you should probably get: Pie weights are super helpful to have for pre-baking.

We like tapioca in blueberry, cherry or peach pies. Arrowroot, unlike cornstarch, is not broken down by the acid in the fruit you are using so it is a good choice for fruit with a higher content of acidity such as strawberries or blackberries.

Strain juice from peaches and reserve the liquid. You'll make a spice and cornstarch mixture to coat the peaches–this will add flavor and also help your pie filling thicken. Heat this mixture together with the reserved peach liquid, this activates the cornstarch and is how to make a peach pie not runny!

The pros: Butter has the best flavor. A butter pie crust forms light, lofty, flaky layers while it bakes. The flakiness comes partially from the water content of butter, which evaporates as the pie bakes and turns to steam, separating and puffing up the layers in dough.

Sprinkle dried breadcrumbs or crushed cornflakes, or other types of cereal, on the bottom crust before filling and baking in the oven.

If your recipe doesn't have instructions and you're wondering how long to pre bake the pie, here's what I do: I pre bake the prepped pie crust at 350°F. If the crust is homemade from scratch, I pre bake for 35 minutes. If the crust is store-bought, I pre bake for 30 minutes.

Which one you use is a matter of personal preference. Cornstarch makes for a shiny, glossy filling. A little goes a long way because it has twice the gelling power of flour. Flour thickens nicely but leaves more of a matte finish.

Wet pie fillings + raw dough are a tricky combination. If the bottom crust doesn't set before the filling soaks in, it's going to be gummy. A metal pie pan placed on a preheated surface will set the bottom crust quickest; once cooked, the liquids from the filling above won't soak in, and as a result: no soggy bottom.

A just-baked fruit pie's filling will be very hot out of the oven, and quite messy to serve. The filling will set as it cools; be sure to let your pie cool completely before cutting and serving.

Crust dust is a 1:1 mixture of flour and granulated sugar. When baking a pie, especially a fruit pie, a couple of teaspoons of crust dust sprinkled into the bottom of the crust will help prevent the crust from becoming saturated with juicy filling as it bakes.

Why do you peel peaches for pie? ›

For perfect pie filling, be sure to buy peaches at the peak of ripeness; the skin should easily bruise with the lightest amount of pressure. Many bakers prefer to remove the skins from peaches when using them for pie filling, as some find the skin's texture unpleasant and are put off by its slightly bitter flavor.

All-Purpose Flour

Flour is a popular thickener for sauces and soups, and it can be used to add body to your fruit filling. It's great because it thickens at low temperatures, but you'll need to use more of it because it's not as effective as some of the other starches.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of using butter in a pie crust? Advantages : excellent flavor and forms distinct flaky layers. Disadvantages: Expensive and butter melts easy bettween 82.5 and 96.8 degrees F. It takes more time to make pastry because it must be refrigerated.

Butter pie crust has the most flavor out of the three fats. This pie crust bakes up nice and golden brown, with plenty of flaky layers. Butter pie crust is the most sturdy and will support the weight of your favorite pie fillings.

Tough pie crusts are typically the result of working the dough too much (again, gluten). You don't need to make sure it's a perfectly uniform ball. “As long as the dough is mostly holding together, you don't need to spend a lot of time kneading it,” Susan Reid wrote for King Arthur Baking.

You do not need to par-bake or blind bake this bottom pie crust. Reducing the filling's juice on the stove keeps excess liquid off the bottom pie dough, plus we bake the pie for long enough that the bottom crust sufficiently cooks through.

If you don't blind bake with weights, or poke holes into the bottom of the crust, the bottom of the crust can puff up.

To avoid a soggy crust, I blind bake it until it's thoroughly dry before adding the filling. To prevent those unsightly cracks in the filling, I've tweaked the traditional recipe: a bit of flour for stability, replacing some whole eggs with yolks for richness, and baking at a low temperature for even cooking.

Non-chilled crust is fairly crumbly and less smooth, which makes it harder to roll out and means it may not look as polished. It will brown more quickly and the final product will likely be tougher, heavier, and more doughy – none of those in a bad way. It will likely have a more intense, butter flavor.