A Summery Pie!

I love it when summer comes to Grinnell--because it brings the last few weeks of classes, which are inevitably filled with concerts, final presentations, and general jubilation.  

My friend Ali curated a final show as part of her internship at the gallery on campus, and afterwards she hosted a super-fun potluck at John's apartment.  There were cold salads, popsicles, fondue, an entire pack of Andes mints... basically, all that is good in the world.  I brought this great pie, which I made without any sort of measuring implements (because I didn't have any!).  The trials of cooking in a dorm kitchen are manifest.

Peach Pie with Coconut-Almond Topping

Adapted from this recipe by Ken Haedrich

Ingredients: 

2 Frozen Pie Crusts

FILLING:

Two 1-lb. bags frozen sliced peaches, partially thawed.

The juice of one lemon.

About a third cup of sugar

About 2 tbsp. cornstarch

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

TOPPING:

About a cup of flour

About 2/3 c. sugar

a little salt

1/2 c. sliced almonds

1/2 c. sweetened flaked coconut

6 tbsp. cold unsalted butter

WHAT TO DO:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees farenheit.

2. Combine the peaches and lemon juice in a big bowl, with 1/3 c. of sugar.  In a small bowl, mix the cornstarch with the remaining sugar.  Sprinkle this mixture over the fruit, then stir in the vanilla and nutmeg and mix everything together.

3. Divide the fruit filling between the two crusts, and bake for 35 min.

4. Meanwhile, make the topping: Mix everything together (you can use a food processor if you want a real crumb-like topping, but I didn't have a food processor so I just cut the butter into the dry ingredients, then mashed everything together with my hands until it was sort of crumb-like).

5. After 35 min, take out the pies and divide the topping between the two pies, pressing it lightly down into the fruit and juice.  Reduce heat to 375 and bake until the peach juice bubbles thickly around the edges, about 30 minutes.

Seriously, these pies were delicious in a really intriguing, this-is-like-pie-but-not-quite kind of way.  We ate one and a half pies at the potluck, then later we ate what was left in the campus grill, all eating directly out of the pie plate with plastic forks that we swiped from the condiment and utensil area.  In short, it was amazing.