Peach Pie via "the mother"..well sort of.

Peach, Blueberry, Candied Ginger Crumb Pie

So what started out as a simple peach pie from "the mother cookbook", took on a life of its own yesterday.

There is just something about me that likes to jazz things up. Sometimes it works and sometimes not. In this case, having just eaten a slice, I do believe it worked.

I wanted to make the crust the old-fashioned way, rather than use my food processor, which I am fond of for pastry. I also do not use shortening in pie crusts (although they have come out with some non-hydrogenated that I will sometimes use) but rather I use butter. And what is better than butter? Organic butter! I would usually use un-salted  in baking but this was what I had.

 Cut into little chunks for next step

 

Using pastry cutter to make small pea sized bits of it all

This took all of 5 minutes to make and then I rolled it into a ball, flattened it and put it in the fridge to rest.

I was very short on flour in the house so I also decided to do a crumb topping. As I flipped through "the mother" looking for a crumb topping recipe, I came across a gingersnap crust recipe and a light bulb went off because I knew I had some ginger snaps in the freezer. Out they came and this time I used the food processor to make crumbs of them.  Added butter, flour and sugar and voile..ginger crumb topping.

Now I was on a roll and I thought of ramping up the ginger taste by dicing some candied ginger and adding it to the peaches and blueberries.

 

I took another hint from "the mother" and did not crimp my pastry edges, but rather just pulled them up around the fruit. This is so the spillover (which happens often in fruit desserts) is minimized. It still boiled over in the oven, but I had a cookie sheet under it to catch it all. I added the crumb topping and about 40 minutes later at 375 degrees it was ready.

The past few days I also ironed my somewhat large collection of vintage aprons and am looking forward to showing them off to you next week.

And a big thanks to my sewing friends for giving me advice on making the pattern larger. This is what I am hopefully doing today as you read this, although the procrastination bug has bitten me big time.

See you soon!