Award Winning, Fresh Peach Pie…. with a surprise twist in the filling… Grand Marnier of course 🙂 I absolutely love the flavor of Grand Marnier… and I love to cook with it!! A little goes a long way, and it gives such a wonderful flavor. I LOVE stone fruit, and fresh peach pie is one of my absolute favorites. I feel the need to be completely honest with you, and to make a full disclosure……… before a week ago, I had never made a peach pie!!! Gasp I know!!! A really good, FRESH peach pie is hard to come by, and I live in a town that has two amazing bakeries. One of them has been around since the late 1800’s and makes everything from scratch. The other one isn’t nearly as old, but it too has amazing baked goods. I was wanting to take my kids to the “Labor Days Festival” and on the flyer I saw that they were having a pie contest. I thought to myself… I already know how to make a wicked Pie Crust, how hard would it be to make a wicked peach filling??? Am I crazy to enter a pie contest with two huge bakeries in this town??
My mother makes an Ah-May-Zing cheesecake with a Grand Marnier, peach sauce. So the idea was born. Why NOT enter a pie contest?? It would be fun if nothing else. So I made my first pie the week before the contest. It was really good, but it needed a bit more sugar and Grand Marnier. So this last Saturday night, I made my second ever Fresh Peach Pie 🙂 As it cooled over night, I went to bed (super late!!) thinking, what am I doing?? I haven’t even tasted the recipe that I’m entering! Am I crazy?? But it looked oh, so good! The next day, we went to the festival. I quickly learned that the pie contest is kind of a big deal! Some women have been entering for years. I didn’t think I had a chance… but to my excitement it took 2nd place! YAY! My kids were so proud… and it was such a great learning experience for them too. And that alone was worth it. I even had one of the judges come up to my family to tell us that she personally thought it should have taken 1st! It made my day!! So here you go… my now “award winning” Fresh Peach Pie.
- ½ recipe All Butter Pie Crust, divided into two disks.
- 3½ pounds fresh peaches (6 cups when peeled and sliced)
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- 1 Tbs. fresh lemon juice
- 3 Tbs. minute tapioca (I grind mine in a clean coffee grinder, so it's finer in texture)
- ⅛ tsp. freshly ground nutmeg
- â…› tsp. salt
- ¼ cup Grand Marnier
- Wash for crust:
- milk
- turbinado sugar
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
- Cut an "X" on the bottom of each peach. In a large pot of boiling water cook the peaches for 2 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon and immediately put into an ice bath. Peel the peaches and slice into ⅓ inch pieces.
- In a large bowl, combine the peaches, lemon juice, and Grand Marnier. Set aside.
- In a small bowl mix the sugar, tapioca, nutmeg and salt. Pour the dry ingredients over the peaches. Carefully stir until well combined. Set aside for a minimum of 15 minutes so the tapioca can get soft.
- Roll out one disk of refrigerated pie dough, to about ⅛ inches thick, or about 12 inches in diameter. Place dough into a 9 inch pie dish. Place the dish into the refrigerator while you roll out the dough for the top. Roll the top out to the same thickness. With a sharp knife or a fancy pants lattice cutter 🙂 cut the dough into 1 inch strips.
- Pour the filling into the pie shell, carefully weave the strips of dough to form the lattice top. Trim where necessary and crimp the edges. Lightly brush with milk and sprinkle with the turbinado sugar.
- Bake at 425 degrees for 20 minutes. Turn the heat down to 375 degrees and bake for an additional 30-40 minutes. The time always varies! Just bake until the filling is bubbling. Cover the edges with aluminum foil if it's getting too brown. Let cool completely before cutting or you'll have a runny pie.
Tools I used:
AÂ must is the nutmeg grinder!! Nothing beats freshly grated nutmeg. Period. You can buy whole nutmegs super cheap from Penzey’s Spices… a 1 oz. bag will last forever and at only $3.99 you just can’t beat it! They have fabulous prices on all spices so be sure to check them out.
Another new tool that I just LOVE is this rolling pin by Joseph Joseph. You can adjust the height of the pin for perfectly rolled dough! A perfect gift for any baker.
I also just purchased this pastry wheel… and it makes the prettiest strips for a lattice pie!! You can also make raviolis with it 🙂
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Other tools:
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
Thank you for visiting! Please be patient as I am going in a new direction with my site and will post more soon! xoxo ~Kelly
I too love Grand Marnier and the idea of using it with peaches never occurred to me. What a perfect match. Please keep up your passion and creativity. Can’t wait for your next creation. Congratulations on the 2nd place prize.
Thank you!!
The BEST pie I have ever tasted. I rushed to the store immediately after seeing this recipe yesterday. Seriously, good job! I will be making this every year. The Grand Manier is such a subtle flavor and really kicks up the recipe to a whole different level. The crust was perfect too. Please keep up the good work!! I’m in love!
Out of curiosity, what was the first place winner? Now you need to see if you can scrounge the recipe from that winner and get it to us. I look forward to trying this one. Peach pie is my second favorite pie, specifically one called Peaches and Cream Pie made with heavy cream and freshly picked peaches but classic peach pie is only a hair behind that one. Peach pie is ONLY slightly edged out by Black Raspberry Pie. No other fruit in it, it MUST be all black raspberries and filled full with them and I prefer it chilled. There is NOTHING that can beat that pie with an outstanding crust. I prefer the seeds left in the berries but my dad does NOT. For his sake I do strain them out when he’s going to be eating the pie he says they do get in under his dentures at times. I can see where that might be just slightly annoying and irritating. So I’m VERY curious to see where in the lineup this peach pie falls.
I ADORE baking with liqueurs and alcohols and wines, I’ve been telling Ina Garten she needs to do an entire cookbook with them. I enjoy baking cakes and cookies more but I enjoy eating pies more. It’s not the making of the crust, its the rolling of the crust. It just NEVER seems to go as smoothly as the ones on television. I should probably follow Julia Child’s examples as she did with the onions and just practice, practice and more practice. For some reason I always seem to make the most INCREDIBLE MESS. FLOUR is EVERYWHERE. Then, it is NEVER the beautiful circle Martha always achieves. It drives me nuts. However, I am going to bite the bullet and give this one a try very soon, as soon as I can feel a LITTLE spring-like. We STILL had 30+ weather this morning. Will it EVER become warm? They’ve been promising us for weeks. Once again its to hit 70 tomorrow, (never did today) lets see if it does. That will make me feel more like working with peaches.
Hi Pamela! The first place pie was an apple and caramel pie… I even had a judge come to me and say that I should have taken first 😛 But the woman who won first historically does and she missed the year prior due to family. I’ll see if I can get a recipe though!