This pie is the result of my desire to bake new things. I like pie, and I like peaches, so peach pie. Plus, I had some time to kill yesterday, which is always dangerous for me.

The flavors in the pie are fantastic. I picked this specific recipe because of the maple bourbon caramel that gets drizzled over the peaches and the browned butter pecan streusel. Of course, the caramel did add a decent amount of liquid to the filling. Despite cooling for 3 hours at room temperature, 2 hours in the refrigerator, and another 2 hours at room temperature, the pie was still a mess when I cut into it. After two slices, I spooned out the excess liquid, then did the same in the morning after more liquid pooled. This helped get better slices the following night. I wonder if it would be worth straining some of the excess liquid before baking. Fortunately, the streusel is really good and is probably the highlight of the pie regardless of how messy it is.

Unfortunately, I don’t think my peaches were ripe enough because they were incredibly difficult to peel and remove the pits. I tried to use the blanching method to peel the peaches, but it didn’t work as well as many internet videos showcase. The pits were so hard to remove that I ended up just cutting them out with a knife. The peaches also held their form and did not cook down as much as I expected during the baking process. It’s still a good pie (especially with some vanilla ice cream), but the peaches will need to be much more ripe next time.

This is my second attempt at an all-butter pie crust after last year’s Thanksgiving debacle. This pie crust is a definite improvement on that crust, which was quite leathery, but I still think that a pie crust with both butter and shortening is the way to go. It tastes better and has a better consistency. The other issue here is that I think the crust needed to be parbaked since the filling contained so much liquid. The middle of the crust kind of disappeared into the peaches. I should also note here that I used 2/3 of the source pie crust recipe for 1.5x a normal pie crust to make it easier to roll out and have a thicker crust (hence the odd ingredient measurements).

This recipe is definitely a keeper with proper cooling, riper peaches, and my usual (and parbaked) pie crust.

MAPLE BOURBON BROWN BUTTER PEACH PIE
Based on recipe found here.

INGREDIENTS

Pie Crust:
1 2/3 cups (~213 g) all-purpose flour
2 tsp. granulated sugar
2/3 tsp. salt
2/3 cup unsalted butter, very cold

Peach Filling:
3 lbs. ripe peaches (~6-8 peaches)
2 tbsp. cornstarch
1 1/2 tbsp all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. salt
Pinch of allspice
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup maple syrup
3 tbsp. bourbon
1 tbsp. water
3 tbsp. unsalted butter

Streusel:
1/3 cup pecans
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 cup + 2 tbsp. all-purpose flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3 tbsp. dark brown sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
Pinch of ground cinnamon

DIRECTIONS:

1. For the pie crust: Pour 2/3 cup of water into a small bowl with a few ice cubes. Set aside.
2. In a food processor, blend flour, sugar, and salt.
3. Pulse chilled butter into the flour mixture until there are pea-sized morsels of fat.
4. Drizzle half the ice water and blend just until the dough starts to form (i.e. not very long).
5. On a floured surface, fold the dough until flour is incorporated into the fats, form into a 1″ thick disc, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least an hour.
6. Roll out the pie crust and place the dough into a 9″ pie plate, leaving any overhang. Refrigerate while the filling and streusel are prepared.
7. For the peach filling: Peel and slice the peaches.
8. In a large bowl, toss peaches with cornstarch, flour, cinnamon, salt, and allspice. Set aside.
9. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
10. In a small saucepan over medium-high heat, combine sugar, maple syrup, bourbon, and water. Stir until sugar dissolves, then stop stirring and let the mixture come to a boil. Remove from heat once mixture turns amber in color, then add butter, stirring until melted completely.
11. Pour the caramel mixture over the peaches, mixing well. Set aside.
12. For the streusel: Toast pecans on a baking sheet for ~5 minutes. Set aside to cool, then chop into smaller pieces.
13. In the same small saucepan used for the caramel, melt butter over medium heat until color is golden brown. Set aside.
14. In a medium bowl, whisk flour, sugars, salt, and cinnamon. Mix in pecans, then drizzle browned butter. Mix until crumbs form.
15. Crumble streusel on top of a baking sheet and refrigerate for 15 minutes. Increase oven temperature to 425 degrees.
16. Pour peaches into prepared pie shell, then sprinkle streusel over the peach filling until completely covered.
17. Cover pie with foil and bake for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 degrees, remove foil, and bake for another 30-40 minutes until crust is golden brown and caramel is bubbly.
18. Allow the pie to cool for at least 3 hours at room temperature before serving (ideally overnight or placed in fridge).