Adapted from the pie dough ratio recipe in Ratio by Michael Ruhlman and The Essential Baker by Carole Bloom.
Ingredients
For the pie dough:
- 12 oz flour
- 8 oz butter, cold or frozen, cut into small pieces
- 2-4 oz ice water
- ½ tsp salt
- 2 tbsp sugar
For the filling:
- 2 lb ripe peaches
- ½ C firmly packed light brown sugar
- ¼ C all-purpose flour
- ¼ tsp ground cinnamon
- ¼ tsp ground ginger
- ¼ tsp freshly grated nutmeg
- ⅛ tsp salt
- ½ oz unsalted butter
- 1 large egg yolk
- 1 tbsp heavy cream
Instructions
For the pie dough:
Combine the flour and butter in a large mixing bowl and using either a pastry cutter or your fingers, cut the butter into the flour. If using your fingers, you can rub the butter into the flour until you have pea-sized chunks.
Add the salt. Add the ice water gradually and mix gently until just combined. You want to minimize how much you knead the dough; it will become tough the more you mix. Its ok to see little pockets of butter in the dough; that is what will contribute to a flaky crust when baked.
Shape the dough into two equal sized disks, wrap in plastic, and refrigerate at least 15 minutes, or until needed. When ready, roll one disk out on a well-floured surface, making sure it doesn’t stick. When dough is the desired sized, gently fold the dough in half and then in half again (you should have a triangle shaped piece of dough) and transfer to the pie dish. Gently unfold the dough and settle it into the pie pan.
This dough can also be rolled out, fitted into a pie tin, and then wrapped tightly in plastic to be frozen so you can have freshly baked pie when guests suddenly drop by. Just pull the dough straight from the freezer, add your filling and bake. Easy as pie. Ok, that was a bad joke.
For the pie:
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
For the filling, cut the peaches in half and remove the pits. Cut into large chunks and place in a large bowl. Add the brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and salt to the bowl. Mix gently to evenly distribute all ingredients. Add the peaches to the prepared pie shell.
Cut the butter into small pieces and dot the peach filling with the butter.
Roll out the remaining disk of dough. Using a decorative cutter, cut a few vents in the crust to allow the steam to escape. Or use a knife or fluted pastry wheel to make a lattice crust. Gently place the crust over the filled pie tin and trim the extra dough so there is only a ½ inch overhang over the sides. Fold the top crust under the bottom crust so the two are sealed together and crimp the edges.
Gently whisk the egg yolk and cream together and brush the crust with the mixture using a pastry brush.
Bake the pie for 50 to 60 minutes, or until the crust is a golden brown and the filling is bubbling inside.
Remove the pie from the oven and let cool on a rack. Serve warm or at room temperature.
