peachy peach pie & reminiscing about summer fruit

i love fall. i really do. the leaves changing, the air getting that tingle of a chill, the complete and pure joy of new sweaters, the sometimes nauseating smell of pumpkin-spice-EVERYTHING. i'd be lying if i said i didn't write a few too many poems about fall, and take way too many pictures.

utah is a beaut

anyway...

as i was sitting here wearing 2 pairs of socks and my bathrobe because my house is impossibly cold, i started looking through pictures from this summer. among the snaps of the beach and family were at least 50 pictures of fresh picked peaches and raspberries. i remember whipping those peaches into a pie and the raspberries into my greek yogurt. mmmm. 

pounds and pounds of fresh raspberries, courtesy of mom's friend's backyard patch

i just had to

gorgeous peaches ready for pie-making

see why this is making me so sad and hungry?! fruit = fabulous. especially summer fruit.

so, for anyone lucky who still has a few peaches hanging out, or is as excited as i am for next year's crop, i present...

peachy peach pie!

the recipe is this one from smitten kitchen.

tip one: make this pie dough. it's literally changed everything about pies for me. it's impossibly easy and ridiculously flaky, yet substancial. i've used it for all my pies for the past year, and it's 158% perfection.

tip two: DON'T boil the peaches to get the skin off. this was suggested in the smitten kitchen recipe i used, so i blindly threw my peaches into boiling water, oblivious to what i was doing to them. the skin peeled right off, which i was thrilled about. however, when they are in the boiling water, they obviously cook a little bit. then...they cook more in the oven. the result? soggy peaches that had a taste reminicent of canned fruit. not my favorite.

tip three: use an egg wash. if you're a pie baking veteran you know - egg washes amp up the beauty and flavor of the crust. 

tip four: get wild with the crust. it's fun and makes you feel super artsy. i wove my top crust, then used leftover bits of dough to roll tiny balls to stick on the intersections for decoration.

finished pie ft. flowers

that's it! make sure to use this smitten kitchen recipe, and enjoy!