Thanksgiving is pie season. We all know that. But it’s not typically considered peach pie season. We make peach pies when the summer sun brings us fresh peaches. Does that mean no peach pies this time of year? It doesn’t have to. Have you considered a dried peach pie?
Dried peaches are something I buy year-round. So it’s stands to reason that I could make a dried peach pie anytime I like, year-round.
One of the reasons I have dried peaches around the house so much is because I like dried fruit. It’s a quick, healthy snack. But dried fruit isn’t always as healthy as you might think. As with all things, you have to look at the label before you buy. A lot of dried fruit is made with additional processed sugar added. This is probably done to make those addictive little dried cranberries a bit more palatable. In the end, sure they taste good. But at what price? I’ve noticed that dried peaches rarely (if ever) have additional processed sugar. Which is a good thing. They taste just as good as many of the sugar added dried fruits, but they’re made sweet solely from the naturally occurring fructose or glucose. These unrefined sugars are much better for you than the processed sugar that turn some types of dried fruit into clandestinely packaged candy. So whenever I’m in doubt (or in a hurry) I tend to grab dried peaches over dried cranberries, dried apricots or dried apples. Which is how this dried peach pie came to be.
Dried Peach Pie
The story starts with the LA Times. They ran a recipe for Apple Custard Crumb Pie from Nicole Rucker, a local Los Angeles pastry chef. It sounded delightful. I liked the unexpected twist of using dried fruit in a fruit pie. As I said, I like dried fruit. I like the amplified fruitiness and I like the chewy nature. So, I looked over Nicole’s ingredient list. The only unusual ingredient was digestive biscuits. I had homemade shortbread cookies (going a bit stale) so I used those. The rest of the ingredient list was quite basic– things you’d find in my pantry everyday. Except for dried apples. For the reasons I mentioned above I’m far more likely to have dried peaches around the house than dried apples… so the story goes. GREG
Dried Peach Pie with Crumbled Cookie Crust
Print This Recipe Yield 8–10Source Adapted from the LA Times apple version by Nicole RuckerPublished
Ingredients
- 7 ounce shortbread cookies (broken up)
- 1 cup plus 1 tablespoon, granulated sugar (divided)
- 1/8 teaspoon kosher salt (plus a pinch for the filling)
- ¼ cup melted butter (plus more for pan)
- 16 ounce dried peach slices
- ½ teaspoon ground cardomom
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (divided)
- ½ cup water
- ⅓ cup all-purpose flour
- 3 large eggs (lightly beaten)
- 2 cup whole milk
- powdered sugar (as needed for sprinkling)
Directions
Prepare the crust: In the bowl of a food processor set with the meta blade, pulse the cookies, ¼ cup sugar and 1/8 teaspoon salt until sandy in texture, then add the melted butter and pulse a few more times to combine. Turn out the mixture into a buttered 9½-inch deep-dish pie plate, pressing evenly onto the sides and bottom to form a crust with uniform thickness. Freeze the crust and, just before filling and baking, run a pairing knife around the top edge to trim the cookie crust cleanly.
Prepare the peaches: In a large sauté pan, combine the dried peach slices with 1 tablespoon sugar, cardamom, ½ teaspoon vanilla and water. Gently simmer until the apples have absorbed the water and are plumped. Remove the peaches from the pan and set aside to cool.
Meanwhile, prepare the custard filling: In a large bowl, whisk together the remaining 3/4 cup sugar, flour and a pinch of salt. Add the eggs, milk and remaining ½ teaspoon vanilla, and whisk until incorporated. Whisk in the milk until completely combined. Set aside.
Prepare the pie: Heat the oven to 350 degrees.
If there is any excess liquid with the peaches, discard the liquid, and arrange or scatter the peaches in the bottom of the prepared frozen crust. Pour the custard filling over the peaches, leaving one-eighth inch of crust at the top. Do not overfill, save any additional custard filling for another use.
Place the pie on the bottom rack of the oven and bake until the custard starts to brown on top and a knife inserted into the center comes out clean, about 1 hour, (depending on the type of pie dish). The finished pie will still jiggle slightly when remove from the oven but will set as it cools.
Cool the pie on a rack, then sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve warm.
For those of you looking for dried peaches, good luck. I had to order them from Amazon. For some reason the stores no longer carry them. I ordered a 5 lb bag of California dried peaches and they are FANTASTIC!!! All natural, no additives.
We frequently had fried peach hand pies in my family as I was growing up. Many years ago when traveling through Alabama, I actually had a dried peach pie topped with custard. It was made in a pastry crust and was topped with toasted meringue. It was delicious. For years I have search for the recipe.
I am confused re: the amount of sugar in the two processes of the dried peaches and more sugar in the filling/custard.….making this pie on a very snow day here in Red Lion OH
I’m sorry the directions were confusing. But I’ll try and get clearer here. You need a TOTAL of 1 cup plus 1 tablespoon granulated sugar. This will get divided into 3 additions. The first 1/4 cup goes into the crust. Then the peaches get 1 tablespoon. That should leave you with 3/4 cup for the custard. There is powdered sugar sprinkled on the pie at serving. You may sprinkle as much or as little as you like. I hope this helps. Good luck. GREG
We haven’t been as diligent in our Thanksgiving practices as you and still have not decided on a dessert. I don’t think I’ve ever seen dried peaches at the store but I’m not a huge peach fan so I might have just been overlooking them.
Boy, I know I’ve had pie made with dried fruit before, but it’s been ages and ages. Interesting idea. And we’d be much more likely to have dried peaches than apples too!
I think I’d love the chewiness of the fruit. Unique, for sure!
I never would have thought of making a pie with dried fruit, either! I am totally intrigued. And you are so right about the dried fruits. Always read the labels!
My mother would use dried fruit to make pies when all of the canned fruit had been used from the sumer canning. it was quite delicious. just didnt remember how much butter, and sugar, and flavor she used because I had a stroke in 2014.
Is there anyone out there remember the butter role pie they used to make. It contained all the ingredients that was used in the fruit pies but didnt have fruit in it. It was a fruitless pie but very tasty with the butter. flavor and sugar. Someone may know that type of pie by another name. If so please text it to me bcause one family may call something one thing nd nother family something else. Those were the good days because everyone didn’t mind sharing with one another.
I would have never thought to use dried fruit in a pie! Sweet and chewy pie sounds delish though — I’ll have to experiment this holiday season as well. Hope everything is fabulous in your world!
Such a pretty pie and how unique! Dried fruit in a pie, great thinking! Makes me want to go raid the TJ’s dried fruit section and see what I can come up with, too. And dried fruit is ‘healthy’ to a point — totally agree. Most of it has tons of sugar added, I mean still far less than a piece of cake with frosting, but people don’t think it through. I love the crust, too. Wow — crumbled cookies of any kind are great for crusts. In the last cookbook I wrote I was getting desperate to not duplicate the same crust, every time, and resorted to everything from graham crackers to Biscoff cookies. Never shortbread though. Good thinking! pinned
Fascinating! I’ve seen dried pears, dried apples, dried pineapple even, but I can’t say as I’ve ever seen dried peaches. Need to keep my eyes open for some now.
Gorgeous looking pie. A neat idea to dry up the peaches, absolutely perfect. I hate when the fruits get all mushy when baked, this is an great way to get the flavor and keep it from getting mushy. LOVELY.
This is a definite twist on pie filling, but makes perfect sense over the winter months.
How beautiful! Never thought about using dried fruits in a pie — brilliant!
“Clandestinely packaged candy”…ha! There is a lot of this out there these days in the form of energy bars too.
I did not even know that peaches came dried, but now I will have to look for them.
Incidentally, I served up your English farmhouse cheddar pie from Savory Pies this weekend to rave reviews!
This is such a neat idea, and now I want to try both the apple AND peach versions!!
Digestive biscuits aren’t unusual–they’re just English! 😀 But whether you used digestives or shortbread, this looks wonderful! I’m a huge fan of peaches, peach pie, dried peaches, anything peachy.