Brown Sugar Cinnamon Peach Pie and guest post anyone?

This one comes to us from Southern Living. Don't you just love that magazine? They always have the best pictures and desserts. I do have a disclaimer though. I changed the pie crust called for to Ina Gartens, which I always use and love. The picture of the actual piece of pie on the plate does not represent the pie crust recipe very well because it looks as if it didn't stay together or sort of crumbled apart in places. This, I want you to know is all my fault. I didn't roll the dough out thin enough (I guess I wasn't paying attention?) and it baked up like a brick, which isn't necessarily bad thing, mind you. Plus, this was the first piece out of the pie and that's always the messiest. This is not the norm. Just wanted you to know that before you began baking. With that being said, peach pie in general tends to be messier because it's not thickened up the same as a blueberry pie, for example. It's meant to have it's sweet juices flowing and chunks of fruit spilling out onto the plate, which, by the way, happens to compliment vanilla ice cream perfectly.

We just got back from Jeremy's big race, the Leadville 100. This is the race that all the other races led up to. He biked 100 miles on Saturday in 9hrs, 18min. The kids and I crewed for him all day. We ran around filling water bottles with electrolyte enhancers, grabbing bananas and peanut butter sandwiches and chocolate protein drinks, making sure at every stop that he was eating enough so he wouldn't run out of energy, offering him sunscreen and praise. He was absolutely amazing. How those people do that just blows my mind. Were back and trying to get life back in order from the crazy whirlwind jam-packed summer that we have had so far. We will be home for about one week before school begins and life will have to get back to normal whether I'm ready for it to or not. In the event I'm not, I should consider making this pie again. It'll help you cope with anything.

Please note: The peach filling must be made right before you bake it. It cannot sit around for too long or it will become to juicy.

Brown Sugar Cinnamon Peach Pie

adapted from Southern Living, July 2011

makes 8 servings, or 1 9" pie

For the Pie Crust:

12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) very cold unsalted butter

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 tablespoon sugar

1/3 cup very cold vegetable shortening

8-10 tablespoons ice water

For the filling:

8 large fresh, firm, ripe peaches (about 4 lbs.)

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar

1/3 cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 tablespoons butter, cut into pieces

1 large egg, beaten

1 1/2 tablespoons turbinado sugar (optional)

Vanilla Ice cream (for serving)

Toasted pecans (for serving)

For the pie crust: dice the butter and return it to the refrigerator while you prepare the flour mixture. Place the flour, salt, and sugar in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade and pulse a few times to mix. Add the butter and shortening. Pulse 8 to 12 times, until the butter is the size of peas. With the machine running, pour the ice water down the feed tube and pulse the machine until the dough begins to form a ball. Dump out on a floured board and roll into a ball. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Cut the dough in half. Roll each piece on a well-floured board into a circle, rolling from the center to the edge, turning and flouring the dough to make sure it doesn't stick to the board. Fold the dough in half, place in a pie pan, and unfold to fit the pan (this is so you can transfer the dough without ripping it). Repeat with the top crust, except when rolled out into a circle large enough to fit on top of the pie pan, cut it into thin strips, about 3/4 inch thick, and reserve until the filling is made to make the lattice top.

For the filling: Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Peel the peaches, and cut into 1/2-inch thick slices; cut slices in half. Stir together brown sugar, next 3 ingredients, and 1/4 cup flour in a bowl; add peaches, stirring to coat. Immediately spoon peach mixture into pie crust in pie plate, and dot with 1 1/2 tablespoons of butter. (Do not make mixture ahead or it will become too juicy).

Carefully place the strips of pie crust over the filling, making a lattice design. Press edges of crust together to seal, cutting any excess crust off. Crimp edges of pie. When lattice design is complete, brush the top of the pie crust with the beaten egg and sprinkle with the turbinado sugar. Alternately, you can bake this without the lattice design top, just covering the whole pie with crust. If you do that, cut 4-5 slits in the top for team to escape.

Freeze finished pie for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, heat a jelly-roll pan in the oven for 10 minutes. Place pie on hot jelly-roll pan. Bake at 425 degrees on lower rack for 15 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 375 degrees and bake 40 minutes. Cover loosely with aluminum foil to prevent excess browning, and bake 25 minutes more or until juices are bubbly (juices will bubble through top). transfer to a wire rack; cool 2 hours before serving.

Serve with vanilla ice cream and toasted pecans.

In sad news, my Grandpa Burgos passed away last week. His wife, my Grandma just passed a month and a half ago. I am going to drive down for the funeral as that family has had a hard time and I want to be there. Anyway, I will be leaving rather suddenly in a few days and was wondering if anyone was interested in guest posting a recipe with pictures in my absence. You don't have to be a food blogger, just someone who has a recipe they want to share (you can also write about other things in your post like I do!) Let me know guys! Thanks. I'd need it by Wednesday...sort of short notice.