Lazy Lady’s Peach Pie—and a comment on cooking shortcuts

 

My not-so-pretty but oh-so-delicious peach galette.

A couple of weeks ago a friend brought me a bounty from her family’s farmer’s market in Rio Vista—a cantaloupe, yellow squash, zucchini, tomatoes, and two huge but rock-hard peaches. I used most of it up immediately, but I kept eyeing those peaches. They were ripening, and I needed to do something with them, but what? We are not dessert eaters, but Christian said he’d eat a peach cobbler with me.

So Saturday morning, I looked up several recipes for peach cobbler. To my dismay, each called for at least two cups of sugar. Way too much! I decided against cobbler for that reason, plus if I were to make it, I’d have to ask Jordan and Christian to drop everything they were doing and bring me a list of ingredients plus a dish. I did not have enough flour or sugar, and I think milk may have been involved.

I thought about what I could do with what I had and my brain hit on the puff pastry in the freezer. I decided to make a galette, a sort of free form pastry where, instead of a trim pie crust, you pile ingredients in the middle of the dough and pull the edges up and over the fruit. It called for one tablespoon sugar. Much more my style. So here’s what I did:

Peach galette (serves six)

1 sheet puff pastry

2 Tbsp brown sugar

½ tsp. cinnamon (optional, but I recommend it)

¼ tsp. salt

1 Tbsp. lemon juice

1 tsp. vanilla extract (I used a scant tsp. almond, and it was delicious)

2-3 large peaches, ripe but still slightly firm, sliced

2 Tbsp. melted butter

Thaw the puff pastry sheet, and when thawed, roll out on a lightly floured board. Roll until thin and roughly in a circle. Line a baking sheet with a pastry sheet and transfer the pastry to it.

Whisk together brown sugar, cinnamon, lemon juice, salt, and flavoring in large bowl. Add sliced peaches, tossing gently but thoroughly to be sure each slice is coated.

If you are a compulsive neat baker, line peaches around pastry in concentric circles. If you’re like me, dump the peaches into the middle of the pastry and even out, leaving a good overlap of dough at the edges. Pull the edges of the pastry up and over the outside of the peaches. Brush all pastry edges with melted butter. Score the outer edges of the pastry.

Bake at 375 until the pastry puffs up and is golden—about forty-five minutes but watch it closely. If the pastry starts to turn too dark, remove from oven. Let sit twenty minutes before cutting into wedges. Serve with whipped cream or a dollop of ice cream, though it is good plain—and makes a great alternative breakfast.

I call this a lazy lady’s pie, because it means, at least to me, that I was too lazy to roll out a proper dough for a two-crust pie. Truth is, I have rarely made a scratch pie crust but have used a lot of frozen ones in my long years of cooking. And that leads to yet another confession: though I pride myself on being a scratch cook who would never, for instance, serve a frozen prepared meal, I am not above shortcuts. My most glaring sin in the eyes of purist cooks is that I used canned soups in casseroles. Granted, I am perfectly capable of making a white sauce and seasoning it until it adds perhaps more flavor than the canned soup, but I don’t do it. I used dried pasta (albeit a good brand from Central Market) rather than make my own pasta—yes, I’ve tried it, and it was a pain. I do draw the line at some things: instant mashed potatoes are a no and Minute Rice only goes into one recipe that I can’t figure out how to make without it and the dish is a family favorite.

Part of my philosophy about cooking—and behind my Gourmet on a Hot Plate columns—is to make home cooking easy enough for the home cook that’s it’s pleasant and not a chore. And it should never be a source of guilt. If you want to make tuna casserole with Campbell’s cream of mushroom soup, go for it. Don’t let some purist shame you because you use canned soup and who eats tuna casserole anyway? It’s so fifties. Well, I for one love tuna casserole—and make it with cream of mushroom soup.

And I’m going to keep on making galettes instead of pies. They may not be pretty, but they taste good, and they are easy.