One of my favorite memories growing up was when summer would come around, and the peach tree in our backyard would provide us with white peaches to last an entire summer. I love eating peaches, and while I don’t often bake with them, whenever I do, I love to use them for making pies specifically. I just love baking peach pies, and I’m not 100% sure why, beyond the fact I love plump, tart peaches against buttery pastry. That and fruit-based pies just scream out “summer baking” to me for whatever reason, or at least summer going into fall(I’m looking at you, Thanksgiving), so I just wanted to embrace the seasonality of it with this recipe! For the pie crust, I did use a little bourbon in there, just because the alcohol helps create this super flaky crust. You can really use whatever alcohol you want, or just sub it out with only cold water, but I opted to use the bourbon since it compliments the peaches and adds a nice texture to the final dough! For the filling, I used ginger and cardamom to season my peaches with, since that just adds floral notes that compliment peaches well(I did use yellow peaches for my filling, just because they have a more pronounced tartness, but white peaches work fine here too), and a touch of cornstarch to help soak up some of that peach liquid, which helps prevent your final pie from being a soggy mess! I would warn that you might need some patience with this recipe, as working with butter based doughs takes a lot of time for the butter to firm up, but the end product is well worth it, and you’ll have a chonky pie that will last for days!

For the pastry:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup granulated or dark brown sugar
a pinch of salt
2 tspns baking powder
2 sticks unsalted butter, cubed and kept cold
2 tbsp bourbon
1/4 cup cold water
Cooled down peach filling
1 egg

Mix the flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder together first. Mix into that your butter until it forms a crumbly mixture. Pour into that the bourbon and cold water and gently work into a dough. Chill down your dough for at least 10 minutes. Divide into two pieces, and roll out one on a floured surface to about 1/8th-inch thickness. Place into a tart tin that is lined with butter and flour. Prick the bottom of the pastry with a fork. Pour into that the cooled down peach filling, pressing and shaping it so that it will stay compact and intact – it will definitely pile well above the sides of the crust, but that’s fine! Roll out the rest of your pastry to the same thickness as the first batch. Drape the pastry over the peach filling, and then trim the edges. Score the top of the pastry with a knife or dough scraper and brush with egg. Bake at 400 degrees F for 30 minutes. Allow your pie to cool completely before attempting to unmold and serve.

For the peach filling:
5 peaches, pitted and cut into large dice
3 tbsp cornstarch
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
a pinch of salt
1 tspn powdered ginger
1/2 tspn powdered cardamom
4 tbsp unsalted butter

Toss the peaches in cornstarch, brown sugar, salt, ginger, and cardamom first. Melt the butter in the largest pan you have, then saute off the peaches in the butter on low heat. Cover the pan so that the peaches and steam and sweat down, stirring occasionally, until they are no longer crunchy. Allow your peaches to cool down before using in the pastry.