This recipe came about because I saw peaches in the grocery store, remembered that peaches were in season, grabbed a bunch, and then realized that I actually needed to do something with said purchased peaches. The first thing that came to mind was doing this large peach pie with a pretty lattice on top, and when I thought about other flavors to pair it with, I remembered I had osmanthus tea that my friend Jason(from season 8 of Masterchef), gifted me! Osmanthus tea has this pleasant floral quality and it pairs beautifully with other fruits. And since I love sweet peach tea, I figured that this would be a fun homage to that, so I ground the osmanthus into a fine powder with granulated sugar, and seasoned my peach filling with that! I love the idea of this buttery pie crust with a gooey peach filling. I really wanted this to be classic Americana, being a sticky, juicy fruit filling that is enrobed in a buttery crust. With the lattice work on top, I wanted to do some cute braids to almost resemble a basket. However, I did have one awkward issue when I was making this recipe – I did not make nearly enough dough to fit a 9-inch tart pan and the lattice on top. So I opted to make mini pies, which worked out nicely, since those actually baked a lot faster than a bigger pie would have anyways!

For the recipe, the dough is the single most important part. It needs to be chilled and rested down enough since if it is not, it will be a sticky mess, and you will struggle to roll it out and make the lattices that you would want to. So be sure to let the dough chill down sufficiently, and if need be, return it to the refrigerator if it gets too soft or sticky. For the filling, so long as you have a spice grinder, this is easy. Grind down the sugar with the osmanthus tea, toss with the other ingredients, add a little heat to it while stirring, and you have a peach filling. It is important with the filling, like with the dough, that it is cooled down, since anything that could warm up the dough during the assembly process will only make it more difficult than it needs to be. However, it is important to cook the filling first, as in my test run, I found that not cooking the filling first resulted in too much liquid coming out of the peaches, and the dough turning soggy and needing close to an hour to bake through, which is insane because these are mini pies, not whole pies! By cooking the filling first, the cornstarch can activate and gel around the peach juices, trapping all of that flavor into the filling itself, while any excess liquid is being cooked down now so that when that filling is being added to the pie crust, it will not make the crust go soggy. With the top crust, I used egg yolk and turbinado sugar, just to add a nice, homey finish and a golden-brown color that really completes the look of the mini pies. I really enjoyed snacking on these mini pies, because they are a taste of the summer!

Makes 4 mini pies:
For the dough:
1 cup flour
1 stick unsalted butter
1/4 cup granulated sugar
a pinch of salt
2 tbsp cold water
1 tsp vanilla extract

In a food processor, combine flour, butter, sugar, and salt, mixing that until a fine crumbly powder forms. To that, add the remaining ingredient, pulsing until they just come together to form a dough. Transfer the dough to cling wrap, covering it, and refrigerating it for at least 10 minutes.

For the filling:
2 tbsp granulated sugar
1 loose tbsp osmanthus tea
a pinch of salt
2 tsp cornstarch
2 yellow peaches, pitted and cut in medium dice

In a spice grinder, blend down the sugar, osmanthus, salt, and cornstarch. Add that to the peaches and stir until combined. Heat up the filling on low until the cornstarch begins to gel around the peaches. Allow the filling to cool down completely before using.

For assembly:
All-purpose flour for rolling
1 egg yolk
Coarse sugar, such as turbinado sugar

On a lightly floured surface, roll out your dough to be roughly 1/16-inch thick. Line the dough into 4 ring molds, trimming any excess. With your remaining dough, roll it out to about 1/16-inch thick. Refrigerate the dough for 10 minutes before cutting out 16 1/4-inch wide strips and 16 1/8-inch wide strips. With the 1/8-inch strips, braid them together in pairs to form 8 braided strips. Refrigerate these strips for at least another 5 minutes before attempting to use.

With the unbaked tart shells, fill each all the way up with your peaches. Arrange the strips of dough on top of them – I started in the center by crossing the two braided strips, and formed my lattice around that using the regular 1/8-inch strips. Trim any excess off the sides of the tin. Brush the tops of the pastry with some beaten egg yolk and sprinkle on some coarse sugar on top of that. Bake the tartlets at 400 degrees F for 15 minutes. Then cover the tops with tin foil, and bake at 350 degrees F for another 15 minutes, just to get the sides and bottom of the pie crust cooked through. Fully cool the pies before unmolding them from the ring molds.