Photo by Muffy Aldrich
Muffy Aldrich's SALT WATER NEW ENGLAND

Sunday, August 10, 2025

Making Peach Pies

All Photos by/of Muffy Aldrich
There are big questions in life.
  • Does power corrupt?
  • Does success lead to happiness or does happiness lead to success?
  • Is it better to be the smartest person in the room or the least smart?
And, of course,
  • Is pie better right out of the oven or cold the next day for breakfast?
August is peach pie making month and this year is no different.   I use locally grown peaches if possible, and if not, then I buy those suspect but still wonderfully oversized New Jersey peaches.  

When I make pies, I channel my Yankee grandmother (my father's mother), as I use not only her recipe but her old wooden rolling pin as well.  I started making these pies when I was about twelve years old, and per my modus operandi, I dealt in volume.  I never made just one pie, and I seldom made only two, to the delight of both my father and my brother.

And I will weigh in that peach pie and apple pie taste better cold, and especially when eaten for breakfast.

Ingredients for Filling
4 Cups of peeled and sliced peaches
⅞ cup sugar
4 Tbsp flour
½ teaspoon cinnamon
1⅓ Tbsp butter

Peel and cut up peaches
Mix in sugar, flour and cinnamon

Ingredients for Crust
1 cup white flour
¾ cup whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon salt (don't leave out)
½ cup canola oil
¼ cup whole milk

Mix together, divide in half
Roll each half flat between two pieces of waxed paper

Combine
Put bottom crust in pie pan (a 9 inch Pyrex pan works well)
Pour in filling
Cut up butter into four or five pieces and place evenly on top of filling
Put on top crust
With a knife, place five or so slits in top crust

Bake in pre-heated oven at 425 degrees

Bake for around 40 minutes and check. One can bake it for an additional 10 minutes, or until crust is darkened enough

Locally Grown Peaches

Adding the flour, sugar, and cinnamon.


Mixing the dry ingredients for the crust.  Never omit the salt.

My grandmother's rolling pin and my great grandmother's table.



My favorite everyday flatware, courtesy of my husband.


I tend to overcook a bit as I am fond of those darkened crust edges.

Pie in the evening.  (Sterling silver courtesy of my husband's grandmother.)

Pie for breakfast.


22 comments:

  1. Yum! Thanks for reminding me to make a peach pie - as soon as this next damn heat wave is over (small kitchen - don't want to turn on the oven.) Just curious, though ... why the odd 7/8 cup of sugar? Why not just a whole cup?

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  2. What a wonderful wonderful post. This and similar posts of the past I find the most enjoyable. My mother and grandmother put a lot of time and effort into making our homes feel so special. I always found it fascinating how they seemed to have a foot in both worlds. To live the lives that they lead but yet to still take the time to make home feel so special. I for one encourage you to include more posts like this. I’ve been a follower since you first began this adventure.
    Thank you.

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  3. I struggle to think of any fruit pies that are best served warm. Whether for breakfast or dessert, chilled favors fruit pies.

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    Replies
    1. Hi. What about blueberries? Best chilled or warm or room temperature?

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  4. I’ve been using your peach pie recipe for years! It is the best. Cold, out of the fridge for breakfast is the way to go.

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  5. Or make them French style, with just crust at the bottom, and a later of almost marzipan-like frangipane to soak up the juices

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  6. I have no doubt that the pie is delicious. At the same time, the sterling fork [ next to a blue plate ] two images upthread caught my eye. The pattern is reminiscent of Tiffany's Olive and Chrysanthemum designs. Quite lovely ... collars up !!!!

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  7. It is better to be the smartest person in the room.

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  8. That looks and sounds delicious! I have been thinking myself of making us a peach cobbler or two here. A nod to my southern roots although I grew up outside of Philadelphia. We always had peach cobblers in the late summer.

    Kind Regards,

    Heinz-Ulrich

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    Replies
    1. Southern roots ?

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    2. I am fascinated by how many people have to talk about the south on a New England blog.

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    3. My distinct impression is that New England folk have a lingering sense of disappointment in not having finished the job in 1865.

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    4. And it seems that southern folks have an obsession with not being New Englanders. They seem bound and determined to prove that they are New England prep. It seems that quite a few of them have not developed the neural pathways to comprehend that they are not from Puritan stock.

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    5. And in the interest of full disclosure, my mother’s side of the family is of Puritan stock. My father’s On the other hand came here from Germany and Eastern Europe in 1820.

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    6. Germany and Eastern Europe ring a bell. There, in New England, are Puritans everywhere, well at least here and there. All for the good. Keep in mind the Roman system, pieces of which are still in use, was 10,000 miles longer than the United States interstate highway system. Two thirds of the fine art in the world is in Italy. And the universal food is a pizza “pie.”

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  9. There’s just something so special about pie It seems to go along with the balanced Puritan lifestyle. It’s not extravagant. Just seems to touch something in a few people. Not something that my hedge fund acquaintances would have on their table. Sadly, they don’t know what they’re missing.

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  10. Pie crust without butter?! What magic is this?

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  11. From the great film “Broadcast News”; the news producer says to Holly Hunter’s character “it must be nice to always believe you know better, to always think you’re the smartest person in the room.” She replies, no, it’s awful. True, but it’s better than the alternative.

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  12. To foreigners, a Yankee is an American. To Americans, a Yankee is a Northerner. To Northerners, a Yankee is a New Englander. To New Englanders, a Yankee is a Vermonter. And in Vermont, a Yankee is somebody who eats pie for breakfast.”

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  13. Anonymous 8:48 a.m., I hate to burst your bubble, but we Southerners don't want to be like you and we are rather relieved that we've avoided it. I will admit we get a little prickly when you look down your noses at us, but then we remember to feel sorry for you in the winter.

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    Replies
    1. No one is looking down their nose at anyone in the south. But, you in the south are not New England prep. That’s the rub.

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    2. What, whiskeydent, would summer be without winter?

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