HONEY CHAMOMILE PEACH PIE

Pies, pies, pies, pies, pies, pies, pies, pieeeeeees!

I wanted to mix up traditional recipes and quite often I choose flavor combinations based on common color schemes... weird huh? This one is a winner, though especially with the sweltering summer afternoons calling for iced tea and flaky peach pie. Well, that's what my summer afternoons call for anyways!

I used this pie crust recipe and made it in a small 6" pie crust pan, but the following recipe is for a regular sized pie tin.. y'know... so you can "share". Riiiiiiiiight. "Share".

Filling:

5-6 c frozen peaches (You can dice them. Or not.)

1/4 c cornstarch

1/2 c brown sugar

1/4 c honey

1 vanilla bean

1 chamomile tea bag

Steep the chamomile tea in 1/8 c boiling water and let it sit for 10 minutes.

Put the peaches in a colander and run cold water over them until the outer layer is kinda thawed. Maybe 5+ minutes of water running.

Stick all of the ingredients in a bowl and mix it by hand until they are combined. Go ahead and cook the mixture over a high flame stirring constantly with a heat proof rubber spatula until the consistency is like camel snot (translation: its like a "mediumly" thin jam)!

Pour into a pre-made crust, and top with another rolled out crust.

For this top, I attempted to make a variation of a honey comb top by refrigerating the rolled out top and punching holes in it with a piping tip. I saved the dots for the outside crust and attached them with a beaten egg and 2T of water or just water... it works well.

I like to freeze the pie for a 1/2 hour so the shapes don't flop or spread when I bake them. The final step is brushing the rest of the egg wash on top and sprinkling raw sugar on top of that.

Bake for 50-70 minutes until its a deep golden brown. I served it with a little honey on top and man oh man.

DE-lectable.

Whats your favorite pie combination?
Do you have any strange ones?

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ONE RECIPE, FOUR WAYS: SUMMER PANCAKE STYLE!

Pancakes are our catch all at our house. For one thing, breakfast (for dinner especially) is the most delicious food everrrrrr! Second, we usually have everything to make it lying around. SO. I took the basic recipe I use, which is perfect, and added simple ingredients to make FOUR summery kickass versions:

Blackberry with Red Wine Reduction Simple Syrup
Sugared Lemon Basil
Fresh Poached Kumquat Ginger and Brown Sugar
and
Mixed Berry with Greek Yogurt and Honey.

You're drooling already huh? I can see it.

The basic recipe goes like this:

1 c flour

2 t baking powder

1/2 t. baking soda

1/2 t. salt

2 T sugar (brown or white)

Mix this all together and then add the liquids:

3/4 c milk

1 egg

1/2 t vanilla

2 T melted butter or oil.

Whisk, let sit for 5 minutes and then cook away!

 Poached Kumquat Ginger and Brown Sugar:

Add to the finished batter: the zest of 5 or 6 kumquats and 1/2 t. of fresh grated ginger.

To make the poached kumquat brown sugar glaze, put 1 c of water to simmer with halved kumquats. Let this simmer for 10 minutes and then add 1/3 c brown sugar. Stir until the sugar dissolves and let it sit until cool!

 Blackberry with Red Wine Reduction Simple Syrup:

I added some chopped frozen berries to the batter (if you use these the cooking time will be longer!) and then made the reduction. Here's how: Take any amount of wine... say a cup and simmer it until it reduces in half! It doesn't take as long as you would think and it's SO simple! Add 1/4 c sugar and mix it to dissolve. Red wine reduction simple syrup! Delicioso.

 Sugared Lemon Basil:

I have fresh basil growing in my window (for now...) so I wanted to figure out a way to incorporate it!

The zest from a lemon, and the juice AND 3 or 4 julienned basil leaves!
While one side was cooking, I dusted the top with sugar and flipped it over.
Garnish more sugar and serve 'em warm!

Mixed Berry with Greek Yogurt and Honey:

More frozen berries! You can mix them in before cooking them, or you can sprinkle them on top while the first side cooks. Top with greek yogurt (I like Trader Joe's honey version!) and drizzle with honey. Its really really good for you and super fresh light and delicious.

Do you have any versions of pancakes that YOU would like to share?

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