Imperfect Peach Pie

Plus: Roasted Cherry Tomato Pasta, Migas, and Links.

Hey Thursday friends,

Well, to quote Britney Spears: “Ooops, I did it again.”

What did I do? I lost my confidence midway through making a peach pie with the most beautiful farmer’s market peaches that were so ripe and fragrant and just screaming out for a buttery, flaky home. Here’s the TikTok that I made of my experience:

@amateurgourmetMy peach pie saga. 🍑🥧😭😔😉 #pie #pies #food #cookingfail #peaches #fruit

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Watching that again, I think I can see where I went wrong: I don’t think I added enough water.

That was the key question I had for pie guru Kate McDermott when I had her on my podcast: “What happens if you add too much water?” She explained that too much water will develop the gluten “and you’ll end up with cardboard.”

But I erred in the other direction and ended up with a crumbly mess. As you can tell from the video, I tried to do it all by hand; in the past, I’ve used a food processor which, I can see now, has its advantages in summer when it’s hot and working the butter into the flour with your fingertips in your hot kitchen can heat things up too much.

Truth be told: this pie was absolutely delicious, despite having a tough crust.

The tough crust turned out to be a very small deal because the cooked peaches softened things up so much. Basically it tasted like salty buttery cookies on top of juicy, flavor-concentrated peaches. I suppose the ultimate lesson is the lesson that Kate (who has her own terrific Substack) taught me from the beginning: “Chill out, it’s just pie.”

In other news, a lot of people were inspired by the roasted cherry tomato pasta with garlicky breadcrumbs that I posted the other day. I mean, you have to admit these roasted tomatoes with Urfa chili and Aleppo pepper and basil look pretty gorg: