Feelin' Peachy

I was looking in the pantry this evening and noticed we've got a wealth of canned peaches courtesy of TEFAP. Yum, peaches! I grew up on canned fruit because in Alaska in the 70's we didn't get the freshest produce unless it was grown in-state, and tree fruit doesn't do very well here.

Now, when you're on a budget something you should consider is how many mouths you can feed with your food. A can of peaches (if you believe the label) is 3 1/2 servings. Doesn't go very far. Here's two recipes for turning canned peaches into yummy deserts that serve well more than three people!

Canned Peach Pie

The trick here is to make the syrup from the cans into something thicker so you have pie filling instead of nasty dried-out peaches. The original recipe is for and old fashioned deep dish pie with only a top crust; I use a top and bottom crust. I'd guess you'd use 3 - 15 ounce cans for a regular pie pan.

2 - 29 ounce cans or 4 - 15 ounce cans of peaches
2 cups juice from the canned peaches
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

Drain the juice from the canned peaches into a measuring cup. You need two cups; just add some water if you're short.

In a very large saucepan, combine the cornstarch, sugar and nutmeg. Gradually stir in the peach liquid, and the lemon juice. Stir to dissolve the cornstarch. Heat the mixture over medium heat, stirring very frequently. Bring the mixture to a boil and boil for at least a minute, or until the mixture is very thick. Remove the pan from the heat and gently stir in the canned peaches. The mixture will thin out some.

Line a pie pan with an uncooked pie crust. Turn the thick peach filling into the pie crust and top with a second pie crust. Crimp the edges together (a fork works well, though some people like to pinch it to make fluting). Pierce the top crust a few times to let steam out.

Bake it at 425° for about an hour. The top will be golden brown, the filling will be bubbly, and it will be very hot. Allow it to cool for a little bit before serving.

I overfilled this pie - it bubbled over and got filling juice everywhere. Fortunately I was thinking ahead and baked it on a sheet pan lined with parchment paper! You could probably reduce the recipe to 3 to 3 1/2 cans of peaches easily.

Peach Upside Down Cake

This works just as well with canned apricots, nectarines, and other pit fruit. You really don't need peach halves, slices can also be arranged prettily. I've never bothered with the maraschino cherries as I never have them in the house. You can also pass on the orange zest if you don't have a fresh orange to grate, but the flavor of the cake is brighter with it. And I think it makes a good breakfast too!

1/4 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1 1/2 cups canned peach slices, drained
6 maraschino cherries, halved
1/3 cup shortening
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1 1/4 cups sifted cake flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon grated orange peel
1/2 cup orange juice

Spread butter in bottom of 8-inch round cake pan and sprinkle with brown sugar. Arrange peaches and cherries on brown sugar. Cream the shortening and sugar in a mixing bowl. Add the egg and beat well. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together; add to creamed mixture alternately with mixture of the orange peel and juice. Pour batter over peaches, taking care not to disturb fruit. Bake at 350° for 45 to 50 minutes, or until a wooden pick or cake tester inserted in center comes out clean.. Cool for 10 minutes. Invert over serving plate and remove cake pan

Okay, by now everyone knows that I'm lazy and use pre-made pie crust whenever I can afford it. I do make my own crust, I swear. I found a wonderful guide on everything you ever wanted to know about pie crust (and then some) that you might like to read if you'd like to make your own or have a fear of pie crust. Making the Perfect Crust.

Sweet Potato Pie

One of the commodities we've been getting in our TEFAP boxes is canned sweet potatoes. The problem is, my family doesn't like sweet potatoes one bit. Not as fries, mashed, candied, or with marshmallows on top. I firmly believe that if we're broke enough to be receiving TEFAP, we should not let any of it go to waste, so I set out to discover some way my family would eat them.

The answer was pretty obvious when I stumbled over it: pie.

There are lots of recipes for traditional sweet potato pie. As usual I'm looking for recipes that don't require I buy anything special. Pie crust ("short crust" to my friend Emily) is easy, I've always got that stuff and other basic baking needs. I found a lot of recipes that use sour cream or evaporated milk, which I don't keep around. The one I settled on uses buttermilk.

I keep buttermilk powder around when I can afford it, but you can make a buttermilk substitute by adding one tablespoon of vinegar to a scant cup of milk ("scant" means "not quite the whole measure" - just take a tablespoon of milk out before you add the vinegar.) This gives the properties of buttermilk for baking, and the taste is close. It will clump and look soured when you add the vinegar, which is what you want.

The recipes I found also use pie crust or graham cracker crust interchangeably. Graham cracker crust is really simple to make if you don't want to muck with rolling out dough. It's just crushed graham crackers and butter.

Graham Cracker Crust

6 Tbsp butter or margarine
About 24 graham crackers, crushed to make 1 1/2 cups of crumbs
1/4 cup sugar
Cinnamon, allspice, or nutmeg (optional)

Crush the graham crackers by putting them in sealable bag and rolling them until they're crumbs. A food processor or blender also works well.

In a small saucepan or the microwave, melt 6 tablespoons of butter. Measure 1 1/2 cups of graham cracker crumbs into a medium bowl. Add 1/4 cup of sugar to the graham crackers. Add the melted butter. Add a little cinnamon, nutmeg, or allspice to the crumbs for a spiced flavor. Stir or blend together with your hands. Press into the pie plate or other pan. To pre-bake the pie crust, bake for 8 to 10 minutes in a preheated 350 degree F. oven.

Most of the recipes I found used fresh baked and mashed sweet potatoes, and what I have are canned in syrup. They mash very well, and the syrup just means a sweeter pie. The recipe I started with is from bakingbites.com, and here's what I ended up with. If you're using buttermilk powder, follow the directions on the can for adding liquid and the powder:

Buttermilk Sweet Potato Pie

1 15 ounce can of sweet potatoes, drained
1 cup buttermilk
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup brown sugar
3 large eggs
2 Tbsp flour
1 9 or 10 inch pre-baked pie crust

Preheat oven to 350 F.

In a blender or food processor, blend the sweet potatoes and buttermilk to a smooth puree. Add all ingredients except flour and blend smooth. Add flour and pulse the blender until it's just incorporated (don't over blend, it will make the pie tough).

Place the pie crust on a baking sheet and place baking sheet on the middle rack of a preheated oven. Pour filling into pie crust (it is thin enough that it will slosh if you put it in the pie crust and attempt to carry it over to the oven).

Bake for 50-55 minutes, until pie is set and jiggles only very slightly when the pan is bumped. You may want to put a crust guard (foil works) on the exposed pie crust to keep it from burning.

Cool on a wire rack to room temperature. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours, or overnight, before serving.

This is close enough to pumpkin pie that the kids don't notice the difference! A little whipped cream dresses it up.


For the pie pictured here I used a Wal-Mart "Great Value" pre-fab pie crust. I won't be buying that particular crust again. The first shrank up so bad on baking that what I had was a thick tart crust with barely any sides. So I rolled out the second crust a bit and left it laid over the edges of the pie pan for shrinkage, and it didn't shrink. It did, however, bubble up badly on baking (despite pricking it), which has left some shallow spots in the pie.

The good news is the kids don't care too much, they just like pie. And there's nothing wrong here that sufficient application of whipped cream won't fix.

UPDATE:
I made this pie today and remembered to take a picture of a pretty one. I've also tweaked the recipe a little.

The pie won't stay puffy, by the way. Custard pies will "fall" as they cool.