The Queen's Cream Cheese Fresh Peach Pie

We spend most of the summer up to our elbows in sticky peach juice at our house.  We live in the Central Valley of California where we're surrounded by fresh fruits and veggies of every kind.  We try to take full advantage of it and now that it's peach season we are busy freezing, canning, and making jam.  And while Hunter may argue that frozen peaches are the best (he eats them straight out of the bag from the freezer), by far the most popular peachy goodness in our house this season is fresh peach pie.

I have had several requests for the recipe so I decided to put it up on the blog for anyone who's interested.

This recipe makes 2 pies.

Peaches

You will need 8 - 10 peaches for 2 pies, depending on the size of your peaches.

Peel and slice fresh ripe peaches and set aside - I usually do this while the pie shells are baking and cooling.  Well, actually I usually have my kids do this and see how far they can spread sticky peach juice across the kitchen.


You can put the peaches in lemon juice and water mixture to keep them from browning if you want.  I haven't had a problem with discoloration so I usually don't do it.

Pie Crusts

You will need two 9 inch pie crusts baked and cooled.  I usually buy the Pillsbury pie crusts to save time and use 8 inch disposable pie tins to give me a little extra dough around the edges.  There's 9 people in my house, saving time and having less dishes to wash are a MUST! 

Cream Cheese Bottom

This is so simple it's almost sinful and tastes delicious.  We use this by itself as a cream cheese fruit dip.

2 packages of cream cheese softened
1 can sweetened condensed milk

Put softened cream cheese and sweetened condensed milk in mixer and blend until smooth.  Give into the impulsive side of you and taste it - yummy!  There is plenty so don't worry about taste testing.  In our house we always say we're testing the food to make sure no one's going to get poisoned - the irony is everyone tests so if we were to be poisoned I suppose we would all die.

When the pie crusts are completely cooled you are going to spread cream cheese mixture about an 3/4 - 1 inch deep on the bottom of the pie crust.

Peach Glaze

I make my own glaze but you can usually buy pre-made glaze in the grocery store in the produce department.  For 2 pies I would buy 3 containers of peach glaze.  

Homemade Glaze recipe

1 cup sugar
2 cups V8 Peach Mango juice
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1 tablespoon butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Put sugar, V8 juice, and corn starch in a sauce pan stir until mixed.  Add butter and heat over medium  heat stirring constantly until clear and thick, remove from heat.  You don't it too think - it will thicken somewhat as it cools in the refrigerator.  Stir in Vanilla extract.  Set aside and let cool.  Glaze doesn't have to be completely cold before using but should not be hot or so warm that it melts your cream cheese mixture.

Putting it all together


You're going to pour a thin layer of glaze over the cream cheese bottom then layer peaches and glaze on top.  When you have your pie stacked with peaches the way you want it pour another layer of glaze over the top.

Cool in the refrigerator for at least an hour.  Serve with whipped cream.  Enjoy!