Recipe Road Test: Top Crust Peach and Cardamom Pie
September 29, 2009 by Caitlin
Filed under Cookery & Recipes, Featured
The peach season was in full swing when I arrived in California and two and a half months later it is still not over. Some of the varieties have changed but peaches are still plentiful and relatively cheap. My absolute favourite kind so far are the Arctic Snow white nectarines, which are fabulously sweet and juicy.
I’ve been devouring as many juicy peaches and nectarines as I can lay my hands on. Mostly I like them plain – but I’ve also enjoyed cooking with them as well and sometimes a spot of baking is essential when the fruit is past its peak.
Peaches are one of the “dirty dozen” of the most pesticide-ridden produce in the United States, so I always buy organic if I can. That’s easy in San Francisco with farmers’ markets throughout the city. I’ve been able to pick up some terrific bargains at the end of the day, or by asking for bruised fruit for baking.
We’ve bought them by the box load for less than $1 a pound. We eat them of course but also freeze some for later use – peach season in our house will stretch well into winter!
Recipe – Top Crust Peach and Cardamom Pie
One of the best recipes I’ve found so far is this top crust peach and cardamom pie, from Bon Appetit magazine. The original recipe is already provided online and I haven’t modified it, so I have linked to it rather than copying it here.
In summary, it’s a peach and cardamom mix covered with layered rounds of cut-out pastry. It’s top-crust only so it’s not too heavy on the pastry.
My Road Test
A note on ingredients I used the same light brown sugar in the crust as in the filling. 
I used a mix of peach varieties and I’m pretty sure you could use nectarines too.
Method: The recipe doesn’t give instructions on how to peel the peaches. I used the same method that I use for tomatoes – get water to a rolling boil, immerse the peaches in for a couple of minutes, then remove from the water and allow to cool. The skin should then easily peel off.
Since fat molecules can bind to plastic, I ignored the instruction to wrap the pastry in cling film and used grease-proof paper instead. This worked fine.
Result: The sugar sprinkled on top was a little unevenly cooked and had overcooked in parts. However, the pie was delicious.
Verdict
It is an absolutely wonderful recipe. Would I make this again? Without a doubt. In fact, I already have – twice. The only thing I changed the second time around was to halve the amount of sugar in the filling because the peaches I was using were naturally extremely sweet. If I were using tarter fruit, then I would certainly stick to the recipe. I also used the pastry brush to even out the sugar so it browned evenly.
It’s great with the honey yogurt suggested in Bon Appetit but I’m sure vanilla ice cream would be great too. I really like the fact that this is a top-crust pie – it’s just the right ratio of pastry to fruit and there is no underside to go gluggy and horrible. The layered circles of dough is a very pretty effect and the idea of using cookie cutters is inspired – I used ones with scalloped edges but the possibilities are endless.
The cardamom is fabulous with the peaches – though I’m sure Chris from Blog Well Done’s suggestion of cinnamom would also be lovely.
The Cinnamon was really nice, but I bet the cardamom would be great, too. Funny story, my wife once tried to make cinnamon toast for me before a big job interview.
So I get ready to go, take a big mouthful of cinnamon toast … and it’s off. Not bad, just off. It’s actually cardamom toast! Long story short, I got the job and now I get cinnamon toast before every important event.
The point of that story (there is one, I swear) is that the flavor of cardamom goes well with sweet dishes and has convinced me to try peach pie your way next time!
Chris Perrin´s last blog ..#meatlessmonday It’s Cannelloni Time Y’All!
Do try it – it was lovely! I love the story about the cinnamon toast. – Caitlin.
Caitlin,
Pie-making isn’t something I do frequently, but, from my reading of your description of this particular dish (which caught my eye because I love peaches, which typically are plentiful in Texas during the summer months), I am adding the recipe to my repertoire. The fact that the pie doesn’t require a bottom crust is something that appeals greatly to me (read: fewer preparation steps/less work!).
Just thinking about the combination of peaches and cardamom makes my mouth water. The aroma must be heavenly!
I’m grateful to both you and Chris for your road-test experimentations and offerings of suggestions to we future makers of this pie treat!
P.S. Your beautiful photos are a terrific accompaniment to your text.
Molly Block´s last blog ..Inspiring reading: Great NYTimes Magazine story about “Opera’s Coolest Soprano,”…
Thanks for your comment, Molly. I’m more a cook than a baker so I don’t make pies often either. I found this very easy. I made the pastry in the food processor. I imagine the layered top crust would work well with other fruit too. – Caitlin.
I love your idea of road testing recipes. And I love cardamom. Do what could be better than this?
Spot´s last blog ..The World’s 6 Coolest-Looking Bookstores
Thanks for your comment. I’ve been running the ‘recipe road test’ series for a while. http://www.roamingtales.com/tag/recipe-road-test/ If the recipe is not online (eg. it’s from a book) then I will publish it as well. – Caitlin.
That pie looks beautiful and there’s not much you can add to organic peaches and cardamom other than “YUM!”.
(Thanks for the link to the dirty list! I always try to buy organic but I never knew there was a list.)
kimba´s last blog ..Mercury 20 Presents Painters Tarra Lyons And Joan Weiss
The list is great if you are on a budget as it means you can prioritise what to buy organic. – Caitlin.
Ahh peaches and yes the white nectarine is my favourite of the lot. I think we might get a different variety of it here but it’s so sweet and juicy and without the fuzz from a peach. I’m looking forward to peach season but I’ll have to wait a while-I don’t think it’s until next year! I think I’ll buy a lot and cut them up and stick them in the freezer so that I can make pies out of season
Lorraine @ Not Quite Nigella´s last blog ..Kitchen Garden Cake
In my experience the peaches in Australia were quite variable and they weren’t very good in Britain (though both countries have other wonderful fruit). Here in California they are really the best I’ve ever had. We’re coming to the end of the season now but I’ve some stashed away in the freezer. – Caitlin.