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White peach ginger pie

White peach ginger pie

Pies

This pie is a balance of spice, warmth and sugar, a bridge between the sweet fruits of summer and the exotic, fragrant flavors of winter– the perfect September pie. I tried out my first attempt at this ginger-peach vision with my friend. We used powdered ginger and powdered cloves but peaches seemed to drink up the ginger and you could barely taste it. Faced with this conundrum (uh, powdered ginger is pretty strong), I puzzled over trying shredded ginger root or crystallized ginger. I only have one fully functional hand at the moment, so shredding ginger seemed annoying to say the least. That minor convenience is the only reason I tossed the sparkly, chewy candied ginger into my cart. I did not go into this experiment with full confidence. I envisioned the crystallized ginger turning to tooth-chipping rocks in the oven, nested in the peaches for unsuspecting pie chewers (like my friends and myself) to crack their molars on. But, I thought, maybe-just-maybe, the crystallized ginger would lend its magic to the flavor I was after and melt seamlessly into the fruit. And it did! The starfruit mellows and cuts the sweetness of the peaches but the true star of this pie is that ginger candy. The crust is an adaptation of William-Sonoma’s basic pie dough. My version came out a little flakier than their all-butter version. Also, mine has slightly less flour and a bit of cinnamon.