SKILLET PEACH PIE

While we were in CO Springs visiting with our son and his family, we saw that fresh peaches were on sale at the nearby King Soopers Supermarket. Since we were coming back home the next day, we decided to buy enough to make a couple of things.  

I forgot to get a paper sack so had to wait until we were home to place them in a sack to ripen. After a few days in the sack, they were smelling like peaches. Then I put them in the refrigerator until a few days later I was ready to finally make a Peach Skillet Pie of Mrs. Jacob F. Kolb of Spring City, PA. 

I found her recipe a few days before going to CO in Mary Emma Showalter's Pennsylvania Dutch Cooking, A Mennonite Community Cookbook. I didn't think we would have enough time to eat it all so I just marked the recipe. I also didn't have any fresh ripe peaches which was major since it was a peach pie. 

Mrs. Kolb's recipe didn't call for a particular size of skillet but did call for 8 peaches. I knew from experience that 8 peaches were going to make a really big pie. Since I wanted to make at least two dishes from my peaches, I just used my 8 - inch iron skillet and 5 peaches. I tried them in my skillet first to see if they would fill the skillet as much as I wanted to before I stopped at 5 peaches. You might want to do the same thing if you are using a different size skillet. Next time I will roll the dough thinner than what the recipe called for as I like my crust thinner. I always use stevia in place of sugar in recipes where they have you cover the fresh fruit with sugar. I like the taste of the fresh fruit to come through not a lot of sugar.

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SKILLET PEACH PIE

2       cups flour
1       teaspoon salt
4       teaspoons baking powder
1/3    cup shortening
1/3 - 1/2  cup milk (I used almost 1/2 cup)
fresh peaches to fill skillet (5 - 8 peaches)
3/4    cup sugar (I used stevia)
cinnamon
spray butter

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Sift at least 2 cups of flour. Remeasure sifted flour to get 2 cups.

Add salt and baking powder and sift again.

(I didn't mix the salt and baking powder in with the sifted flour so I just sifted the ingredients twice to make sure the ingredients were well blended.)

Cut in shortening as for pastry.

(I scoop out small amounts and press them against the side of the bowl and

work them one at a time until I have incorporated all of the shortening in with the flour mixture.)

Add milk all at once just enough to make a soft dough.

Turn out onto a floured board and

roll a round piece 1/4 in thick or thinner if you like.

It needs to be about 2 inches bigger all away around the skillet you are using.

(I trimmed the edges to make a circle so they would be even when I pulled them back over the peaches to the center of the skillet.)

Place dough in bottom of skillet and

let the excess hang over the sides.

Fill the skillet with sliced peaches.

Sprinkle with the sugar or stevia.

Sprinkle with cinnamon to cover.

Carefully pull the excess dough/crust back toward the center of the peaches/skillet leaving the center open.

Spray the top with the spray butter. (I admit I forgot to do this until the last two minutes of baking.)

Bake 25 to 30 minutes.

Serve warm with rich milk or ice cream.

Makes 6 to 8 servings.