Peach and Almond Custard Pie

For me, summer means peach everything. They're my favorite fruit to bake with and my favorite thing to bake is pie. I had some peaches in the crisper drawer and my go-to peach dessert, my mom's peach pie, on my mind...and then my husband and I started wondering what other types of peach pies there were that I hadn't tried yet.

The answer to that, my friends, is peach custard pie. And it is just as amazing as it sounds. Flaky pastry, juicy peaches, a custard spiked with almond extract, because I just can't have a peach pie without almond. So in that respect it tastes quite a bit like the pie I talked about here years ago, but custardy! I think it might be a new favorite here. 

The original recipe calls for thyme in the custard and cinnamon in the crust. I love them both separately, but together? I'll definitely be trying this one in the future; I'm intrigued by the combination. But for this pie, I wanted the familiar pairing of peach and almond. It was simple and delicious.

The only other change I would make is to cut the peaches in smaller, bite-size pieces. The slices look beautiful, but they weren't very easy to eat. My pie took a whole lot longer to bake than the recipe called for, but my crust didn't burn and the custard didn't separate, so although I was worried, there was no reason to be. It turned out perfectly!

Peach and Almond Custard Pie

makes 1 9" pie

A side note about the crust: I happened to have exactly 1/4 cup buttermilk in my refrigerator to make this, but if you don't have any on hand, use whatever crust you are comfortable with, or the crust recipe included in my previous peach pie post. This was delicious and fairly easy to work with for an all butter pastry, but I'm not sure I would have known there was buttermilk in it if I didn't know about it already.

Crust:

1/2 c. butter, cubed

1 1/4 c. flour

1/4 t. salt

1 T. sugar

1/4 c. buttermilk

Filling:

2 eggs

1 1/4 c. milk (I used half and half)

3 T. flour

1/4 t. almond extract

3/4 c. sugar

1/4 c. dark brown sugar

1/4 t. salt

3 c. sliced (or chopped) peaches

For pastry: Combine flour, salt and sugar. Cut in butter with pastry blender until crumbly. Slowly add buttermilk, tossing with spoon after each addition, until dough comes together. ( I didn't even need the whole 1/4 cup, maybe about half of that.) Wrap dough in plastic and chill for 1 hour. 

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Roll out dough on lightly floured work surface to 1/4" thickness. Roll dough onto rolling pin and transfer to pie plate. Fold edges under and crimp as desired. In a mixing bowl, whisk eggs, milk, flour, extract, sugars and salt until smooth. Place peaches in crust and pour custard over. Place on baking sheet and bake 40 minutes to 1 hour 10 minutes (that's really how long my pie was in the oven before the custard finally looked set. I was a little nervous...) or until pie is only slightly jiggly in center and feels firm to touch. Let stand at least 30 minutes before serving. Cover and chill if you don't eat it all in one sitting. (We were tempted.)