Sunday, August 31, 2014

Peach Piecakes (Pie+Cake = Piecake)

For quite a while I've been .wanting to make peach piecakes. I saw a pin on Pinterest that led to Bakingdom.

The person who made them did a nice job with the lattice crust. By the time the top-crust and lattice work came around, I didn't take the same amount of time and effort to make the little piecakes look as neat and orderly as the original pin on Pinterest.

Oh well...it doesn't really matter in the greater scheme of life. What matters is how the little piecakes taste which is incredible!


It's the best of both worlds: a peach pie and a vanilla cake topped with spiced peaches.

The recipe is one that requires you to move quickly once the baking process starts. It is best to have everything ready to go - the pie crust, peach filling, and cake batter - before the first step of putting the lower pie crust in the oven. Otherwise, you'll be scrambling to try to do the filling and batter in only ten minutes which is not enough time to get both done.

The original recipe says that there is enough to make 24 standard-sized piecakes. I found that the there was pie crust to make 12 piecakes. There was leftover cake batter and peach filling which I put into a small pie plate and baked. 

Perhaps doubling the pie crust ingredients (listed below) would result in a sufficient amount of dough for 24 piecakes.

Ingredients

FOR THE PIE CRUST
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons shortening, cold
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cold, cut into small chunks
6-8 tablespoons cold water

FOR THE CAKE
2 egg whites, at room temperature (save the yolks to use in an egg wash, if desired)
1/4 cup milk, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup, plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
5 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

FOR THE PEACH FILLING
4 peaches, peeled, pitted, quartered, and sliced thin
1/4 cup brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon lemon juice
2 teaspoons cornstarch

To make the crust, mix the dry ingredients for a couple of seconds to combine, Add the shortening and mix until it looks like wet sand. Add butter until it is in tiny pieces.

Add about 6 tablespoons cold water and begin mixing with a fork. Once it is in dough-form, knead it on a floured surface.

Divide the dough in half evenly and shape into two balls. Put into a container and refrigerate for at least two hours or over night.

This is important: once the pie crust is chilled, make the cake batter. You want to have the cake batter and the peach filling ready before you bake the pie dough.

Combine the eggs, milk, and vanilla in a bowl, and whisk together. Set this aside.

Beat the butter on low speed until the mixture. Add the egg mixture. Then add the dry ingredients. Set aside while you prepare the pie crusts.

Next, make the pie filling: Combine the peach slices, sugars, and spices in a medium bowl, tossing to coat the peaches thoroughly. Stir in the lemon juice and corn starch until well combined. Spread in a baking dish. This will be baked along with the piecakes.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Lightly coat muffin pan with nonstick cooking spray; set aside.

Remove your one of the balls of pie dough from the refrigerator and roll it out to a little less than 1/4-inch thick. Cut several 4 to 5-inch circles out of the dough, re-rolling the remaining dough, as needed.

Place each circle into the cup of the prepared muffin pan, pressing gently into the corners and trimming any excess dough away. Bake for 10 minutes. (Note: when I did this the pie crust shrank down to about halfway down each muffin tin. I thought it would be an issue when removing the piecakes, but it didn't matter. They came out easily.)

Remove the pie crusts from oven and immediately fill each muffin cup with 1 tablespoon of the cake batter.

Bake the filled pie crusts and the pie filling (which is in a separate pan) for 10 minutes.

While it is baking, roll out the remaining pie dough and cut into 1/4 to 1/2-inch strips.

Remove the piecakes and filling from the oven and place about 2 tablespoons of the pie filling on top of each piecake.

Weave the pieces into lattice tops on each of the piecakes. Be careful as you weave the lattice tops since the peach filling is quite hot by this point. (Thus, one of the reasons I simply placed the strips on top of each piecake rather than weaving them)

Return to the oven and bake until lattices are light golden brown, about 10 minutes. Allow to cool completely before serving.

There's a recipe for Ginger Whipped Cream. However, we used whipped cream that we had on hand that was already prepared. Nonetheless, perhaps this is something that we would try the next time that we make the piecakes:

Ingredients

1 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoons vanilla

In a large bowl, whip the cream on medium high speed until it forms soft peaks. Add the sugar and ginger and continue whipping until firm peaks form. Stir in the vanilla. Chill until ready to serve.

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