Triple-berry peach pie - attempt #1

How did you spend last Friday night? At a movie? Hanging out with friends? Out to dinner at a fancy restaurant?

I spent mine researching peach pies.

I've been trying to decide what kind of fruit pie to learn to perfect and enter in the contest. The whole fruit category throws me off, because the only fruit pie I can think of -- that isn't a berry or apple (those are their own categories, remember?) -- is peach.

Well, I suppose other kinds of fruit pies include apricot, mango, plum and such -- but those aren't very common or popular. And peach just happens to be my favorite pie in the world. So my first inclination was to pursue the peach.

But, rather than just dive headlong into perfecting a peach pie, I thought I should at least do some research on what kinds of fruit pies typically win pie-baking contests.

Because after all, this isn't about favorites. It's about winning.

So I went online and had a tough time finding a winning fruit pie that wasn't an apple, berry or cream variation. And, to be perfectly honest, I found several instances where peach pies made decent showings, peach isn't really a front runner when being compared to Big Apple. (Apple seemed to win most often in all-around competitions.)

And my poor old memory is failing me when I try to recall the various kinds of pies submitted in last year's fruit category. I know there was a peach, but I'll be damned if I can remember the others.

So, unless I can get a hold of a judge or the event organizer, I decided to go with peach.

There are many variations on the peach pie and I'm pretty sure I want to do a peach with a little pizazz. After all, I think pizazz may be my secret ingredient.

So, this morning I decided to try my hand at a triple-berry peach pie. I know, berry is its own category, but berries can be incorporated as long as they're not the main ingredient.

I combined frozen fruit with sugar, butter and flour.

And brushed the top with egg wash to get that golden brown.

Pretty!

The pie was picture perfect, except where I didn't seal the seam on the top and lower crust and the filling oozed out some. Aside from that it had a golden, flaky crust and decent consistency inside.

I like the berry-peach combo, but I won't use raspberries in the recipe because of the seeds. The flavors were great, but I'm certain the judges don't want to have to pick seeds out of their teeth after the first bite. (I wouldn't.)

Plus, this pie would've pushed the rules on if it should be in the fruit or berry category. I'll need to increase the amount of peaches and lay off the berries next time.

In the end, it was a respectable pie, but it was no award winner.

Back to the lab!