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Published on September 12, 2007

Peach pie recipe (for six servings)

  Sweet short pastry:   Filling:

 200g flour 1 lime

 100g sugar 300ml sweet white wine

 100g butter 150g honey

 2 eggs 2 pinches cinnamon

   4 cloves

   4 eggs

   2 large peaches  

Peel the lime and julienne the zest. Pour the wine into a large pan and add the honey, cinnamon and crushed cloves. Bring to the boil, simmer for five minutes and then strain through a fine sieve.

Prepare the sweet short pastry then let it rest for 30 minutes. Roll out and use it to line a pie pan. Bake it twice for 10 minutes a time at 390F/200C.

Whisky the eggs in a bowl and pour in the warm spiced wine while beating. Continue beating until the mixture has cooled completely. Spread the filling onto the pastry crust and bake for 10 minutes at 355F/180C.

Peel, seed and slice the peaches, then arrange them on the filling in a spiral. Bake at 355F/180C for 20 minutes. Lightly toast the almonds. Using a little jelly, brush the edge of the piecrust and arrange the almonds along it. Garnish with fresh mint and serve warm.

Preparation time: 40 minutes

Resting time: 30 minutes

Cooking time: 55 minutes

Difficulty: *

This pie is traditionally made with apples but peaches give a truly unique and surprising flavour to this delicious recipe. Peaches are increasingly available in regular supermarkets.

Sweet short pastry is fragile and should be handled very gently. A clever way to fit the crust into the pan without damaging it is to roll the pastry onto a rolling pin and then unroll it into the pie pan.

The pastry cream used here is wine-based. The spices are the traditional flavours of winter baking in Europe: sweet, spicy and warming.

Adding warm wine to the eggs will cause them to develop a mousse-like consistency quickly. The pie is often briefly baked with the filling to prevent the peach slices from "drowning" in the filling. However, this step may be omitted. The slices can be laid out on the bottom of the crust and immediately covered with the filling. They should be baked for 30 minutes at 355 F/180 C.

To order a pie from La Patisserie, call (02) 246 7800 extension 4434.

The Nation