It seems a shame not to take advantage of the abundance of peaches still in the shops – they’re cheap too and I have discovered why; they’re pretty hard. Like, ‘you could play cricket with them’ hard.
Not to worry! Roast ‘em. Add some custard and bake them as little pies. Perfick.

Preheat the oven to GM6/200C/400F

Take 2 peaches, cut them in half, remove the stones and lay, cut side up, in a baking tray. Sprinkle each half with a tsp of light brown sugar.

Yes, you are right; there are more than 2 peaches there, but I had so much left over, it seemed unfair to impose that on you. Do as many as you like, of course, but you will have leftovers – tasty leftovers.

Bake for 30-40mins or until they are tender to the tip of a knife. Turn them over and lookie

Yum!! Eat them all right now if you want! Make the pies another time!

Allow them to cool enough that you can handle them, remove the skins and chop them up into dainty chunks. DAINTY, please.

*ahem* Right. Where were we we? Yes. The pastry.

Put 6oz plain flour, a pinch of salt and 1 tsp sugar into a medium bowl.

Add 1½oz Trex (vegetable shortening) and  1½oz unsalted butter – both cold, both cut into chunks.

Using a pastry blender or a round-ended knife, cut the fats into the flour until it looks like breadcrumbs.

Add 4tsp ice cold water and begin to stir round with the knife. Add another couple of tsp of water, one at a time, until it starts to want to come together.

Using one hand, gather into a ball

Form into a disc and wrap in clingfilm. Put into the fridge for at least 15 mins to rest. Increase the oven temperature to GM7.

Roll the pastry out to a thickness of about 1/8 inch and stamp out 12 rounds to fit the holes of a 12-hole patty tin. If that sentence isn’t a potential Primary School song, frankly, I don’t know what is. I’m off to compose a tune to fit it right now.

Put a tsp of custard (NB. use the good stuff from the fridge – I bought the stuff in a carton from the ambient section and what a pity. It wasn’t sweet or tasty enough once it had been cooked. Then put a little dollop of peaches on top of that.

If you want, re-roll the pastry (once only) and cut out some stars to cover the top with. Brush them with a little milk.

Bake in the oven for 15-20 mins until the pastry is golden brown. Transfer them to a wire rack and dust with icing sugar. Delish.

Roasted Peach and Custard Pies

PRINT THIS RECIPE (open in a new window)

2 peaches
4 tsp light brown sugar

6oz plain flour
1.5oz Trex (vegetable shortening)
1.5oz unsalted butter
pinch salt
1 tsp sugar
6 tsp iced water (approx)

small carton good quality custard (I tried supermarket custard and it was not flavourful or sweet enough)

To roast the peaches:
Preheat the oven to GM6/200C/400F

Cut the peaches in half and remove the stone.
Place in a baking tray, cut side up and sprinkle each half with 1 tsp of light brown sugar.
Roast for 30-40 mins or until they are tender to the tip of a knife.

Allow to cool enough that you can handle them, remove the skin and chop the peaches up into smallish bits. Taste the peaches and add more sugar if they are too tart.

To make the pastry:
Put the flour, sugar and salt into a medium bowl.
Cut the cold fats into smallish cubes.
Using a pastry blender or a rounded knife, cut the fats into the flour until it looks like breadcrumbs.
Add 4 tsp of ice cold water and stir with the rounded knife. Add more water, tsp by tsp until it starts to come together.
Using one cold, but not dead, hand, gather into a ball.
Press lightly into a disk, wrap in clingfilm and rest in the fridge for at least 15 mins.
Increase oven heat to GM7

To assemble:
Get a 12-hole patty tin ready and lightly butter the holes.
Lightly flour the worksurface and roll the pastry carefully and without stretching/forcing it.
Roll to about an 1/8 inch thickness.
Stamp out 12 rounds to fit the tin. Re-roll only once for the star lids, if you can. I’m not sure that there would be anough pastry to lid all of them – aim for 6 open and 6 star-lidded.
Add a tsp of custard, a few pieces of peach and either leave like that, or cut out a star shape to act as a lid.

Put into the oven for 15-20 mins or until the pastry is golden brown.
Remove the pies to a wire rack, dust with icing sugar and leave to cool.

www.creamuntilfluffy.co.uk