My area is awash in delicious, locally grown peaches and I'd like to bake and freeze a few pies, for those Prozak days of winter. But, I think it's obscene how much sugar goes into most pie recipes. It ruins the taste of the peaches. Anyone have any reduced sugar recipes that work, WITHOUT using sugar substitutes of any kind?
There is no federal agency that forces one to put sugar into a pie (at least not yet). Put in the amount of sugar that you like. Peach pie isn't rocket science: Peaches, sweetener to taste, spices to taste, thickener as needed.
For some reason, I thought the large amount of sugar was one factor which caused thickening, and that if I eliminated most of it, I'd end up with soup, instead of something which could be sliced.
You could always add some corn starch, or some pectin, or something.
I think that is more of an issue when you are making jam or jelly. As I recall sugar and acid are needed for pectin to thicken the jelly. You don't see other types of thickeners added to those products (except for added pectin for low pectin fruit). I'm sure that Barb or Roy can explain this.
In the case of pie, you usually see some starch added to thicken the illing -- corn starch, four, tapioca, arrowroot, etc. I made a peach crisp last night. The peaches weren't very ripe and they didn't have much juice. I didn't add any thickener and all the sugar was in the topping. They came out on the dry side. You need to always take into account the intrinsic sweetness of the fruit and the amount of juice they exude when you bake pies. Sometimes I add more or less sugar and more or less thickener than specified. I always add more spices. Ultimately what matters is if the pie appeals to YOU. I would rather have a runny pie that tasted good to me than a picture perfect pie that was too sweet. That is the problem with industrial food (that's what I call mass produced baked goods). They often look quite appealing but taste like sawdust.
Once again, no easy answers! It's OK, though. I like experimenting in the kitchen. And, I'm often impatient with people who aren't willing to have a dozen failures before coming up with the perfect dish. But, with regard to these peaches, time's running out. The farmstand guys say the peach orgasms will continue until the first frost. Could be any day...or mid-October. Who knows?
As long as the pie isn't burnt, I wouldn't consider it a failure. How bad can peaches, sugar, and butter be?
just a thought... how about trying to roast thicker slices of peaches first...then you might be able to pack them in tightly with what little sugars that you would want to...a crust made using a fimer crumb would help hold the fluids as opposed to a flaky bottom crust and a dryer crumb topping would deffinately help absorb juices also...plus you could use sugar just in the topping which might give you more control over the amount of sugar total in the pie... but so you hav a two crust cobbler if it comes out runny....who's gonna know but you...put it in a bowl hot and pour some heavy cream over it
I think that the assumption that reducing the sugar will result in more juice is faulty.
I don't believe that my response initated that assumption...andit is a wrong assumption....I believe the original poster was worried about thickening aside fromthe sugar issue or was thinking that the loss of sugar would effect the thickening.....I was merely addressing the issue of lowering the sugar and then also finding other ways to absorb the juices just in banter...
I didn't suggest that you initiated the assumption. You did expound on how one could to this or that to compensate for the abundant juices that resulted from reducing the sugar. I merely pointed out that I didn't think the original assumption was valid. If there was no concern about excess liquid then there was no need to reformulate the crust as you suggested. I see this sort of thing happen frequently in the world of medicine. People make an invalid assumption (no, I'm not saying they are bad or stupid .....) then proceed to fix the imaginary problem. At best they waste their time and at worst they create a new and sometimes serious problem. In other words, don't fix it if it isn't broken. How can you tell if it is broken? Simple: go to the store and purchase $2 of peaches. Make a pie with reduced sugar. No problem - no fix needed. If the pie is too runny then follow the suggestions that were offered, i.e.., increase the starch in the filling.
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