DIRECTIONS

Light-n-Flaky Pie Crust

1. Sift together flour, sugar and salt and place in a large mixing bowl.
2. Cut in shortening with a pastry blender until mixture resembles very coarse crumbs.
3. Add cold water, one tablespoon at a time, tossing mixture lightly with fork or your fingers until mixture can be gathered into a ball. Knead dough lightly several times, then wrap tightly and chill at least one hour.

Pie Filling

1. Preheat oven to 450°F.
2. Toss peaches with lemon juice, then combine with both sugars, salt, tapioca, vanilla and almond extract. Allow to stand at room temperature.
3. Divide the chilled pie crust in half and roll one of the halves out to about 1/8 inch thickness and fit into the bottom of a 9 inch pie dish.
4. Trim edges of pie crust, leaving at least a 1/2 inch overhang. Do not prick!
5. Spoon filling into pie shell and dot with butter.
6. Roll out remaining pastry dough and center over filling. Lightly dampen rim of bottom pie crust and press with top pie crust to seal. Trim edges smooth, again leaving at least a 1/2 inch overhang. Lift and fold under the overhang, forming a high fat rim for fluting/crimping.
7. Flute/crimp rim as desired.
8. Reroll pie crust scraps and cut into peach and leaf shapes, if desired, and attach to top crust by dampening the shapes with water.
9. Cut slits in the top crust to allow steam to escape during baking.
10. Bake at 450° for 10 minutes, then reduce temperature to 375°F and continue baking for an additional 40 minutes, or until crust is golden brown.
11. Cover rim of crust loosely with foil after 20 minutes to keep fluted edges from browning too much.
12. Cool pie on a wire rack for an hour.
13. Serve at room temperature with vanilla ice cream or homemade whipped cream.