If someone tells you to save pie-making time by using a pre-made crust, then he or she is a jerk. What the jerk is not telling you is that there is no way to NOT spend a lot of time on a pie, because cutting up alllll that fruit is going to take you a looong time anyway. So tell the jerk that you've seen through their pathetic attempts to imbue your baking efforts with false hope, and that you'll be making your crust from scratch, thankyouverymuch, following the Alice Walters classic The Art of Simple Food. From pages 174-5:
"Have measured 1/2 cup ice-cold water. Mix together 2 cups all-purpose unbleached flour*, 1/2 teaspoon salt. Add 12 Tb cold butter, cut into 1/4-inch cubes." Cut/work the butter into the flour until moist, then add most of the water until the mixture becomes, well, dough-like. Divide the dough into two spheres, wrap in plastic, press each into a disk shape, and refrigerate for at least an hour. When it's time to roll, flour your counter or board. Press the disk thinly while still in the plastic, then remove the dough from the wrapping and flour the top side. Roll out until a little thicker than 1/8-inch, which should give you approximately the right size to line a 9-inch pie dish. Refrigerate (on wax paper or parchment paper) again so it's easier to work with. Repeat with the 2nd disk of dough. Pre-baking is optional, I believe, and if you choose to do so Walters recommends 375 degrees for about 15 minutes (lined with parchment or foil, weighted with dry beans or other pie weight), then about 5 minutes without the lining.
* I used whole wheat flour, which worked just fine.
I'm not going to type out all of pages 174-5 because a) that's probably copyright infringement, and b) that's a lot of typing. My suggestion is that you go out and purchase The Art of Simple Food right the heck now, because Walters has simply the clearest, easiest-to-follow instructions of any chef out there. Not only are her step-by-steps easy to figure out, but she also includes all kinds of substitutes and contingencies in her recipes. So there you have your basic crust recipe.
If you're like me, you'd think, "Well, while the dough is refrigerating pre-rolling, I'll cut up the peaches and then I'll have plenty of time to clean up because cutting cling-free peaches won't take very long, especially since I'm not peeling them, since peach skins are awesome." This assumption, unfortunately, is based around trusting your grocery store's produce section to properly label cling-free versus cling-stone peaches. If you find that the produce manager has no idea how to differentiate between the two kinds of peach, you have my full permission to find him or her and present them with a lovely banana cream pie. In his or her face. Just don't get arrested for assault.
For the filling and baking time, I pulled the basic Peach and Other Stone Fruit Pies recipe from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything (p. 689-9).
About 2 lbs. peaches, sliced about 1/4 in. thick (I used a little bit more; and if you're not going to peel them, rub off the fuzz with a clean dish towel)
1 Tb lemon juice (I used Key Lime juice which worked just fine)
1/2 c. sugar (I used 1/4 c. Splenda Brown Sugar Blend which was the perfect amount for my not-quite-totally-ripe peaches)
1/2 tsp almond extract
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1 1/2 Tb cornstarch
Milk or egg whites
Preheat the oven to 450. Toss the sliced peaches in the citrus juice. Mix the sugar, almond extract, nutmeg and cornstarch together and toss the mixture into the peaches. Pour fruit mixture into the pie pan (which now, naturally, has one of your pie shells in it). Cover with the second pie shell. I cut my second pie shell into a little lattice crust. You don't need a fancy-shmancy pastry cutter for this, just a nice, sharp paring knife. Brush the crust with milk or egg whites as needed. (The recipe calls for milk, but I really recommend the egg whites instead - you get that nice brown, glazed glow.) Bake for 10 minutes at 450 degrees, then reduce the temperature to 350 and bake for another 40-50 minutes. (Baking with substitute ingredients, like the Splenda blend, tends to increase cooking time, I've noticed. It's hard to overcook a pie, so don't worry too much. If the crust starts to burn around the edges, cover it with aluminum foil while the center turns golden.)
If you discovered you had some extra dough left over after making your lattice crust, drag out the food coloring, get creative, and make yourself a little peach! (Or apple, if it's an apple pie, or cherry, blueberry, etc.)
Le yum yum!
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