Summer Peach & Blueberry Crumble Pie

Last week we had a marvelous 4th of July, as I hope dearly that you all did as well.  To celebrate we had over some good friends for food, fun, and of course fireworks!  Since summer is in full swing, so are some of my favorite fruits and veggies! I found this fantastic recipe for peach & blueberry crumble pie which combines two of my favorite fresh summer fruits! I have to say, it's a really easy throw it together quick and bake in the oven type dessert, which is great when you're hosting people at your house.

Sadly, that's about it for my blog post.  Between having a final last week, going to full eight hour days in Jeff City, and going back to researching, my brain is tired.  What else is new right? Well, right.  But still. I'm tired, and all talked out.  I'll be sure to save up for next time, but here are some pretty pictures until next week's post! Enjoy!

Summer Peach & Blueberry Crumble Pie

Slightly adapted from Food Network

Ingredients:

Your favorite pie crust recipe (or store bought like I did) pre-made and pressed into a greased pie dish.

Filling:

2 T corn starch

1 lb. frozen blueberries, thawed and drained of juices

1 lb. frozen peaches, thawed and drained of juices

1/2 c brown sugar

2 T lemon juice

2 t vanilla extract

zest of 1 lemon

Topping:

1/2 c slivered almonds

1/2 c (1 stick) butter cut into 1/2 inch pieces

1/2 c quick cook oats

1/2 c all purpose flour

1/2 c brown sugar

1 1/2 t ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F and grease a 9 inch pie dish and place pie crust in it. 

Filling:  Combine everything else together in a large bowl until combined.  

Topping:  Combine everything in a food processor and pulse until it begins forming small chunks.  

Pour the filling into the pie crust and crumble topping over the filling. Bake for 50 minutes, or until top is golden brown.  Let the pie cool 30-40 minutes before consuming. 

* Cook's note, if after 30 minutes the pie crust is already golden brown, cover the crust with pie shield.  If you don't have a pie shield, don't sweat it! Trace a 9" circle onto tin foil and cut out a smaller circle from the center - place that over the pie crust as your make-shift pie shield.  

I'm Back!

Well, needless to say it's been a while and a lot has changed.  No, I didn't quit law school, but I have been super busy.  Also blogger has changed in a BIG way - probably the biggest change that's happened since I last blogged in February.

So before I share a recipe with you, I'll just share some highlights since February:
1. It's summer, if you haven't noticed and it. is. hot. in. Missouri.  I'm talking Oklahoma kind of heat and dryness.
2. I finished yet another semester of law school, and I am happy to say things went much better than the first semester.
3. I am working at the Department of Revenue near the capitol being a law slave research-er person girl.
4. Mike and I have officially registered for the 2013 Disney World Marathon so that should be death fun.
5. Kora is still Kora, doing things like this:

Well, and that's really about it.  Except that I cut most of my hair off.  Yeah, forgot about that.  No, I don't have a current picture; call it camera shy or whatever you want, but I just can't seem to catch a good one yet.  I will say this: it's short. The shortest I've ever had it and let me tell you, I love it.

Okay so, onward to the recipe.  With summer in full swing, it means two things: Mike is running around in circles being busy with youth group activities, and I am just sitting around wondering what to do with myself and all my free time.

So, I concoct things like these:

I call them Chocolate Peanut-butter madness cookies - you'll figure out why when you read the recipe.  It turns out Mike aided me in creating these beauties.  We both love peanut butter M&Ms and once upon a time, I put them in a basic cookie dough recipe.  However,  I didn't really like them that way.  I ended up usually picking out the M&Ms, eating them on their own, and then eating just the dough part.

This time I wanted to put them in either chocolate or peanut butter dough, but I couldn't decide which.  So I just clumsily mixed them all together and out came these goodies.

Seriously, I can't keep my hands off these things.  So, give them a try and tell me if you have the same problem I do.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Madness Cookies
Slightly adapted from Smitten Kitchen

Peanut Butter Dough:
1 cup flour
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/3 cup butter (about 5 and a little T), softened
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/2 t vanilla extract
1 egg

Chocolate Dough:
2/3 cups all purpose flour
2 T cocoa powder
1/4 t baking soda
6 T butter, softened
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 T white sugar
1/2 t vanilla extract

1 medium bag peanut butter M&Ms, divided.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Peanut Butter Dough:
Mix flour and soda; set aside. Beat peanut butter, butter, sugars and vanilla with mixer until fluffy; beat in eggs. With mixer on low, gradually beat in flour mixture just until well blended. Stir in half bag of peanut butter M&Ms.  Set aside.


Chocolate Dough: 

Sift flour, cocoa, and baking soda into medium bowl. Using electric mixer, beat butter in large bowl until smooth but not fluffy. Add both sugars, vanilla, and sea salt; beat until fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add flour mixture; beat just until blended (mixture may be crumbly). Add peanut butter M&Ms.  

Now here is the very technical part of the recipe: dump the chocolate dough into the peanut butter dough.  Using a large spoon, chop up chocolate dough to distribute throughout the peanut butter dough.  I found a chopping/folding combo motion worked well for me.  You don't want this to be homogeneous; you should be able to distinguish the chocolate dough from the peanut butter.  When the dough is mixed to your liking, take a cookie scoop and place mounds on a greased cookie sheet.  

Bake for 10-12 minutes or until tops are golden brown.  Store in an airtight container for up to two weeks.