"Top Of The Morning To Ya" Peach Pies

Okay, so these are really a variation of a theme, but I really enjoyed the stenciled Conversation Heart Cherry Pies and thought it would be cute to make a St. Patrick's Day version.  The fundraiser on St. Patrick's Day I'm donating  sweets to is coming up and these will be a fun addition to cupcakes, cookies, and brownies I'm planning to bake. Since I already had the Celtic Stencils on hand from sugar cookies I made a few months ago, all I needed was:

•  pie crust dough
•  a cookie cutter 
•  peach filling 
• edible food powder 
• a food paintbrush.

Stenciling is pretty simple.  You just need to be very careful when lifting the stencil in such a way you prevent the colored powder from spreading itself outside of the design.  While I had no problems while stenciling cookies, for some reason the pie crust was more challenging.  I don't have an explanation for this, I'm just making note of it.  Some of them got really messy with spatters of green powder and I couldn't use them.  To see the step-by-step process of putting together these pies, please click here for the details.  

In keeping with St. Patrick's Day, I wanted to use the colors found in the flag of Ireland: green, white, and orange.  Green would be represented by the stencil color, white by the crust, and orange by the peach filling.  I experimented with two colors of powder, dark green and light pearl green:

Sealed them up and placed them in the oven:

They cooked up nicely, but I thought the light green (top pie) was too light and the dark green (2 middle pies) were too dark, so I mixed the two and came up with a dark-ish sparkly green (bottom 2 pies) that I was happy with:

Did I mention I love peach pie?  Well, I love all fruit pies, actually:

I love how quickly these little pies bake up.  The prep time is minimal, especially if you don't stencil and, instead, sprinkle powdered sugar on them after they've cooled.  Also, they are wonderfully portable.  My friend Amy was visiting me from Buffalo this past weekend and I gave her a few for the plane ride home.  She suggested adding some coarse to the top crust before baking.  I think that's a fantastic idea and I'll definitely do that for the bake sale!

Champagne Bellini - A Cupcake for the Adults!

One of my friends has been asking me to try baking a champagne cupcake.  I am not terribly fond of the bubbly, but I was curious to find out what a cupcake based on alcohol would taste like.  That's when I thought of adding the peach flavor.  I do love Bellinis!  I thought I was so smart thinking up this combination for a cupcake.  However, as it turns out, it's been done before.  In fact, I've discovered through Google that most cocktail drinks have a cupcake counterpart!  Fortunately, in the baking world there's room for everyone's experiments, and so here is my try at a Bellini Cupcake with Peach Filling topped with Champagne Buttercream Icing.

Champagne Cupcakes

1 cup butter, softened

2 cups sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

6 egg whites

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup champagne

1/2 cup peach nectar

Preheat oven to 350.  Sift together flour, baking powder and salt, set aside.  In a separate bowl, mix together champagne and nectar, set aside, also.  Beat butter and sugar on medium speed until fluffy (about 3-5 minutes).  On medium speed add half of flour mixture, then liquid, then the rest of the flour.  Beat on high speed for a minute or so until batter is smooth.  Fill cupcake liners approximately 2/3 full.  Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a wooden skewer or toothpick inserted in the center of the cupcake comes out clean.  While cupcakes are baking and cooling, begin making the peach filling.

Peach Filling

2 15 oz cans of Peaches in 100% juice

2 tablespoons butter

1 tablespoon sugar

In a skillet, melt butter.  Drain can of peaches and add them to the butter.  Add sugar and cook until peaches have broken down and mixture thickens and becomes a filling type consistency.  Let cool completely before filling the cupcakes.  

After filling and cupcakes have completely cooled, use a knife to cut a small, circular hole in the middle of the cupcakes.  Remove circular section.  You will not need these bits, so feel free to "taste test"  them!  Spoon peach filling into the hole.

Champagne Buttercream

1 cup unsalted butter at barely room temperature

4 cups confectioners sugar, sifted

1/4 cup champagne

2 tablespoons peach nectar

Using a mixer, beat the butter until it is creamy.  Add three cups of the sugar one at a time and beat until fully incorporated with butter.  Begin on low speed (so the sugar won't fly everywhere) and work up to medium.  Add champagne and peach nectar along with last cup of sugar.  Beat until smooth.  If you'd like your icing a bit thinner, add more peach nectar.  If you'd like it thicker, use less.

Fill a pastry bag with the buttercream icing and pipe onto cupcake.  Garnish with a cherry if you'd like!

Wow, are these amazing cupcakes!  The champagne flavor is sweet and light and the cake has a nice texture.  This is a DELICOUS grown-up treat I think you'll enjoy.  Give them a try!

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