Wow, talk about Peach Heaven!🍑👍🏻 I’ve not made fried pies but have made hand pies that are good but baked.

ETA - I have The Peach Truck Cookbook and this recipe’s in it, FWIW.

Woah. Talk about a hand pie!

I love hand pies, savory and sweet, from all cultures. It’s the perfect walking-around food.

But I’ve never seen a fried peach pie!

You could make those in the oven too, couldn’t you? Like a Cornish pastie? Or would the peach not hold up.

I too have made baked hand pies, only. Those fried pies look like something I loved as a kid.

Looks scrumptious - and all those peaches! That would be a dream come true for me 😀

I think the only fried pies I've ever had were @ MacDonald's.

Does anybody call them turnovers anymore?

Good question about turnovers. Maybe out of favor due to the negative connotations in sports?

I love the origin story of Cornish pasties. Enough meat and turnips to sustain a coal miner for a day underground, in a baked shell strong enough to carry in a pocket or bag, each shell carved with the miner’s initials so the men would know which was their pastie.

Kind of like the origin story of cable knit fishermen’s pullovers. Thick wool to stay warm on a wet fishing boat in the sleeting North Sea, each man’s pullover knit in his family’s distinctive pattern, part for tradition and part to allow identification of an otherwise unrecognizeable body found at sea.

Does fried peach pie have a cool origin story?

Oh, sounds lovely. The last of my peaches got made into peach ice cream. And by peach ice cream, I mean pureed and mixed with the other ingredients, I don't mean vanilla ice cream with peach pieces. It was a really great peach year! You're amazing! Enjoy your fried pies. I've never heard them called hand pies in the South? But whatever makes everyone happy!

Fwiw, and to be pedantic ... There are no coal mines in Cornwall. These were tin mines. And some copper. Also the spelling is pasty, plural pasties.

'Turnover' is used here, especially for apple turnovers. 'Hand pie' isn't used.

we didn't have a peach season this year ... weather did not cooperate. Had bushels last year that I canned up. Yup, I'm jealous of all that sticky work ...

Wow, that's peachy.

Chloebud, I sure could have used a similar cookbook. I don't ever remember a season when I got this many peaches. They are a little different, though. They don't ripen until the end of September when most peaches in Michigan are gone by August. They are clingstones, and must be peeled, you can't blanch them and slip the peels. And they stay firmer than most peaches, the neighbor says they remind her a little of an apricot in texture. Dad planted them and he's been gone since 2008, so I will probably never figure out what they actually are

John, I agree, I don't think I've met a tart/pasty/dumpling/pot pie/whatever that I didn't like!

Being from Michigan I know about pasties, of course, the Upper Peninsula miners took them into the mines and warmed them on the shovels. The Upper Peninsula supplied 90% of America's copper by the 1860s. It was the nation's largest supplier of iron ore by the 1890s, and production continued to a peak in the 1920s but sharply declined shortly afterward. The mines closed, but pasties lived on! Now pasties can cause some real arguments with purists claiming that if they contain anything other than meat, potatoes and rutabaga, it's not really a pasty. Carrots? The horror. LOL. The other huge argument is whether you can have catsup or gravy. I eat mine plain, but catsup is another thing that will cause a head shake or eye roll. I say eat them however you like them.

Fried pies I know a lot less about. Elery said his Mom made them with dried fruit and a cursory Google search agreed that it was a Southern tradition, sometimes called Fry Pie, and usually made with dried fruit cooked into a filling, usually apple or peach. They are smaller than a turnover or hand pie and fried in hot grease or oil for only three or four minutes. Only enough oil is used to fry, not deep fry or submerge and one side is fried, then the other.

I don't see any reason why they could not be baked, although then they would not be a fried pie, of course. Even the dough varies from one area to another, some are more like pie crust and others are more similar to a biscuit dough. I used the pie crust version. The filling was simply peaches and sugar with a sprinkle of cinnamon, and my peaches were still pretty firm so it stayed thick and didn't seep out the edges.

For the crust lovers these little jewels are perfect, a fried and crunchy crust top and bottom and extra around the edges!

We had peach cobbler for supper and I've canned 30 pints, now I'm slicing and freezing, but I'm open to all suggestions!

Annie

No peaches or frying involved here but this was in my inbox. If nothing else, the mini pie cutter/mold is cute!

https://inspiredbycharm.com/salted-caramel-appld-hand-pies/

ETA - Recipe was part of this link, for anyone interested.

https://inspiredbycharm.com/the-best-apple-recipes-for-fall/?ck_subscriber_id=1093022978

Chloebud, I have one of those! You just reminded me that the kids bought me one for my birthday, now I have to go dig it out.

Annie

The miners in Cornwall didn't eat the pastry as there was arsenic in the mines. Here's a great history. https://www.cornishpastyco.com/history/#:~:text=The%20Cornish%20Pasty%20originates%20from,mothers%20of%20the%20tin%20miners. All those amazing peaches. They'll keep you busy 😋😋😋

Clarification.. the legend is they didn't eat the crimp, ie the bit they'd handled. They ate the rest. Peaches are a luxury for us, so we just eat them as they are. If one goes a bit soft I just drop it in a glass of red wine. I've never had enough spare to cook one. Or rather nectarines. I can't bear peach skin.

“Chloebud, I have one of those!”

I might have to get one!👍🏻

Floral, I can't stand the skin either, so I peel. Every. Single. One. My carpal tunnel is going crazy, LOL.

I haven't used mine, Chloebud, so I can't tell you how easy/difficult/sticky/fiddly it is, but it sure is cute.

We picked another bushel and a half today. I'm trying to convince the B&B across the street that a peach sauce or dessert would be great for their guests. They agree, but are still put off by the clingstone factor.

Annie

Annie, do you plunge the fruit in boiling water? I believe that helps the skin slip, like tomatoes. Not that I've peeled many peaches in my life.

We sometimes make camp fire pies using various fillings when we go to the lake house. The kids love to make and eat them. Usually we use canned fruit and the 'crust' is bread.

We use camp fire pie irons that you can buy on Amazon and sporting goods stores.

I had fried pies in Texas, and I had deep fried pineapple empanadas in Mexico that I liked a lot, and they were like fried pies. I remember having some that I bought through the train window in Villahermosa (a very misnamed town), Tabasco. I mostly traveled second class on trains in Mexico because that had the only cars with windows that would open.

A lot of empanadas are baked, although many of the meat ones are fried, and you can use recipes for fried beef empanadas and substitute your fruit of choice. For pineapple, the fruit is cooked before it goes into the empanada. I've never had peach fried pies, although my father did grow peaches in Texas. I've mostly had apple and cherry fried pies.

I have a couple of those little pie/turnover molds that were for a specific project. I'm a big proponent of thin crust lots of filling, but the molsds are for the opposite. Perhaps worth it for a big project, but it's easier by hand if you'e only making a few dozen (small) or a couple dozen (medium). Assumping you're organized.

Floral, I don't know what type of peach this actually is, but the skins do not slip if they are blanched. So, peel with a serrated peeler and then cut off the pit into slices/chunks. They never ripen to the point where they are soft like a "normal" peach. They do ripen and soften a little, but they still offer resistance when you bite them. If they are left longer, they just rot, they don't ripen further. Very odd indeed....

Plllog, that would assume that I am organized, LOL.

Jack! I'm glad to see you again!

Lars, I've seen the pineapple empanadas at local Hispanic groceries, but haven't tried one yet. There is always something else that I want more!

I now have 5 gallon bags of peach slices in the freezer, with more to go. Whew.

Annie

Sounds like you're working your fingers to the bone 😊

LOL on the organized! Annie, you must be to be able to peel that many peaches! I recently peeled two small ones, and that was enough!

So, organized. Make and chill enough dough (I know people who can't anticipate and just wing it as they go). Divide the dough into usable portions (single rollouts) and wrap and hold the reminders so they're still moist and the right temperature when you're ready for them. Make enough filling plus a little for spills and walkers-by. Have a large baking board and place to use it ready. It's much easier to clean the board between batches than a counter or cloth. Roll out the whole portion you made to fit the board. Divide into the size you want, which, if you're really organized you've also figured into the size of your dough ball. Spoon the filling onto each pastry piece. Fold and seal. Move to pan/sheet. Add finishing touches. Roll out the next ball of pastry. Repeat.

This is all easier when you have a partner. My mother and I together could whomp out 3-4 batches of multiple scores of pastries in the time it takes one person to do a single batch. In the time I've been a member of CF, I've discovered the joys (and recipes) of whipping up a single dozen of whatever! I'm so used to making cookies and small pastries by the dozens of scores. Fiddling with a mold for a single dozen is entertaining. For scores of scores, it's not to be thought of. Hence, organized. ;)