I hope everyone is staying safe and dry as Irene makes her way up the East Coast. We’re just sitting here watching CNN butcher the names of towns in North Carolina, and watching Baltimore TV talk about how terrible the weather is while showing a live shot of ducks floating in the calm Baltimore harbor. So I figured I might as well tell you about these bourbon-peach mini pies I made last night.

This dough isn’t difficult, but it does require a lot of chilling and waiting. If you can plan it out right, you can make it in 5-10 minute spurts throughout the day. Of course, I left the butter pieces in the freezer too long, which made it really hard to incorporate into the flour. But it all turned out in the end.

I wasn’t sure what I was going to use as a cutter for the pie dough; I thought I may have to trace a salad plate on a piece of parchment paper to use as a stencil. But as I was wandering around Target looking for flashlights (they were out), I saw this “pocket pie” mold. Note that I did not call these pocket pies or hand pies in the title. That’s because everyone snickers when I say either one.

As long as the peaches aren’t too soft, you can peel them with a vegetable peeler. I used three large peaches and two and a half small peaches, but I had filling left over. (I rolled it up in some extra crescent rolls and baked them… not as good as the pies or the peach enchiladas, but not too bad, either).

You could make this as a regular pie, but these little pies are super cute and portable — perfect for a picnic or bag lunch or something.

Hurricane update: It’s starting to rain pretty hard now. But it still doesn’t look too bad in Baltimore.

Note: These pies are man-approved. And they’re even better with vanilla ice cream.

Bourbon-peach individual pies (From Smitten Kitchen)
**I got 10 crusts out of the recipe, using a 5-inch round cutter**
Crust
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 sticks (16 tablespoons) unsalted butter
1/2 cup sour cream
4 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup ice water (I ended up having to add a few tablespoons more)

Stir flour and salt together in a large bowl. Cut butter into small pieces and place in a small bowl. Put both bowls in the freezer for one hour (if you leave it longer, the butter will be really hard to deal with).

Take the bowls out of the freezer and make a well in the middle of the flour. Add the butter and use a pastry blender to cut in the butter until mixture is crumbly and butter is well incorporated (I had to use my fingers AND a pastry blender because the butter was frozen and wouldn’t incorporate). Make another well in the center.

Whisk sour cream, lemon juice and water together in a small bowl (you can use the bowl the butter had been in). Get a plate or sheet of plastic wrap ready to place dough on. Add half of the liquid mixture to the well in the flour mixture. Use your fingers to mix the liquid and flour together until large lumps form. Take the large lumps out of the bowl and put them on the plate or plastic. Add the remaining liquid and repeat. Put all the lumps together to form a rough ball. If you need to add more liquid to make the dough come together, add it very slowly — you don’t want the dough to be too wet.

Cover the dough ball with plastic and put in the refrigerator for an hour (longer is fine).

Divide the cold dough in half. Roll one half of the dough out to about 1/8-inch thick on a lightly floured work surface.  Cut large circles out of the rolled dough (use a 4 1/2-inch or 5-inch cookie cutter or stencil made with parchment paper). Place the circles on a lined baking sheet and refrigerate. Repeat process for remaining dough and refrigerate.

Make the filling (see below).

Take the dough rounds out of the fridge. If the dough isn’t pliable, let the baking sheets sit at room temperature for a few minutes. Spoon filling onto one half of each circle. Brush a little cold water on the edge of that half of the circle. Fold the other half over so dough covers filling. Seal and crimp the edges together using the back of a fork. Repeat until all pies are formed. Chill the pies in the fridge for another 30 minutes before baking (if possible — I only chilled the first pan for about 15 minutes and it was fine).

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Beat together one egg yolk and 2 tablespoons water in a small bowl for an egg wash (if you want the pie crusts to be a little more golden). Take the pies out of the refrigerator, cut a small slit in each pie and brush with a bit of egg wash. Sprinkle coarse sugar over the pies. Bake until pies are golden and slightly cracked (this took about 30 minutes for me, but may be 15-20 if you use a smaller cutter).

Allow pies to cool 20 minutes or longer before serving.

Filling
2 pounds peaches
1/4 cup flour
1/4 cup sugar
Pinch of salt
1 teaspoon bourbon
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Peel the peaches and chop them into small pieces. In a medium bowl, toss peaches with flour, sugar, salt, bourbon and vanilla.