Dining With Jane Frankel Sims
Laurie Legum
For Jane Frankel Sims, a Trusts and Estates attorney who has her own firm in Towson, the secret is in the crust. The Park School graduate, who lives in Sparks, Md. with her husband Brian and their three children — Benjamin, 10, Madeline, 8, and Juliet, 5, says it’s the buttery cookie crust of her grandmother’s signature peach pie that makes it a family favorite.
“Grandma Peggy invented the recipe for the crust based on her butter sugar cookies. Eating her peach pie reminds me of summer evenings when we would have dinner on the screened in porch of her house on Anton Farms Road. Grandma had a small orchard on her property and she used her own home grown peaches. We used to help her pick them,” says Sims.
Sims admits she is not much of a cook. “Even though Grandma Peggy gave me the recipe 17 years ago, I have yet to make the pie on my own. Grandma still bakes the pie every year for the Jewish holidays,” says Sims. “My husband is really the cook in the family. I am going to pass the recipe on to him so that he can continue the family tradition.”
Grandma Peggy’s Peach Pie
2 cups flour
½ tsp baking powder
½ cup sugar
¼ pound butter or
margarine
1 egg
8 fresh peaches — must be ripe and peeled
1 can of peach pie
filling
1. Combine flour, baking powder and sugar in bowl.
2. Use a pastry blender to cut the butter into the flour mixture until it is the consistency of heavy crumbs.
3. Make a well in the middle of the crumbs. Add the egg.
4. Beat the egg separately in the well. Then, mix with a fork until all the dough has been absorbed.
5. Use hands to make dough into a ball and roll it between two floured wax papers.
6. Flip rolled dough into greased round or 13 x 8 x 2 pie plate and press the crust into the pie plate.
7. Spread half of peach filling into the bottom of pie plate.
8. Wash and dry fresh peaches thoroughly.
9. Slice peaches and place them over the peach filling in the pie plate.
10. Spread the rest of the peach filling on top and sprinkle sugar and cinnamon over.
11. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until the crust is golden brown.
