Peaches and Cream Dessert

P. Michael Henderson

This dessert is extremely easy to make and gets rave reviews from guests.  It's best to make it the night before so it can be served chilled.  And that way, it won't add to your stress on entertaining day.

The ingredients are:

3/4 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
Package of dry vanilla pudding mix - the type you have to cook and not the instant type.  I think I use the one which was 4.75 oz.
Update:  The last time I made this, I couldn't find the non-instant vanilla pudding mix.  I used the instant and had to add quite a bit of milk to get the batter to soften up enough to spread in the pie pan.  But it tasted fine.
3 tablespoons butter, softened
1 egg
1/2 cup milk (add a lot more if you use instant pudding mix)
Large can of sliced peaches - I use the 29 oz. size
8 oz. package of cream cheese
1/2 cup sugar
Cinnamon

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and grease a 10" pie pan.  In the pictures I'm making a double recipe - two pies - but the instructions here are for one pie.

Combine the flour, baking powder, salt, vanilla pudding, butter, egg and milk in your mixer and mix at medium speed until well mixed.  Pour into greased pie pan.  If you use the instant pudding mix, your batter will be thicker than this.

Open the large can of peaches and drain, saving the peach juice.  Lay the peaches in the batter.  Squeeze in as many peach slices as you can.

Now put the cream cheese (slightly warm the cream cheese), the half cup sugar and some of the peach juice into your mixer bowl.  Don't overdo the peach juice, three tablespoons should be enough (and you could use less).  If you make it too thin, it'll be runny when you take it out of the frig the second day.  You want it to be fairly stiff.

Spoon the cream cheese mix into the pie pans, mostly toward the center, leaving the last half inch around the edge of the pie pan without any cream cheese mix.  When it's spread to your satisfaction, you can dust the top with cinnamon.

Place in the oven and cook for about 30-35 minutes, until the outside edge is a nice golden brown.  This is what the cooked pie will look like.

Place in refrigerator to chill overnight.  My guest always ask for second helpings of this dessert.

Note:  I've also made this in small individual dishes for serving to guests.  It's easier to serve that way.