Fried Peach Hand Pies

Every once in awhile when I start daydreaming of someday owning a homestead (one of my many crazy dreams that I'm not sure I really want), I pull out our beloved copy of Reader's Digest Back To Basics book and flip through. 

On this most recent occassion, I spent more time in the recipe section. I've read this book from cover to cover many times so nothing was new information, but with peaches going on sale everywhere, one recipe held my attention. The Fried Peach Turnover.

You can click on the image for an enlarged version for downloading or printing the recipe

I have always heard about Fried Hand Pies (or turnovers or crab lanterns or whatever you want to call them) in the South...but can you believe that as long as I lived there I never (as in not ever) had one?  Well I bought up a bag of plump juicy peaches and got to work!

Peeled Peaches - the task went surprisingly quick

RECIPE HINT: Sift the flour FIRST. THEN measure it. THEN sift it again with the other dry ingredients. It makes a big difference in the "work-ability" of the dough.

After frying them, I sprinkled a generous amount of powdered sugar on top and ate one. It was unbelievably good! The crust just melted in my mouth. The flavors were perfect. It was SO GOOD!

When the "Pickles" tried one, their eyes rolled into their heads as they sighed and munched. They said this was definitely a "make again" recipe.