Wanda's Peach Melba Pie

Peach season has arrived!!!  I bought a whole basket of peaches from Longos yesterday for $2.99!  I decided to make a peach melba pie from my Wanda's Pie in the Sky cookbook.  It was so delicious.  It is one of my favourite types of pie, along with sour cherry and strawberry rhubarb pie.  Please take the extra trouble to make the crust - this recipe is amazing and it is VERY worth it!  Here is the recipe (adapted to save time):

Crust
1.5 cups flour
1/4 tsp salt
2/3 cup cold butter, cut into small pieces
1/4 cup cold water

In large bowl, combine flour, salt and butter.  Cut with pastry cutter until mixture resembles coarse meal and begins to clump together.  Sprinkle with the cold water, let rest for 30 seconds, then cut with about 15 strokes of the pastry cutter.  Form dough into a disk and wrap in plastic (but save a small ball of dough for the topping).  Chill for 20 minutes.  Roll out disk on a lightly floured surface, and transfer dough to pie plate.

Filling
4.5 cups sliced peaches
2 cups raspberries
2/3 cup sugar
3 tbsp cornstarch
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp orange zest
1/2 tsp almond extract
1/2 cup sliced almonds

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.  Place peaches in a medium bowl and raspberries in a smaller bowl.  Add 1/2 cup of sugar to the peaches and rest to the raspberries.  Add 2 tbsp cornstarch to peaches and 1 tbsp to raspberries.  Add lemon juice, orange zest, and almond extract to peaches (don't leave out any of these ingredients!); mix well.  Place peaches onto pie plate, pushing them to the sides, leaving a hole in the middle.  Add raspberries to the centre of the plate.  Crumble the ball of dough you reserved onto the top of the pie.  Sprinkle with almonds.  Bake 10 minutes at 400 degrees F, then for 50 minutes at 350 degrees F.  Voila!  Homemade pie!  Impress your friends!