Tag: peaches

Categories
Breakfast Dessert

Fresh peaches are ‘muffin’ short of delicious for breakfast

These peach muffins feature fresh peaches (although frozen would work, too), along with a brown sugar crumble on top, making them perfect for breakfast or dessert.
These peach muffins feature fresh peaches (although frozen would work, too), along with a brown sugar crumble on top, making them perfect for breakfast or dessert.

I caught Joey eyeballing the bowl of peaches sitting in our fridge this week.

“I’m going to use them this time,” I promised him. “They won’t end up in the freezer until next summer.”

His facial expression betrayed a lack of confidence in my promises, so of course, I had to do some baking this weekend to prove him wrong.

I jumped into my list of recipes to try and landed on some fresh peach muffins that looked delicious, quick and easy to make, and they did not disappoint.

The recipe I used comes from the blog “Serena Bakes Simply from Scratch.” I used brown sugar for granulated in the crumb topping and doubled the vanilla and almond extracts, as well as increased the amount of peach in my version below.

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Fresh Peach Muffins

These peach muffins feature fresh peaches (although frozen would work, too), along with a brown sugar crumble on top, making them perfect for breakfast or dessert.
Course Breakfast, Dessert
Keyword almond extract, brown sugar, fresh peaches, muffin, peaches, vanilla

Ingredients

Topping Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup flour
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 cup butter cubed

Muffins Ingredients

  • 1/3 cup butter
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla
  • 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
  • 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
  • 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 1/2 cups flour
  • 3/4 cup sour cream
  • 2 cups fresh or frozen and thawed peaches diced

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a muffin tin or tins with paper liners. (I ended up having enough batter for about 18 muffins.)
  • For the topping, add all the dry ingredients together in a small mixing bowl and stir until they’re well combined. Cut in the butter with a fork or pastry cutter until it’s completely incorporated and the mixture is all crumbly. Set it aside.
  • For the muffins, beat the butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl for a few minutes until the mixture is light and fluffy.
  • Beat in the eggs, vanilla and almond extract, and then beat in the baking soda, baking powder, salt, flour and sour cream until everything is well combined.
  • Fold in the peaches, and then scoop the batter into the prepared muffin tin. Fill the liners to about one-fourth- to one-half-inch below the tops.
  • Press the topping into large crumbs and evenly distribute it over top of the filled liners.
  • Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the muffins comes out clean.
  • Let the muffins cool for at least 10 minutes before removing them from the muffin tin. Store cooled muffins in an airtight container.

These were lightly sweet and perfect for breakfast, although I actually ended up taking them as a dessert for a get-together we had over the weekend, and they were great for that, too.

Unfortunately, I didn’t manage to get rid of all of my leftover peaches, so Joey is still winning the argument I made up in my head. Never to be beaten, though, I have already been making sure to use peaches as my favorite snack, side dish and condiment this week.

The good news is I still love fresh peaches. The bad news is I still have about half a dozen to go.

This piece first appeared in print on Sept. 8, 2022.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

Categories
Dessert

Baking cobbler outdoors can be ‘berry’ satisfying

This cobbler, made from fresh peaches and blueberries, is a perfect summer dessert that can be made in the oven or out on the grill or smoker.
This cobbler, made from fresh peaches and blueberries, is a perfect summer dessert that can be made in the oven or out on the grill or smoker.

Thanks to the Newton Rotary Club’s annual peach fundraiser and my three-year-old niece insisting that I buy blueberries for our recent fun day, I had quite a bit of fruit in my refrigerator this week.

That, combined with Joey itching to use a cast iron Dutch oven he recently got for his smoker, meant we were going on a new adventure of baking outdoors.

After a fruitless (pun intended) search for a recipe that I liked using both peaches and blueberries, I finally decided to combine two in my search for the perfect smoked cobbler, and the final product definitely did not disappoint.

One recipe I used is from “The Grateful Girl Cooks” (https://www.thegratefulgirlcooks.com/berry-cobbler-traeger-grill-style/), and the other is Steven Raichlen’s “Barbecue Bible” site (https://barbecuebible.com/recipe/smoky-bourbon-peach-cobbler/). I added extra vanilla and cinnamon to my version.

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Smoked Blueberry Peach Cobbler

This cobbler, made from fresh peaches and blueberries, is a perfect summer dessert that can be made in the oven or out on the grill or smoker.
Course Dessert
Keyword blueberry, bourbon, brown sugar, cinnamon, cobbler, grilled, peaches, smoker, vanilla

Ingredients

Topping Ingredients

  • 2 cups flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 8 tablespoons butter cold
  • 1 1/3 cups buttermilk I used skim with a dash of vinegar
  • cinnamon for sprinkling

Peach Filling Ingredients

  • 1 1/4 cups brown sugar
  • 1/4 cup bourbon
  • 2 tablespoons maple syrup
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 2 tablespoons flour
  • 2 teaspoons cinnamon
  • 1 tablespoon lemon juice
  • 6 cups peaches cut into one-inch pieces

Blueberry Filling Ingredients

  • 18 ounces blueberries
  • 1 cup brown sugar
  • 1/8 teaspoon salt
  • 1 tablespoon lemon juice
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla

Instructions

  • Preheat your grill, smoker or oven to 350 degrees. If you’re using a grill, you’ll want to bake over indirect heat.
  • For the grill or smoker, prepare a cast iron skillet or Dutch oven and for the oven, a 9×13-inch baking dish, by coating the inside with butter and set it aside.
  • For the topping, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar and salt in a bowl and then cut in the butter with a fork until the mixture is crumbly. Stir in the buttermilk and set the topping aside.
  • In another bowl, combine all the ingredients for the peach filling, except the peaches. Once they are all incorporated, fold in the peaches.
  • Finally, for the blueberry filling, combine all the ingredients in a bowl and stir gently until the blueberries are well coated in the mixture.
  • To assemble the cobbler, start with about half of the peach filling, layer in the blueberries and then finish off with the rest of the peaches. Using a spoon or ice cream scoop, drop the topping by the spoonful evenly over the top of the fruit. Don’t worry if there’s still some fruit visible. Sprinkle cinnamon over the top of the cobbler.
  • Bake on your smoker/grill/oven for 30 to 40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the topping comes out clean. Ours ended up going quite a bit longer on our smoker, so be ready for the time to vary.

This was absolutely delicious. The topping took on a subtle smoky flavor that was majorly complimented by the cinnamon, syrup and brown sugar, not to mention the bourbon, which added a nice, subtle flavor to the background.

Actually, speaking of the bourbon, if that’s not your cup of tea, you might try adding a combination of water and more vanilla extract instead.

We ate our cobbler with scoops of vanilla ice cream and enjoyed our dessert outdoors until the mosquitos drove us back inside. There are few flavors like peaches and blueberries to really help you enjoy a summer evening, and being able to cook it right on the grill makes it even more special.

This piece first appeared in print on Aug. 26, 2021.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

Categories
Dessert

Peaches and fresh ginger will help you snap into August

Ginger peach crisp combines the fresh flavor of summer peaches with spicy, fresh ginger to create the ultimate dessert.
Ginger peach crisp combines the fresh flavor of summer peaches with spicy, fresh ginger to create the ultimate dessert.

If anyone can tell me the trick to pitting a firm peach, I’m all ears.

So far, my strategy includes cutting numerous slits down the sides, grunting and murmuring regrets under my breath while trying to pull the first slice off, and I can tell you that it doesn’t work all that well.

Luckily, the recipe I tried this week included cutting the peaches into bite-sized pieces, so when some of mine ended up looking a bit rough, they still looked gorgeous in the finished dessert.

Joey and I decided to have a Christmas in July get together last weekend. The meal was loosely based around Christmas meals, with pulled pork on Hawaiian rolls, German potato salad, lots of other delicious dishes, and a yuletide-inspired dessert of a fresh ginger peach crisp.

I figured ginger was a good nod to the holidays, and with peaches coming into season, they were an homage to summer.

And, of course, we had to pair it with some great vanilla ice cream. I was able to pick up a couple pints from our local ice cream expert, Salted Creamery. You can find them online at saltedcreamery.com if you want to place an order or find a store where you can buy it. (That’s not a sponsored endorsement; I just really think they do excellent work.)

The recipe I tried this week comes from the blog “Nutmeg Nanny.” You can find the original post at https://www.nutmegnanny.com/ginger-peach-crisp/. I added extra spices and vanilla in my version.

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Ginger Peach Crisp

Ginger peach crisp combines the fresh flavor of summer peaches with spicy, fresh ginger to create the ultimate dessert.
Course Dessert
Keyword cinnamon, crisp, ginger, peaches, vanilla

Ingredients

Topping Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup quick oats
  • 1/3 brown sugar
  • 1/4 cup flour
  • 4 tablespoons butter softened
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
  • pinch of salt

Filling Ingredients

  • 2 pounds fresh peaches cut into bite-sized pieces
  • 1/3 cup brown sugar
  • 1 tablespoon lemon juice
  • 1 tablespoon fresh ginger peeled and grated
  • 4 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Spray an eight-by-eight-inch baking dish with cooking spray and set aside.
  • In a mixing bowl, combine the topping ingredients until everything is well incorporated. Set it aside.
  • In another bowl, combine all of the filling ingredients, stirring to coat the peaches. Pour the filling into the prepared pan and then sprinkle the topping evenly over the peach mixture.
  • Bake for 25 minutes.
  • Serve warm for best results, along with your favorite vanilla ice cream, and refrigerate any leftovers.

The fresh ginger added great flavor to this crisp. It has a nice spiciness that is especially delicious with ice cream. I doubled the recipe for our group, and I didn’t end up with a lot of leftovers.

It also came together quickly. Or, I guess it would have if I knew how to pit a peach properly.

As they really come into season, I’ll have to pick out riper peaches, and if I can’t, I might also need somebody to recommend a good place for me to take up weightlifting.

This piece first appeared in print on Aug. 5, 2021.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

Categories
Dessert

You won’t be‘weave’ this easy as pie recipe

Blueberry peach pie can be made with fresh or frozen fruit and looks a lot more complicated than it really is.
Blueberry peach pie can be made with fresh or frozen fruit and looks a lot more complicated than it really is.

Years ago, when I was on summer staff at Camp Mennoscah, several staff members spent a bit of an afternoon harvesting tons of mulberries off of a couple trees.

This resulted in some time spent that afternoon in serious pie-baking mode, and it was the first time I ever saw a latticed pie top made from start to finish.

To be honest, it ruined the magic a little for me, because it wasn’t nearly as difficult as I thought it would be, but the pie was yummy enough to bring some of the enchantment right back again.

I don’t make fruit pies all that often, so I haven’t tried my hand at too many lattice tops since, but I got the chance again recently for the recipe I’m sharing with you this week for a blueberry peach pie.

Obviously, fresh peaches and blueberries are tough to come by this time of year, so although the recipe calls for fresh ones, I’ll tell you that I made my pie with frozen fruit.

If you’d like to give this a shot before fresh fruit is back in season, make sure you fully thaw your frozen fruit and then leave it in a colander for quite awhile until you’re sure it’s done giving off all of its extra moisture. (This will take awhile—maybe a couple hours. Be patient.)

I also added about a tablespoon or so of cornstarch to my fruit to really make sure that any juices were congealed and wouldn’t end up making a soggy pie, and I spooned it into my crust so that I didn’t accidentally pour in any more juice that gathered at the bottom of the bowl I had it in.

This recipe came from the blog “Sally’s Baking Addiction.” You can find the original at https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/2014/06/14/blueberry-peach-pie/. I played with the spices in mine, and as I already noted, I used frozen fruits instead of fresh.

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Blueberry Peach Pie

Blueberry peach pie can be made with fresh or frozen fruit and looks a lot more complicated than it really is.
Course Dessert
Keyword blueberry, peach, pie

Ingredients

  • 2 pie crusts homemade or store-bought, chilled
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 6 tablespoons flour
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
  • 1/4 teaspoon allspice
  • 3 cups fresh peaches sliced and peeled
  • 1 1/2 cups fresh blueberries
  • 1 tablespoon butter
  • 1 egg beaten
  • sugar and cinnamon for sprinkling

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
  • Fold the fruit in with the sugar, flour, cinnamon and all-spice.
  • Roll out one of the pie crusts and line an eight- or nine-inch pie pan with it.
  • Spoon in the fruit mixture. Cut the butter into small pieces and dot it along the top of the filling.
  • Roll out the second crust and either place it on the top and cut several steam vents in it after crimping it together with the bottom crust or cut the dough into long strips and weave a lattice top on the pie, crimping the edges with the bottom crust when you’re finished.
  • Brush the top with a thin layer of the beaten egg and sprinkle on some additional sugar and cinnamon to your taste.
  • Bake on a baking sheet lined with foil (you don’t want to clean this out of the bottom of the oven—or off the baking sheet, for that matter) for 20 minutes.
  • Reduce the temperature to 375 degrees and bake for another 30 to 35 minutes.
  • Let the pie cool before serving (or serve it while warm, but be ready for runny filling).

If you’re feeling a bit intimidated by making a lattice crust, don’t be, and if you need some guidance, I’d recommend searching for a tutorial video on YouTube. You’re bound to find dozens.

And for those who don’t know quite how easy a lattice top is, be ready to hear how impressed they are with your pie handiwork, and even if you don’t give it a shot, the pie is good enough to get you accolades either way.

This piece first appeared in print on Jan. 11, 2018.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

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