Fresh Peach Cobbler

My favorite orchard store, Bryant Orchards, now has fresh peaches.  They are the best.  My summer of making peach SOMETHINGS has begun. I decided on a cobbler.  Usually with a cobbler you place the fruit in a baking pan and dot or cover the top with the topping for a cobbler.  This is a bit different.   For this cobbler I placed fruit on the cake mixture.

I made a 9X13 baking dish but you can halve the recipe for an 8X8 pan of dessert.

  

Fresh Peach Cobbler

4 cups peeled and sliced peaches
1 cup sugar
1 Tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 cup melted butter (1 stick)
1 cup flour
1 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup milk

  

Preheat the oven to 375˚.

 

Mix the peeled and sliced peaches with the 1 cup of sugar and lemon juice in a large bowl.  Add the cinnamon and baking powder and stir to combine.

  

Place them in a sauce pan and heat over medium heat until the sugar is all melted and the peaches are so juicy!

  

In a medium bowl whisk together the flour, brown sugar, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.

  

Add the milk and whisk until just combined.

  

Pour the melted butter into the baking dish.

  

Top the butter with the cake batter and then gently place the peaches evenly on top.

  

Bake for 30 to 40 minutes until the cake rises to the top and browns.  Remove from the oven and place on a rack to cool for 10 minutes.

  

Serve by itself,

  

or even better, with a very large scoop of vanilla ice cream.

  

What could be better than fruit, cake and ice cream!

Peach Shortcake

I saw a recipe for strawberry shortcake using a donut for the shortcake.  That sounded interesting. But then I heard that Bryant Orchards had opened.  They pick fresh peaches each day and put them in their store.  If you have only eaten peaches from the grocery store, you have never tasted a real peach.  The ones at Bryant Orchards are sweet and delicious and not mealy and hard like those in the grocery stores.

I decided to get some fresh peaches and make a Peach shortcake using donuts!

Peach Shortcake

Peaches
Donuts
Greek Vanilla Yogurt

  

This is super easy! Peel and slice the peaches.

  

Slice the donuts horizontally.  Place some peach slices on one half of a donut.  Spoon some yogurt on top of the slices and then cover the yogurt with more peaches.  Put the other half of the donut on top and you're done!

  

I took the finished picture and was a little disappointed.  It didn't look too exciting.

  

Fortunately I had a can of whipped cream in the refrigerator.  That made a better picture.  And added fun to the shortcake!

  

I was thinking a giant scoop of ice cream would make it even better, but I didn't have any ice cream.  If you have ice cream, then I would definitely add a scoop!

Peaches and Cream Muffins

I visited the Bryant Orchards shop this week.  They mostly sell peaches and that is why I go there.  You will not find peaches like these in your grocery store.

 

I had some heavy cream I purchased and never used, so Peaches and Cream Muffins were born.

 


Peaches and Cream Muffins

1 large or 2 medium peaches
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 egg
3/4 cup cream, you may substitute milk
1/3 cup oil
2 cups flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1-2 Tablespoons raw sugar for sprinkling on top

 

Preheat the oven to 400°.  Spray a muffin baker with Pam and set aside.  I used a silicone one on top of a baking sheet.

 

Peel, slice and dice the peaches.  You will want around 3/4 to 1 cup after dicing.  Sprinkle the lemon juice on top and give them a stir. 

 

This is to prevent browning while you assemble the rest of the ingredients. 

 

Place the egg, cream and oil in a large bowl.  Give it a brisk whisk to incorporate them.  Add the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and cinnamon to the egg and cream mixture.  Switch to a spoon as the whisk will clog with the batter. Mix just until moistened and then fold in the peaches.

 

Fill the muffin baker.  I used an ice cream scoop and it made 10 substantial muffins.  You may fill them 3/4 full and you will be able to get 12 muffins from this recipe.

 

Sprinkle the tops with raw sugar.  Bake for 20 to 25 minutes.  Test with a toothpick.  My big muffins took 25 minutes.

 

The muffins were nice and moist and not too sweet.  I used less oil than a lot of recipes I found, so I worried they may turn out dry, but they were quite good.  I'm sure the moist and delicious fresh peaches had a lot to do with it!

Peach Pineapple Jam

The blackberries are mostly gone.  It seems like they only last about 2 weeks from ripe to gone.  That is OK by me.  I picked a bunch of them and made jam and now I don't want to pick any more.  I did want a few more batches of jam. 

The peaches at Bryant Orchard are ripe and delicious.  I don't have to pick them and I don't have to put them through the food mill.  A batch of peach jam is EASY in comparison.

I am apparently incapable of easy.  I decided to make a batch of peach pineapple jam.   I have never made any and the directions on the package of Sure-Jell is for just plain peach jam.  I decided to follow the directions and reduce the amount of peaches by the amount of pineapple I wanted to add.

The one thing I do know is that you can't use fresh pineapple in jam or Jell-O.  There is something in it that prevents jelling.  So use canned pineapple if you choose to make this jam.  Or Jell-O for that matter.

 


Peach Pineapple Jam

3 cups finely chopped peaches
1 lemon
1 cup crushed pineapple
5 1/2 cups sugar
1 package Sure-Jell
1/2 teaspoon butter (optional, to prevent foaming)
 
 

Follow the directions in the Sure-Jell package for washing and sterilizing the canning jars.  Start a large pot of water boiling on the back of the stove.  Turn it to simmer and cover it if it boils before you need it.

 

Before you start peeling the peaches, place a large waterproof bag in front of the cutting board.  Place the peels and the pits in here.  When you are done, just tie the top and discard.

 

The peaches can turn brown on you.  The lemon helps to prevent this.  But peeling and chopping each peach takes long enough for the peach you just finished to start turning brown.  Even if you are really fast. 

My method is to peel and slice the peach.  Place the slices on the cutting board and chop them until finely chopped.  It is OK to have a few larger pieces.  Take a lemon half and squeeze some juice over the chopped pile of peaches.  Strain the juice through your fingers so you don't get a lemon seed in your jam.  Scoop the pile up and place the peaches and lemon in a large measuring cup.  Start peeling the next peach.

 

When you have 3 cups of lemon and peaches, add 1 cup from a can of crushed pineapple, for a total of 4 cups of fruit.  Remember, fresh pineapple won't jell, so don't use fresh.  If you still have some lemon juice left in your lemon, add that to the fruit.

 

After this, just follow the directions to make the jam.  Basically, you add the Sure-Jell and the butter and bring it to a full rolling boil. 

 

Add the sugar all at once and bring back to a rolling boil. 

 

Then fill the jars that have been in boiled water.

 

Seal and place the jars in boiling water and boil them for 10 minutes.

I have two different jars of jam opened in the refrigerator, so I haven't tasted this jam yet.  I sent one home with a friend, but she is still working on my Four Berry Jam and hasn't tried it. http://www.shenandoahgatewayfarm.blogspot.com/2014/07/four-berry-jam.html

But the jam set and is a beautiful golden orange with floating bits of peach and pineapple. And how bad can something that is more than 50% sugar be, she asked facetiously?

 

Blue Peach Melba Crisp

I still had some peaches from my trip to the Bryant Orchards shop in Daleville.  They are big and sweet and I wanted to make something new with them.  I had some raspberries and blueberries from our most recent guests.  Raspberries and peach make a peach melba and blueberries are Lee's favorite.  I decided to throw them all together and add a crisp topping and see what happened.

 

Blue Peach Melba Crisp

4 VERY large peaches or 5 or 6 regular sized peaches
1 Tablespoon lemon juice
1 cup raspberries
1/2 cup blueberries
1/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla

 

Crisp Topping

3/4 cup oatmeal
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
pinch salt
6 Tablespoons butter

 

Heat the oven to 350°.  Butter an 8X8 baking dish. Set aside.

 

Peel and slice the peaches.  Place them in a medium bowl and stir in the lemon juice to keep them   from browning.  Mix in the sugar and vanilla.  

 

Gently add in the raspberries and blueberries, stir and add to the baking dish.

 

In a medium bowl mix the oatmeal, flour, brown sugar, cinnamon and salt. 

 

Cut in the butter until well blended.  Spread the mixture over the fruit.  Bake for 30 minutes.

 

This is a delicious dessert.  The raspberries dissolved completely and made a wonderful raspberry sauce surrounding the peaches.  The blueberries didn't dissolve, but became little pockets of blueberry juice that burst in my mouth. 

 

The crisp would have been delicious with a large scoop of vanilla ice cream.  Sadly, I didn't have any ice cream. Don't you hate it when your resistance to temptation works when you are in the freezer aisle?  I did have some Cool Whip, though, and it added a nice touch of creamy goodness.

Gingered Peach Cobbler

Our fabulous local orchard is picking peaches.  I love the peaches from Bryant Orchard.  You NEVER get peaches like this in the local markets.  I was going to make some peach cobbler or a peach crisp for my guests this weekend, but they are eating low carb.  That means no peaches and no cobbler for them.

And that it one of the reasons I am not eating low carb this summer.  Fresh fruit.  Yum.

Well, darn.  That means I have to eat the peaches.  So I decided to make up a slightly different recipe than the usual peach cobbler and invited a friend.  That way, I don't have to eat the whole thing by myself.  Not that I can't, but , you know. 



Gingered Peach Cobbler

 4 or 5 large peaches, peeled and sliced
1 Tablespoon lemon juice
1 Tablespoon cornstarch
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 teaspoons chopped, candied ginger

1 1/2 cups Heart Smart Bisquick
1/3 cup milk
2 Tablespoons sugar
1Tablesppon chopped, candied ginger
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1 Tablespoon chopped, candied ginger for sprinkling

 

Heat the oven to 375°.  Spray a 8X8 baking dish with Pam and set aside.

 

Peel and slice the peaches.  Place them in a medium bowl and stir in some lemon juice to keep them from turning brown. 

 

Add the cornstarch, sugar, ground ginger, cinnamon, candied ginger and vanilla.  Mix and set aside.

 

In a medium bowl place the Bisquick. milk, sugar, candied ginger, and cinnamon. 

 

Mix just until combined.  If you can let this sit a bit, it is a good thing.

 

Place the peach mixture in the prepared dish.  Drop spoonsful of the Bisquick mixture on top in mounds. 

 

Try to cover the top evenly , but leave spaces between each drop of Bisquick.  Sprinkle the last of the chopped candied ginger on top.

 

Bake for 30 to 35 minutes.  Let cool and serve.

 

Serve with ice cream.  And Cool Whip.  And good friends.

This had a mild taste of ginger and it was delicious.  I may try more of the candied ginger next time.  I like the bite of ginger and it was perfect with the sweetness of the peaches.