Joy the Baker » peach

Peach Blueberry Pie

joythebaker — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 08:26:41 +0000

Before you roll your eyes, and dismiss this dessert as something that’s too complicated for you… something that’s out of your skill set… something that you simply don’t have the time or energy for… please. Just give me a minute.

Everyone should know how to make a pie.

If you know how to make pie, you know how to make love.

What do you do for a living? Are you an accountant? How do you do that? I can barely count. Are you a barista? A lawyer? A super mom? A welder? A hat maker? Awesome.

I want you to know how to make a pie. It’s really important to me. Can we get on this together?

There are things you should know before we start.

Making pie is not necessarily easy. Pie is rarely perfect. Making pie might be a little frustrating.

Wait… who was that person that said the best things in the world are also the easiest? No one. People don’t say that… because it’s totally not true.

Am I doing a good job with this pep talk? Do I need to yell?

Making pie starts by making pie crust.

Stay with me. We can totally do this. We don’t need to buy that pre-made junk.

Homemade pie crust is part of the love we’re making. It’s love. We can’t cut corners.

Get on board with butter. Cold butter.

We use our fingers to quickly incorporate the cold butter cubes into the flour mixture. It seems like a lot of butter. It seems like a lot of blessings from heaven.

We’ll add just a touch in vinegar to the dough. What!? Yea. Don’t worry. We won’t taste it.

A touch of acid really helps with the flakiness of the crust. Pro tips.

Are you worried about how shaggy this crust is?

This is where the love comes in.

Loving hands divide the shaggy dough and gently knead it into two disks. Tender but strong hands. Do you have those? We need the dough to come together, but we want to leave little bits of butter speckled throughout the dough… so we come with the tenderness.

See the butter bits!? That’s what we want.

These disks get wrapped in plastic wrap and refrigerated for an hour.

We refrigerate dough because we want to moisture to distribute, and the butter to re-chill. Refrigerating the dough will make the rolling process easier.

Fruit time.

I’m certain that there are few things better than ripe summer peaches and fresh blueberries.

Because this is pie, we have to add a thickener (flour and cornstarch) and a few spices for flare.

Sprinkle and toss. Again with the tender but firm hand.

A generous sprinkle of flour on a clean counter is how we’ll start rolling out the dough.

Do you see what happened here? Near the center of that dough was a tear in my crust… because that’s real life. I patched it and rolled the crust out just a bit more.

Oops… yea… I had to take a bit more extra crust and patch it again.

That’s love.. sometimes it needs a band-aid.

We’ll roll two crusts. Pile in the fruit mixture, and pile on another crust. Pinch the pie crust with your fingers, or press together with a fork. Both are pretty pretty.

Brushing with a beaten egg makes for a beautiful brown top.

Extra cinnamon sugar? Always a good idea.

Beautifully golden brown pie.

It’s not perfect, but somehow it’s perfect in those imperfections. Well… if our imperfections include sugary baked peaches and blueberries in a buttery crust… I suppose it’s a good life after all.

The crusts tore bit. I patched them. The crust browned as it did, with some sides darker than others. The fruit bubbled over a bit. It took just over two hours to come together. All of this? Totally fine.

Slice generously and serve with vanilla ice cream. It tastes like pure summer. It tastes like Sundays after church. It tastes like grandmothers. It tastes like pure love. It’s important. I really want you to know how to make love. Will you do this? Please. Awesome. High five.

Peach and Blueberry Pie

makes one 9-inch pie

Print this Recipe!

For the Crust:

2 1/2 cup all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons sugar

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cold, cut into cubes

5 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons ice cold water

1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar

For the Filling:

about 3 pounds ripe peaches (I used about 6 peaches)

1 cup fresh blueberries

1/2 to 2/3 cups granulated sugar (depending on the sweetness of your peaches)

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

scant 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/8 teaspoon ground ginger

1/8 teaspoon ground coriander

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon cornstarch

2 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

1 egg, beaten, for egg wash

2 tablespoons sugar and 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon, for topping crust before baking

To make the crust, in a medium bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, and salt. Add cold, cubed butter and, using your fingers, work the butter into the flour mixture. Quickly break the butter down into the flour mixture, some butter pieces will be the size of oat flakes, some will be the size of peas. Stir together the ice cold water and vinegar. Create a well in the butter and flour mixture and pour in the water and vinegar mixture. Use a fork to bring to dough together. Try to moisten all of the flour bits. On a lightly floured work surface, dump out the dough mixture. It will be moist and shaggy. That’s perfect. Divide the dough in two and gently knead into two disks. Wrap each disk in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.

To make the filling, wash and slice peaches. In a medium bowl, combine peach slices and blueberries. In a small bowl, whisk together sugar, spices, flour, and cornstarch. Pour the sugar mixture over the fruit, and gently toss together with a wooden spoon. Stir in the lemon juice. Place bowl of fruit in the fridge to rest while you roll the crust out.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Place a rack in the center of the oven, and place a baking sheet on the lower rack, just below where you’re going to place the pie. This will catch any pie drippings without making a mess of your oven.

Remove one of the pie dough disks from the fridge. On a lightly floured surface, roll dough out into about a 13-inch round. Roll the dough a few strokes, then use your fingers to move the emerging circle around the floured surface. This ensures that the dough isn’t sticking to the work surface. The circle won’t be perfect, that’s ok. Try not to get any tears in the rolled out dough, but if you do, they can be patched together with extra dough. When you roll the dough and you can see it start springing back, that means that the butter is warming and the crust shouldn’t be rolled out anymore. Gently lift the 13-inch round from the floured surface and center in the 9-inch baking dish. Place in the fridge while you roll out the top crust.

Roll out the top crust just as you did the bottom crust, moving the dough across the floured surface every once in a while, and creating a roughly 13-inch circle. Remove the bottom crust and fruit filling from the fridge. Gently pour the fruit filling into the pie dish. Carefully remove the top crust from the work surface and drape over the fruit in the pie dish. With a small knife, trim the crust, leaving about 3/4-inch overhang. With your fingers press the top and bottom crusts together and fold under. Use a fork or your fingers to crimp the edges of the dough. Cut five small slits in the top of the crust so the juices and steam can vent. Brush lightly with beaten egg and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar mixture.

Place pie in the oven and bake at 400 degrees F for 15 minutes. Reduce the oven heat to 375 and bake for 45 to 55 more minutes. Remove from the oven when crust is browned and golden, and the juices are bubbling. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 2 hours before serving. Place covered in the fridge to store. Pie lasts up to 3 or 4 days.

Peach Cobbler for One (or two if you’re nice)

joythebaker — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 07:35:51 +0000

Update! Check out the latest Joy the Baker Podcast! Episode 13 is LIVE!

Things I Say Too Often:

- Duh. Totes.

- How you livin’?

- Why is this orange juice making me more thirsty!?

- Shut it.

- Huh?

- Dddrrrriiiiiiiiivvveeeeee (faster please)!

- Small coffee. Room for cream, please.

This I Don’t Say Often Enough:

- Hey Mom. Thanks for birthing and raising me. That couldn’t have been easy. You did a great job.

- Hey Dad. Thanks for working so hard to 35 years to support your family. I appreciate you so much.

- Oh geez. Was I being passive aggressive just then? I’m sorry. I understand that that’s totally annoying. I’ll try to be aggressive aggressive next time.

- Thank you for reading my blog. I appreciate you so much.

- I understand where you’re coming from.

- I love you. From on the inside. It’s major.

- More pie, please.

I’m learning. Life is short. Say what you mean. Stop saying DUH all the time.

I’ve also learned how to make myself a fake-out pie on the quick.

A ripe peach is cut in half and pitted. A bit of peach flesh is scooped out… we need to make room for mega amounts of coconut almond streusel. Priorities.

When baked, the fruit softens and sweetens. When baked, the topping melts, browns, and crisps.

Two mini peach cobbler/crumbles in about 25 minutes flat.

This is a quick and hearty summer dessert. It’s totally breakfast meets dessert… meets I just made myself dessert at midnight when I’m supposed to be falling asleep reading The Help.

Do you have ice cream at home? I don’t. I pretend that cold milk is ice cream. Close enough in a pinch.

Consider making this dessert with nectarines, plums, or apricots this summer. Pick a stone fruit and get baking. It’s so warm and satisfying.

It’s a mini version of this Strawberry Pineapple Crumble.

Simple and delicious. I understand if you don’t want to share.

Peach Cobbler For One (or two if you’re nice)

Print this Recipe!

1 ripe peach

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 cup packed light brown sugar

3 tablespoons old-fashioned oats

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

pinch of salt

1 tablespoon shredded coconut

1 tablespoon slivered almonds

2 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cubed

Place a rack in the center of the oven, and preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Slice a peach in half and remove the pit. With a small spoon, scoop out the the dark red pit center, creating just a bit more room for the crumble topping.

In a small bowl, whisk together flour, brown sugar, oats, cinnamon, salt, coconut, and almonds. Add butter and, with your fingers, work the butter into the dry ingredients. Quickly break up the butter until it is well combined. Some of the butter bits will be the size of oat flakes, others will be the size of small peas.

Place peach halves, cut side up, in a small, oven-safe dish. Top each peach half with a generous portion of crumble topping. Heap it on!

Bake for 20 minutes, until topping is golden brown. Remove from the oven and serve warm with vanilla ice cream or cold milk. Peaches are best served warm from the oven.

Peach and Raspberry Crumble

joythebaker — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 18:37:14 +0000

The smell of peaches reminds me of:

dusty, dirty sneakers. light coming through peach tree leaves. shade. drinking from the hose. wet jean shorts. caked mud. my yellow Sony sport walkman. that Counting Crows cassette tape i loved. my sister’s freckled nose. my dad’s hands. my mom’s laugh. sleeping in the sun in the car, half hearing adults talk. pie. pie pie pie pie pie. pie.

My family and I used to go pick peaches during summer months.

We never had fancy fruit during the year. We didn’t buy containers of raspberries. There were no pints of blueberries in my fridge. Those were too much of a luxury. We had bananas… endless amounts of boring bananas.

But! In the summer! We went peach picking. I remember it like a slow motion, montage movie scene in my head.

I like the keep the peach smell memories tucked away in my crazybrain… you know, to think about awesome things when not so awesome things are happening. Life tricks. I got em. I’m so good at life is downright amazing. Not true. At all… but I’ve got the peach smell memory situation tucked away in my brain just perfectly… for emergencies.

Fresh fruit crumbles are absolutely the most delicious summer dessert, considering the minimal amount of manpower that goes into their creation.

The better the fruit, the better the dessert. It’s as simple as that.

Oh! And don’t try to line up the square colored dots in this photo collage. Don’t do it. It’s just not worth it.

There are some rules to enjoying this dessert:

You’re not allowed to eat all the of crunchy, crumble topping off the top. Unless you live by yourself.. then you totally can.

You must eat this dessert with ice cream. Vanilla, preferred.

You must take a moment to appreciate the beautiful mauve color that this crisp bakes up into. It’s really quite lovely.

Lastly, this dish must be considered a breakfast, lunch, and dinner item… good for all occasions.

Fruit sweet. Oat-y crisp. Comforting summer. Ice cream required. Good(ness).

Oh! I should also tell you that I’m pretty much obsessed with crumbles. Here’s proof.

Peach Berry Vegan Crumbles. Pineapple Strawberry Crisp. Apple Crisp.

For your summer eatings.

Peach and Raspberry Crumble

makes 1 8×8-inch square baking dish

Print this Recipe!

5-6 medium ripe peaches, sliced

1 cup fresh raspberries (if using frozen, just thaw and drain)

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup granulated sugar

3/4 cup old fashioned oats

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon ground allspice

Pinch of salt

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, chilled and cut into small cubes

Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees F. Place sliced peaches and raspberries in a square 8×8-inch baking dish and set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, oats, spices, and salt. Add the butter and toss the mixture together with your hands. Break the butter up into the flour mixture until the butter is the size of small pebbles and oat flakes. This took me about 4 minutes.

Toss a generous handful (about 1 cup) of crumble topping into the peach and raspberry mixture. Toss loosely with your hands. Spread fruit evenly in the pan and top with the remaining crumble mixture. Bake until fruit is juicy and bubbling, and the top of the crumble is slightly browned and crisp, about 30 minutes.

Remove from the oven, let cool slightly, and serve with vanilla ice cream. Crumble is delicious served warm and can be stored, covered, in the fridge and reheated in the oven or microwave for serving.

Vegan Peach Berry Crumbles

joythebaker — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 06:48:32 +0000

I’m not allowed to be vegan because:

I sometimes carry a pound of butter around in my purse.

I stir fry my tofu in bacon fat.

I seriously consider grating cheese on my pillow before I go to bed at night.

(ok… not really. that’s just weird.)

I think heavy cream should be awarded its own national holiday. I’d like that day off work too… sweet, thanks.

If a stranger handed me an egg. I’d eat it. I would.

Just because I’m not allowed to be vegan doesn’t mean that I can’t make a stellar vegan dessert from time to time.

This cobbler is such a delight… I’ll tell you what!

I made the whole recipe without measuring a thing. Not one thing! I looked at the recipe, read it through, then estimated the amounts. A little of this. A little of that… and BINGO! Success!

I encourage you to do the same thing. This recipe is loose enough for such brazen actions.

This vegan cobbler is simple and delicious.

Seasonal peaches and berries are baked with a bit of spice and loads of oat and maple topping.

Feel free to use any combination of summer fruit that excites you.

I made six mini cobblers, but you might want to bake up a9-inch square pan. Don’t be shy.

Beautiful and simple summer food. With cinnamon. Do this.

And the bubbled over berry goodness? Be still my heart.

Vegan Peach Berry Crumbles

inspired by my friends on Twitter and Post Punk Kitchen

makes 6 1/2-cup size ramekin cobblers

Print this Recipe!

For the fruit:

1 1/2 cups fresh blueberries

1 1/2 cups fresh raspberries

2 medium sized ripe peaches sliced into 1-inch chunks

(if you’d like to use frozen fruit, just defrost and drain the juice.)

2 Tablespoons all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

a big pinch of freshly grated nutmeg

(pinch of ground ginger and ground cloves are also encouraged, but not entirely necessary)

1/4 cup pure maple syrup

For the topping:

1 1/2 cup old fashioned oats (i used quick cooking steel cut oats… mostly because i just bought the wrong kind… it worked out yummy!)

1/3 cup all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

1/8 teaspoon salt

2 Tablespoons canola oil

2 Tablespoons maple syrup

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 Tablespoon water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a medium bowl, toss the berries and peach chunks with flour, spices and maple syrup. Set aside while you assemble the topping.

In a separate medium sized bowl, combine the oats, flour, salt and spices. In a small bowl whisk together the oil, maple syrup, vanilla extract and water. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and blend with a fork. Make sure all of the dry ingredients are moistened by the oil and maple syrup mixture.

Add half a cup of the topping mixture to the fruit mixture and toss together. Scoop fruit into ramekins, being sure to fill each cup to the top. Spoon and pat topping onto each cup. Sprinkle with an additional dose of ground cinnamon if you’d like. Place the six ramekins on a clean baking sheet and place in the oven. Bake for 35 minutes, or until bubbly and delicious.

Serve with vanilla ice cream topped with honey if you’re not vegan after all.

Peach Brulee

joythebaker — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 09:35:54 +0000

Reason #457 why I love this warm weather, sunny spring that leads into summertime: the ponytail.

It’s bouncy, it’s festive, it helps me look like I’m having a good time even when I’m just standing in line at the grocery store, and it makes me feel like a cheerleader… which is strangely satisfying.

The ponytail is simple and uncomplicated. I think I’m going to make the ponytail, and the fun simplicity it represents, the theme for the lovely summer we’re working towards.

I think that summer fruit is so fun and just bursting with bright flavors. Most need very little fuss when it comes to preparation. Why complicate something that’s already lovely?

This Peach Brulee is just three ingredients and it’s a gorgeous way to start the day. Make it for breakfast and top the warm peaches with thick Greek yogurt, or make enough peach halves to serve after a big dinner with friends and family. For one or for many, this simple peach recipe shows off the best of what’s in store for us this summer. Go forth and broil…. and please sport a ponytail this summer. It’s rad.

Peach Brulee

for one serving, but can easily be increased according to your needs

adapted from Good Food on kcrw

Print this Recipe!

1 peach, cut in half with pit removed

2 spoonfuls brown sugar

2 spoonfuls sour cream, creme fraiche, yogurt or whipped cream

Turn on the oven’s broiler. Cut peach in half, remove pit and place in a broiler safe pan, cut side up. Sprinkle brown sugar over the tops of he peaches. Place in the broiler, very close to the flame. Stand by the oven, you don’t have time to check the mail. Check the peaches every minute, the sugar will brown in about 2 minutes, if not sooner.

Remove from the oven once the sugar has become brown and toasted. Let cool for one minute. Carefully place peach halves on a plate and dollop the center of the peach with a touch of sour cream or creme fraiche or yogurt. Serve immediately.

Blackberry Peach Bread Pudding with toasted pecans

joythebaker — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 07:11:42 +0000

Bread pudding exists in the sweet space between breakfast and dessert. With all of the milk in the recipe, bread pudding feels like eating the most ridiculously rich breakfast cereal. I suppose for most people, it’s a bonafide dessert. Perhaps I’m just trying to find as many ways as possible to eat dessert for breakfast.

I’ll admit, I only recently warmed up to bread pudding. My Dad absolutely loves the stuff, so I was inspired to create my own. I think I had this conception that bread pudding was simply soggy bread mixed with cinnamon, milk and raisins. Not so! This dish can be made with as many combinations as you can dream up. With this recipe, I wrestled my preconceived notions of bread pudding to the ground. I decided to combine bread pudding and cobbler. I know… pretty awesome! Now we’re getting into the realm of respectable breakfasts… or desserts.

Blackberry Peach Bread Pudding combines the delicious fruit I love in cobblers, with loads of the bready goodness that I crave everyday of my life. Throw in some Grand Marnier and toasted pecans, and it’s pure heaven!

This is a great dessert because you can very easily throw it together in a pan, wrap it up and let it sit in the fridge over night to soak. The next morning, pop the whole tray in the oven, and delicious cobbler bread pudding is ready to eat (after proper cooling time) in about two hours.

Blackberry Peach Bread Pudding with Toasted Pecans

Print this Recipe!

1 1/2 – 2 loaves stale French baguettes

3 eggs

3 cups whole milk

1 cup half and half

1/3 cup butter

1 cup sugar

3/4 cup brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 Tablespoons Grand Marnier

2 cups sliced peaches, fresh or frozen

1 cup blackberries, fresh

3/4 cup pecan halves

dash of cinnamon

Begin by tearing the stale french bread into bite sized pieces. This can be done by hand, because pieces do not have to look perfect, just need to be roughly the same size. Place all of the bread pieces into a 9×13-inch baking pan and top with peaches and berries. Using your hands, toss the fruit into the bread pieces so they are evenly distributed through the pan. Set aside.

In a medium saucepan, heat butter and 3 cups milk. Heat just until butter melts, but milk should not boil.

While milk and butter are heating, whisk together eggs, half and half, sugar, vanilla extract and Grand Marnier. Slowly whisk the warmed milk and butter mixture into the eggs and half and half mixture. Pour the entire mixture on top of the bread pieces and fruit. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.

When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Remove the plastic wrap from the bread pudding, sprinkle with cinnamon and place in the oven for 45-55 minutes. The bread pudding will still wiggle when shaken, but will set during the cooling process. Let set for at least 30 minutes, once removed from the oven. Serve warm or at room temperature.

I love this served warm with vanilla ice cream!