Just Peachy

In late June, on her way home from Georgia -- a state known for its peaches -- a friend stopped at a roadside stand and bought several baskets of peaches fresh from the orchard.  My family was the lucky recipient of one of those baskets.  The peaches were juicy and delicious and we enjoyed peeling and eating them out of hand.  A few days later at a 4th of July party, I spotted a peach cobbler on the dessert table and knew exactly what I was going to do with the remaining few peaches.

Almost every church or school cookbook has a recipe for fruit cobbler.  A lot of times, the recipe has the word easy, simple, or like the one I'm sharing today, quick in the title.  All three are appropriate adjectives for this easy to make dessert, but I think versatile would be a better description.

Although the recipe I'm sharing is for peach cobbler, you can substitute other fruit for the peaches.  In fact, you can use fresh, frozen or canned fruit in the recipe.  If you're using canned fruit, be sure to use some of the juice or the cobbler will be dry.  If you're using fresh fruit, taste the fruit to see if you need to add additional sugar.  If so, add a little at a time until the fruit reaches the desired sweetness.    

Start by melting a stick of butter or margarine.  Instead of melting this in the microwave, I put the butter in the baking dish and set it in the oven while it's preheating.

The butter melts without me having to do anything and it keeps me from dirtying another dish.  

The sugar, self-rising flour, milk and vanilla are stirred together to make the batter.  If you don't have self-rising flour, you can substitute all-purpose flour and add 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1 teaspoon baking powder.  Once the ingredients are combined, pour the batter over the melted butter.  Do not stir the two together!

If you're using fresh peaches, here's an easy way to keep the cobbler from being dry.  Put the peeled and sliced peaches in a saucepan and heat them on low heat for about 10 minutes.

When heated, the juice seeps from the peaches.  This sounds counterproductive, but it's actually the secret to a very moist cobbler, since the juice is distributed over the entire cobbler.

Three peaches yielded almost 1/4 cup juice.

Spoon the peaches on top of the batter.  Pour the juice left in the pan all over the top of the cobbler.  Do not stir!!!  

The peaches will sink to the bottom and the batter will rise to the top and make a crust.

The cobbler is delicious by itself, or served a la mode with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top.  Either way you serve it, it's just peachy!

Quick Peach Cobbler

6 to 8 Servings

1 stick butter or margarine, melted

3 fresh peaches, peeled and cut into slices 

1 cup sugar

1 cup self-rising flour*

1/4 tsp. vanilla

1 cup milk

*One cup all-purpose flour, 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1 teaspoon baking powder may be substituted for self-rising flour.

Preheat oven to 400°.  Put butter in a 10-inch baking dish and set in the oven to melt while the oven preheats.  Peel peaches and cut into slices. Put the peaches in a saucepan and heat on low heat about 10 minutes. While the peaches are heating, combine remaining ingredients; mix well. Remove baking dish from oven.  Tilt pan to distribute butter, if necessary. Pour the batter over the butter.  Do not stir!  Spoon peaches over the batter.  Pour the peach juice over the top of the cobbler.  Do not stir.  Bake for 20 to 30 minutes until the crust is brown.

© Margaret's Morsels

Here's the Scoop

July is National Ice Cream Month and this Sunday, July 17, is National Peach Ice Cream Day.

Until I started making homemade ice cream, the only peach ice cream I'd eaten was nothing more than vanilla ice cream with some diced peaches added.  The ice cream tasted more like vanilla than peach.

Several years ago, I found a recipe for peach ice cream that delivers a double dose of peach flavor.  The recipe uses fresh peaches and canned peach nectar.

Peaches peak in July and August.  You can read tips about choosing fresh peaches here.  Nectar, the drink of the gods in mythology, is a sweet juice extracted from fruit.  It is thicker than other types of fruit juice.  Canned nectar is sometimes found with other fruit juices or in the fruit aisle.  The last time I bought a can, it was in the ethnic food aisle at the grocery store.

The peach nectar on top of the milk mixture

Unlike peach ice cream I've had in the past, this peach ice cream doesn't use diced peaches.  The peaches are completely pureed until smooth, resulting in an ice cream that truly melts in your mouth.  If you prefer ice cream with more texture, dice some of the peaches and stir them in before putting the mixture in the ice cream maker.

It may look like vanilla, but it tastes like peach!

Take advantage of nature's bounty and make some peach ice cream while peaches are in season.  If you're not a fan of peaches, celebrate National Ice Cream Month with this homemade vanilla ice cream instead.

Peach Ice Cream

1 1/2 Quarts

4 medium size fresh peaches, peeled and sliced

2 Tbsp. sugar

1/4 cup lemon juice

1/4 tsp. salt

1 (14 oz.) can sweetened condensed milk

1 (5 oz.) can evaporated milk

1 1/4 cups whole milk

3/4 cup peach nectar

Puree peaches, sugar, lemon juice and salt in a blender until smooth.  Combine sweetened condensed milk, evaporated milk and whole milk.  Add the peach mixture and peach nectar to the milk mixture.  Cover and chill 30 minutes.

Pour mixture into the freezer container of an electric ice cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturers' instructions.  Transfer ice cream to an airtight container and freeze until firm, about 2 hours.

© Margaret's Morsels

Summer Soup

Years ago, I used to purchase an orange peach fruit juice.  The orange peach combination was delicious and I was disappointed when the juice was discontinued.  When I came across the recipe for Orange Peach Soup, I remembered the fruit juice from long ago and knew I had to try the recipe.  Unfortunately, it was the middle of winter so I had to wait a few months.  You don't have to wait, though, because peaches peak in July and August making it the perfect time to make a batch of this soup.

The best way to buy peaches is with your eyes, nose and hands.  Look for unblemished peaches without any traces of green.  Peaches have a rosy blush on the surface, but that's indicative of the variety and has nothing to do with ripeness.  Smell the peaches.  A ripe peach smells like a peach.  If there's little or no fragrance, keep smelling until you find peaches with a peach aroma.  Feel the peaches and apply a little pressure with your hand. You don't want the peaches to be too soft, but you don't want them to be too hard either.  Buy peaches that yield slightly to pressure.

Peaches come in white and yellow varieties and can be used interchangeably.  I prefer yellow peaches because they tend to be juicier and more flavorful.  Peaches are sold as either clingstone or freestone. The terms describe how easy it is to remove the pit from the fruit.  A clingstone tends to cling whereas a freestone is easy to remove.

Peel, slice and puree the peaches with lemon juice in a blender.  The lemon juice keeps the peaches from turning brown while the rest of the ingredients are being prepared.

The pureed peaches and lemon juice

Combine water, instant tapioca, sugar and salt in a saucepan and bring to a boil.  Remove the pan from the heat and add the remaining ingredients, including the peach puree.   Let the soup cool to room temperature -- to speed up the process, I transfer the soup from the warm saucepan to a bowl -- and then refrigerate.  

If the only tapioca you're familiar with is pudding, you may be wondering why it's used in this recipe.  Tapioca is a starch used to thicken food. Instant tapioca looks like little pellets.

Instant tapioca

Although tapioca does a great job thickening the soup, the pellets don't completely dissolve.  If you don't mind the texture, you can serve the soup as it is.  If you're like me and prefer a smoother soup, there's an easy solution.

After the soup is completely chilled -- I make it a day ahead and refrigerate it overnight -- taste it to see if it's sweet enough.  Some peaches are sweeter than others so you may need to add additional sugar.

Pour the soup into a blender container and add sugar, if necessary, one teaspoon at a time, blending until the sugar is dissolved.  Taste the soup after each addition to make sure you don't add too much sugar.  Using a blender pulverizes the sugar and the tapioca at the same time.  If the soup doesn't need any additional sugar, you can still process it in a blender to achieve a smoother consistency.

The soup makes a great first course, especially when the meal that follows is light.  It can also be served as an entree with a salad -- green, tuna or chicken -- and croissants.  My husband likes to pour the soup over ice and drink it as a beverage.  It makes a thick beverage, but my husband finds it extremely refreshing after working in the yard on a hot summer day.

No matter how you serve it, this soup is definitely flavorful and refreshing. Peach season is short so enjoy this soup while peaches are at the peak of flavor.

Orange Peach Soup

6 to 8 Servings

2 lb. fresh peaches, peeled and sliced

1 Tbsp. lemon juice

2 1/2 cups water, divided

3 Tbsp. instant tapioca

3 Tbsp. sugar (plus more for sweetening, if needed)

dash of salt

1 (6 oz.) can frozen orange juice concentrate, thawed (undiluted)

fresh mint sprigs (for garnish)

Combine peaches and lemon juice in a blender container; process until smooth.  Set aside.

Combine 1 cup water, tapioca, sugar and salt in a large saucepan.  Bring to a boil, stirring frequently.  Remove from heat and stir in remaining ingredients, including the peach puree.  Cool to room temperature.  Cover and chill completely.  

Taste the chilled soup to see if more sugar is needed.  Add 1 teaspoon of sugar at a time, if necessary, and process in a blender until smooth.  Serve garnished with fresh mint sprigs, if desired.

© Margaret's Morsels