Crumbly Peach Bars

I had to add peach schnapps to this recipe. HAD to.

Ok. Explanation: I saw this recipe yesterday and knew that it was THE recipe to end peach season with. I combed all the fruit bodegas near me in Astoria. I had just bought great peaches from them two weeks earlier and discovered that my biggest fear was true: Peach season is over. Sure, there were peaches, but they were all hard and didn't smell like a peach. The summer days of just grabbing any peach at the stand and biting into a lovely, succulent peach were over. I found three peaches that seemed like they might be ok to use.

Unfortunately, one was a dud. Out of the other two peaches, one was great and one was ok. To make the ok one better, I decided to soak it in peach schnapps. Naturally. Thus, a mediocre peach = I HAD to add peach schnapps to the recipe.

Another thing I decided to do? Well, you know me - big on messes. Totally took the option 3 route and used my hands to blend the crumbs mixture.

One more cool thing about this recipe: it was the first time I browned butter. Browning butter is fun!

Crumbly Peach Bars (adapted from The Sweet Art)

1 cup white sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup cold, unsalted butter
1 large egg
3 peaches, peeled and sliced into small chunks or thin slices

Brown your butter: Melt butter in a small/medium saucepan over medium-low heat. It will melt, then foam, then turn clear golden and finally start to turn brown and smell nutty. Stir frequently, scraping up any bits from the bottom as you do. Keep your eyes on it; it burns very quickly. (Erika's Extras: This process took me 20 minutes.)
Set it in the freezer until solid (about 30 minutes).

Preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C).
Butter a 9×13 inch pan, or spray it with a nonstick spray.

Soak cut up peaches in peach schnapps (enough to cover the peaches).
In a medium bowl, stir together sugar, baking powder, flour, salt and spices with a whisk. Use a pastry blender, fork, or your fingertips and blend the solidified brown butter and egg into the flour mixture. It will become crumbly.

Pat 3/4 of the crumbs into the bottom of the prepared pan, pressing firmly.

Tile peach slices over crumb base in a single layer. Feel free to use some of the peach schnapps on this layer, but just a little bit of the leftover liquid.

Scatter remaining crumbs evenly over peaches and bake in preheated oven for 30-45 minutes, until top is slightly brown and you can see a little color around the edges.

Cool in pan before cutting into squares.

Bake well and prosper!

Peach Schnapps Peach Pie

It's summer which means it's peach season! It also means that Fathers Day occurs and you know what? My dad's birthday is right around Father's Day. (Just like my mom's bday is near Mothers Day.) Since I wrote a post about her, I figured it was time to send some love my dad's way.

 

Unlike me, my dad enjoys a fruit dessert over a chocolate dessert. So, in honor of his birthday I decided that I should make a fruit pie. Since he lives hundred of miles away from me, he'll just get the pictures instead of tasting it (but I know he would have loved this!)  

 

More about my dad: He knows a fair amount about fruit since HIS dad had such a green thumb in Florida. In fact, I bet my dad knows what the inside of a peach pit looks like. I didn't until I made this pie. I was so surprised to even have a peach pit split on me while preparing the peaches! Look! It looks like an almond!

Speaking of peaches, my dad also let me know when I was 8 that the peach pits I planted in the back yard were NOT going to grow into peach trees. Um...well...maybe I was just composting early in life. Yeah.

 

My dad was also a great supporter of playing basketball. On game day when I was in high school, my dad would make my brown bag lunch and write on the outside "Rebound!" or "Go get 'em!" or "Square up!" Having those on my paper bag was better than all the cheering from the stands.

Another interesting thing to note about my dad is that he's a pastor. Yep! That makes me a pastor's daughter. *dun dun duuun* Along with raising me in the Christian faith he also taught me AWESOME things like, "The only one who can allow yourself to get angry is you." (I remember him telling me that while I was very young and super upset about something my silly brothers had done. What a gem of wisdom for a kid!)

Thank goodness he never preached that cleanliness was next to godliness. Because, well, um...you see...when I was making the pie crust...well...

 (Close Up)

It wasn't my fault. This pie crust attacked me. Yeah...

Ok. Back to prettier pictures...

Making this peach pie was quite time consuming, but also fun. Next time I'm in TX I'll have to make it for my super awesome dad. We can sit and play board games while eating this dessert (with a scoop of Blue Bell vanilla ice cream, of course!)

Peach Schnapps Peach Pie (adapted from allrecipes.com)

Ingredients

6 fresh peaches - peeled, pitted and sliced into thin wedges

1/4 cup honey
2 fluid ounces peach schnapps, or more to taste (I used 3oz)
1 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
Pie crust (recipe below)

Directions
1.Place the peaches, honey, and peach schnapps into a saucepan over medium heat, and cook until the peaches are softened and the mixture thickens, stirring occasionally, about 8 minutes. Stir in sugar and cinnamon until combined. Stir in the flour, and bring the mixture back to a simmer. Simmer until the flour has thickened the filling, 10 to 15 minutes. Remove from heat, transfer filling to a container, and refrigerate 4 hours or overnight.

2.Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C).

3.Stretch bottom pie crust into a 9 1/2-inch pie pan; cut some of the remainder of the crust into 1-inch wide strips. Spread the peach filling evenly into the bottom crust, and make a lattice crust from the strips, weaving the strips over and under each other. Pinch strips to the bottom crust at both ends.

4.Bake the pie in the preheated oven for about 15 minutes, then remove and put a sheet of aluminum foil ligfhtly over the top of the pie (then the crust won't burn). Return to oven and bake until top crust is golden brown, about 30 more minutes. Cool on wire rack at least 2 hours before serving to allow pie filling to set up.

Never Fail Pie Crust (from My Mom's Best Recipe Book)
1 heaping t baking powder
1 t salt
5 1/2 C flour
Mix together

Mix 1 lb (2C) lard (Crisco) into flour mixture until crumbly

Put 1 egg in 1 C measuring cup; beat with fork. Add 1 t vinegar and fill cup with cold water. Mix well and mix with flour mixture. Dough can be frozen.

Makes 3 pie crusts

Can use combo of lard and Crisco (1 C of each.)

Bake well and prosper!

My first OWN recipe!

This past Sunday, Robin and Mike hosted my boyfriend and me to their lovely NYC apartment for dinner. I LOVE their apartment. I'm such a big fan of good windows in apartments and their apartment has great tall ones that curve in at the top so you can peak up at the sky. Check out the windows in the living room:

After we had devoured the yummy tacos Robin put together, it was my turn to work some magic in the kitchen. I had been itching to try (yes, I grew up in TX) my hand at grilled peaches and thought I had read enough recipes to figure it out. So I brought over cinnamon and sugar, peaches, and vanilla ice cream.

Once there, I realized I needed BROWN sugar, not cinnamon and sugar, and Robin didn't have any. (Clearly she's more of a cook.) Oh well. This was truly going to be MY recipe now.

I grabbed a pan and threw in some butter. Once it was on its own melting way, I tossed in some cinnamon and sugar. I chopped up half a peach and threw the pieces in the pan. I stirred them a little and flipped them some.

They were probably in the pan for about 5 minutes and they looked soooo good!

I grabbed some of Robin's bowls, tossed in some scoops of ice cream, and took a quick picture before taking the dessert to the table.

I WAS nervous about it. I've always followed recipes...with the occasional dash of my own thoughts thrown in. But this dessert had no measurements or instructions. It was all up to me.....

And it was a success!!!! Everyone loved it. It reminded me of peach cobbler without the crust. Now, I realize that there are probably tons of these recipes out there, but hey! I used my noggin and not google to figure something out! Woohoo!

Erika's Peach Pieces

1 & 1/2 tablespoons of butter

1 tablespoon of cinnamon and sugar

1/2 a peach

Start melting butter in a pan. Cut up half a peach into nice chunks. Add cinnamon and sugar to the melting butter. Stir and then add the peach pieces. Make sure to keep the burner at a level where the butter isn't bubbling a lot. Burnt butter is sad butter. After 5 minutes, pour peaches and sauce onto ice cream (or whatever else you see fit.)

Bake well and prosper!