Peace, Love and French Fries

I’ve taken a big of hiatus from the What’s Baking challenges – our summer has been so crazy!  I’m so excited to participate this month though – Jade from The Mess Pot chose this month’s theme of Celebrate Summer.  What better way to celebrate summer than baking with amazing summer ingredients.

When most people think of peaches, I’m sure they think of Georgia, South Carolina, etc.  But believe it or not, Colorado is pretty well-known (to locals at least) for our peaches.  They don’t start showing up at the farmer’s markets until around August, and we all look forward to it all summer long.  Something about the warm/hot days and chilly nights makes for super amazing, super sweet peaches.  And one of the first weekends that Palisade peaches showed up at the farmer’s market, I bough 5lbs of peaches.  And they were so ripe and wonderful, they made the whole kitchen smell like fresh peaches. 

So I kept a few pounds of peaches for us to take in our lunches later in the week, but 2 pounds were set aside specifically for peach cobblers.  We had friends coming over for dinner – a dinner all straight from the farmer’s market.  With our grilled jerk chicken, we had Olathe sweet corn, Colorado green beans, and what better way to finish it off than with a Palisade peach cobbler.  It was fresh, sweet, crispy  and crunchy on top.  I’m more of a crispy-topped cobbler fan than the cake-topped cobbler fan, and this was the prefect crispy, strudely-topped cobbler. 

So take advantage of whatever summer produce you have in your area before the summertime is up!

Peach Blueberry Crumbles
courtesy of Ina Garten

2 pounds firm, ripe peaches (6 to 8 peaches)
2 tsp grated lemon zest
2 tbsp fresh squeezed lemon juice
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup flour
1 cup fresh blueberries

for the crumble:
1 cup flour
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup lighly packed brown sugar
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1 stick cold unsalted butter, diced

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray ramekins with cooking spray.

Immerse the peaches in boiling water for 1 minute, until their skins peel off easily.  Place them in cold water.  Peel the peaches and slice them into thick wedges, then place in a large bowl.  Add lemon zest, lemon juice, granulated sugar, and flour.  Toss well.  Gently mix in blueberries.  Allow mixture to sit for 5 minutes.  Spoon mixture into ramekins.

For the topping, combine all ingredients in the bowl of a food processor.  Pulse a few times until butter is the size of peas.  Sprinkle evenly over the fruit mixture.  Place ramekins on a sheet pan lined with parchment paper or a silicone mat.  Bake for 40-45 minutes, until the tops are browned and crisp and the juices are bubbly.  Serve warm or at room temperature. 

Enjoy!!

One year ago: Zucchini Fritters