Peach Vanilla Scones

Summer is a bounty of produce, especially fruit. And when you have lots of fruit you make fruit scones!

Notes: I used a muffin tin to make uniform-sized scones. They look a little like muffins for that reason. If you want the traditional triangles, you can pat the dough into a cake pan and then cut it. Or you could just make drop scones. They're all delicious. 

When you're putting the dough into the muffin tin, pat it down so that it's flat. The dough is sticky, so you might need to run your hand under the faucet first. Wet fingers won't stick to the dough as much. 

If you're using Greek yogurt, you can replace the 1/4 cup of extra yogurt with 1/4 cup of milk. Greek yogurt doesn't have as much liquid as regular yogurt and you need that liquid to get the dough to mix well. 

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/2 tablespoons baking powder

1/2 cup sugar

6 tablespoons cold butter

1 1/4 cup vanilla yogurt

1 small peach (will end up to be 1/2 cup small dice)

1 tablespoon vanilla 

Directions:

Heat oven to 350. Spray a muffin tin with cooking spray. Peel and finely dice the peach. It should give you about a 1/2 cup of diced peaches.  

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, and baking soda. 

Cube the cold butter and blend into the flour mixture using a pastry blender or your fingers. The butter should be the size of small peas. 

Add in the peaches and toss them to coat. Add in the yogurt and vanilla. Stir with your hands until the dough just comes together. Pinch off small handful and pat them down into the cups of the muffin tin. 

Bake for 18-20 minutes until they start to turn golden brown. Enjoy!

Peach Muffins

The amount of produce in my fridge is getting a little out of hand. I brought so much home from the store today that it took up the whole counter after I washed it all.

But it's summer time! There are so many fresh fruits and vegetables in season---how can you resist?

Case in point: fresh peaches. I walked by a whole pile of them at the store and the impulse baker took over. Peach muffins for everyone!

Notes: These are delicious. They aren't too sweet, which makes me happy. If you want a little extra sweetness, I would add about 1/2 cup of honey.

Be sure to dice your peaches very small. You want them to cook all the way while they're in the muffins.

This recipe made about 16 muffins for me, so you might want to have two muffin tins ready. If you have to do them in batches, just put the batter in the fridge for a little bit. Make sure to take it out about 10 minutes before you bake it.

Make sure all the ingredients are close to room temperature to make sure they mix well.

Ingredients:
2 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup milk
1 cup plain yogurt or sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla or peach liquor
1 egg
4 tablespoons butter, melted
2-3 fresh peaches

Directions:

Heat the oven to 350. Remove the egg, butter, yogurt, milk from the fridge and set aside. Peel and cut the peaches into a small dice.

Add flour, baking soda, and cinnamon to a bowl and whisk together. Set aside.

In a separate bowl, add melted butter and sugar and whisk until mostly smooth like a very thick molasses. Beat the egg and whisk it in. Add milk, yogurt, and vanilla and whisk everything together.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet in batches and stir just to combine. Gently fold in the the diced peaches.

Spoon the batter into a paper-lined or greased muffin tin and bake for 20-25 minutes until the muffins are a light golden brown.

Enjoy the fruits of summer (in a muffin)!

Peach Crisp

I feel sort of sorry for the other seasons because they cannot compare to summer when it comes to fruit.

All the exciting fruits are ripe in the summer: strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, nectarines, plums, watermelons, peaches -- come on! Poor fall has figs and apples. Winter has the citrus fruits. Spring basically only has cherries. Summer has all the fruit fun. I guess that means we just have to enjoy it while we can.

Notes: This weekend my grocery store had local peaches on sale. I eyeballed them the whole time I was shopping. I finally caved and decided that a peach crisp was in order.

I modified this recipe from Smitten Kitchen. It was so good, Scott had three helpings.

You can assemble the crisp and keep it in the fridge for about 12 hours, so it's a nice make-ahead dessert.

Ingredients:

Topping:
1 cup flour
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
3/4 stick (6 tablespoons) butter, melted and cooled

Filling:
6 fresh peaches (about 2 lbs)
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons raw sugar
1/2 tablespoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon flour
1/2 stick butter, melted and cooled

Directions:

Start with the topping. Add all the dry ingredients to a bowl and whisk together. Add in the melted butter and mix (I find using your clean hands works best) until it has the texture of wet sand. Set it aside.

Peel and slice the peaches. In a glass baking dish (I used an oval one), add the dry ingredients for the filling (sugar, flour, cinnamon) and mix to combine. Add in the peaches, butter, and vanilla and stir everything together so that the peaches are coated. Sprinkle the topping on top of the filling. Put the dish in the fridge and let it chill for about 15-30 minutes.

Heat the oven to 425. Let the crisp come to room temperature before you put it in the oven. Bake it for 30 minutes until bubbly.

Enjoy the fruits (ha!) of summer!