Peach Cinnamon Vanilla Crumb Bars

Before I tell you more about these lovely crumb bars I wanted to let you know about a local Utah gal, Melissa Chappell who has made a real name for herself by teaching people how to eat fresh foods and understand the benefits.  Something I personally am trying to start learning more about.  This book is a great, useful resource for anyone out there who wants to know more about eating fresh.

The great thing is that she even has a book coming out really soon and trust me, you are going to want this book.  I went to a conference last summer and got to try some of her food and it was as fresh and delicious as you could ever hope for.

To help everyone out there to have a chance to get the book Melissa is having a pre-sale until this coming Friday, September 10th.

You can get the book through for only $12.95 (after pre-sale it is still only $15.95 so it is still totally affordable).

You can find out more about the book and Melissa on her blog.  Here is what Melissa had to say about the book:

This is a beautiful little cookbook full of fresh recipes that will please you and your family. It's got a beautiful glossy cover filled with photos and beautiful illustrations as well as several pages of facts about the nourishing foods included in the recipes. The paper is thick with a "raw" texture and the layout is extraordinary. You'll find six sections: light meals, desserts, salads, salsas, sauces and dips and smoothies, all fresh and delicious. My favorites are the famous Thai Nut Sauce, Lime Mousse, Winter Tomato Sauce, Raspberry Basil Smoothie, and the No Bake No Bake Chocolate Cookies and, well, I like all the recipes and I think you will, too.

I'll be at the American Fork Good Earth on September 18th from 11am-4pm to sign copies and give out free vanilla and chocolate covered macaroons! If you purchase a cookbook here (at the discounted presale price), you can pick it up that day or you may pay for shipping and we'll ship it to you. Just be sure to include your name and address.

Here is the link to Melissa's blog where you can buy the book!

Now, on to the Peach Cinnamon Vanilla Crumb Bars.

Peaches were plentiful at the Farmer's Market here this past week and for me that usually means making jam.  I bought enough peaches to make a small batch of jam, but then two out of three kiddos got sick and all my good intentions fell apart.  Jam isn't difficult or hard to make, but it does take some watching. By the time I had a chance to use these peaches I decided to take them in a different direction this time around.  I guess that means I'll just have to try to get some more peaches this week.

I was reminded when my feed email from Smitten Kitchen showed up in my inbox this week with Peach Shortbread that I had recently seen a version of the Blueberry Crumb Bars Deb posted a while back turned into a peach version over at Annie Eats.  I love me some peach cobbler and I really love crumb bars so I really wanted to try them out.  I think all these versions are quite probably completely fabulous, but since I can never leave well enough alone I knew I wanted to fiddle around with these recipes and came up with my own version.

So, to save time, I've added links to all the similar bars down below the recipe.  That way, you can decide what direction you want to go.  I would say that my version is closest to a cross between a couple of the recipes, but you'll just have take a look and decide what appeals to you.

I knew that I really wanted to incorporate two of my favorite flavors to pair with peaches - cinnamon and vanilla.  I also can't resist the warm sweetness of brown sugar.  The other change I wanted to make was to increase the amount of crust to filling ratio.  Now, it may be just me and my actual lack of love for too much baked fruits, but you could easily just increase your peaches a little bit and have a thicker fruit flavor.  The bars themselves ended up being just what I hoped for and all the flavors came through nicely.  It was like having a wonderful slice of peach cobbler or crumb topped peach pie that I could eat on the go - or even for breakfast.

Peach Vanilla Cinnamon Crumb Bars

For the peach vanilla cinnamon filling:

6 cups peeled, chopped fresh peaches (about 7 peaches)

1/2 cup sugar

1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise and seeds scraped out

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

3 tablespoons cornstarch (optional)

For the crust and crumbs:

4 cups all purpose flour

1 cup sugar

1/3 cup packed dark brown sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 1/2 sticks (20 tablespoons or 1 1/4 cups) cold, unsalted butter cut into chunks

1 large egg

Make the peach filling first:  In a large pan, stir together the chopped peaches, sugar, the vanilla bean seeds and the split bean pod, and the cinnamon.  Stir well to combine and bring to a boil over medium heat.  Turn the heat down and allow to simmer about 30 minutes until the juices have mostly thickened.  You can stop at this point with a little juice, or if you like a thicker filling, stir in the cornstarch and simmer for 2 minutes more until the peach filling is thick.  Remove the filling from the heat and allow to cool to about room temperature.

(Note: This peach filling is also wonderful in crepes or on pancakes or waffles.)

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.  Lightly spray a 9x13-inch baking pan and line it with a piece of parchment so that the parchment makes a sling in the pan with the edges hanging up and out the long sides of the pan.  Crease the parchment into the bottom corner of the pan to help keep it in place.  Spray the parchment lightly to make sure everything is well greased.  Set the pan aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer with a paddle attachment stir together the flour, sugar, brown sugar, baking powder, and salt.  On low speed, add the butter chunks and beat until the mixture is very crumbly and the butter is cut in.  You can do all this by hand if you prefer using your fingertips or a pastry blender to run the butter into the flour until the mixture is crumbly with the largest chunks about pea-sized.  Add the egg on low speed (or use a fork) until the mixture is crumbly and combined and when squeezed just holds together.

Press about half of the dough mixture into the bottom of the greased pan evenly and pressing into the corners and edges (do not go up the sides of the pan).

Spread the mostly cooled peach filling evenly over the crust in the pan.  Squeeze the remaining crumbs in the bowl lightly to just make bigger crumbs and chunks and scatter that crust over the peach filling.

Bake the bars for 40 to 45 minutes or until the top is light golden brown.  Remove the pan from the oven and allow to cool completely in the pan.  Use the parchment sling to remove the entire bar from the pan and onto a cutting board.  Use a sharp knife to cut into squares or rectangles (makes about 24 to 30 bars depending on how big or small you cut them).

Serve slightly warm or at room temperature.  Great as a breakfast treat or after school snack or make it a real dessert with a little vanilla ice cream and some caramel topping.

Similar Recipes:

Smitten Kitchen - Blueberry Crumb Bars and Peach Shortbread

Brown Butter Peach Bars - Big Sur Cookbook (originally linked via Smitten Kitchen as well)

Annie Eats - Peach Crumb Bars

TWD: Honey Peach Ice Cream

The recipe for Tuesdays with Dorie this week, chosen by Tommi at Brown Interior is for the Honey Peach Ice Cream. I have had my eye on this ice cream ever since I got the book. I really wanted to wait until local peaches were really in season here in Utah, but since we are to the recipe already, I decided to find the very best options I could. I headed on in to Whole Foods to find out if there were any decent peaches to be had - and I am so glad I did.

I really didn't want this recipe to disappoint me by having to use something else or something that just wasn't good at all. In fact, it was really important to me because my very first memory of homemade ice cream was when I was probably about 10 years old and we were visiting some friends here in Utah (we lived in Wyoming at the time). It is one of my fondest memories because it was a gorgeous, really warm, summer day - the perfect (no wind) kind of weather we never had back home. We played outside all day and had the most awesome time with water fights, trampolines, tag and all that. The day was all topped off with homemade peach ice cream. The funny part is, I couldn't tell you what we had for dinner, but I still remember that ice cream.

So, back to Whole Foods. I asked one of the produce guys if he had tried any of the peaches they had in stock. He mentioned that the only peaches he thought were any good there that day were some organic white peaches. I was going to take his word for it, but before I knew it, he was going through all the peaches, cutting me slices of each of the kinds in stock and letting me have a little testing to make sure which ones I wanted. I can't remember the last time I had that kind of amazing service!

I actually did go with the organic white peaches, as well as a few yellow peach slices that I had in the freezer. The custard for the ice cream was easy to make and was creamy, peachy, smooth and delicious. Definitely a keeper, and I can't wait to make them when the peaches are really in season here.

TWD: Parisian Apple and Peach Tartlets + Homemade Rough Puff Pastry

Tuesdays with Dorie this week is hosted by Jessica of My Baking Heart. Jessica chose the Parisian Apple Tartlet. This dessert couldn't be simpler to make... so leave it to me to try to complicate it!

The recipe only calls for a 4-inch round of puff pastry, half an apple, some brown sugar and some butter. Easy, peasey. On top of that Dorie says you can use apples, peaches, pears, plums or apricots to make these. I decided to make two with apple and two with peach.

I added a little extra brown sugar, just because that's how I roll. The pastry was flaky, tender, buttery and the best I've ever had. The fruit was just so-so for me. Of course, that is in large part due to the fact that I am not a big fan of baked apples. I am a fan of baked peaches, but the only peaches at the store were small and not very ripe. They really didn't stand up to the potential of the tartlets.

These were too fun and easy to just set the recipe aside though. DH really liked the apple tarlets, and I will definitely be trying these again when peach season really rolls around here.

Dorie suggests that if you can find all-butter puff pastry, it is the way to go. The thing is that when I searched for all-butter puff pastry a while ago, the only place that I found it was at Whole Foods. It was, if I remember correctly, around $10 for a very small package. I just couldn't bring myself to pay that when I have seen so many delicious looking recipes for a "rough" homemade version of puff pastry which only called for four ingredients that I ALWAYS have on hand - butter, flour, water and a little sea salt. Add to that the fact that we made the danish dough for Daring Bakers a while back and it seemed that it was a similar technique.

So, I made my own rough puff pastry and now, honestly, I don't know that I'll ever buy puff pastry again. It was a bit of work, but totally worth it and what work there was was actually pretty fun.

After all, I think it was pretty fun to pile equal amounts of flour and tiny cubes of butter in the middle of my counter top, plus a sprinkle of sea salt. Then I got to play with my food by crumbling, rubbing and mixing it all together by hand. Dump in some ice water in and mix some more and knead to make a nice dough ball.

After that it was just a matter of patience while the dough chilled in the fridge before rolling it four more times. Yup, four times. They are called turns. As in roll, then fold like a letter, then turn the dough, roll it again, fold it again and more time to chill. Repeat the rolling and folding two more times, then chill a bit more, and voila! You have rough puff pastry.

Make sure to check out the Tuesdays with Dorie blogroll for more lovely tartlets!

For the rough puff pastry recipe go here (there is video also). It can also be found in Pastry by Michel Roux.

SMS: Bear's Peach Cobbler

Sweet Melissa Sundays this week is brought to us by Andrea of Nummy Kitchen who in fact chose Bear's Peach Cobbler.  Melissa tells a little story of this dessert in the book about this being her little sister's favorite dessert and how she requested it for her birthday the same year she got her teddy bear I believe.  

It just so happens that baked peaches are the only baked fruit I generally like.  Since fresh peach season won't hit here in Utah until the end of the summer, I used some nice bottled peaches I had from Costco.  I am fairly certain I would like this recipe much more with fresh peaches, but the ones at the store here were pretty pathetic when I went looking.  The bonus for using bottled peaches is that it really cuts down on the cooking time.  The downside was that the flavor really wasn't all that great for some reason.  

I really don't think it had anything to do with the recipe though.  My very favorite peach cobbler recipe is almost identical in the filling and is always heavenly.  I did really like the biscuits here for a change though from the more soft drop biscuit dough I usually use.  The only other change I made was to substitute some of the white sugar with dark brown, mainly just because I love it - it made the filling a beautiful dark amber color too.

I think I would like just the biscuits with some strawberry jam or something though until I can get some good peaches.  I've been spoiled buying them and bottling my own for the past few years and it really stinks that I ran out!  I am not going to miss it this year, that is for sure!

Make sure to check out how the other SMS Bakers did this week!

YWPWT-#1: James and the Giant Peach Pie

Well, today is the day. The very first day of posting for the new fun pie event taking the food blog's by storm - You Want Pies With That?

OK, so, maybe not taking it by storm, but it certainly is fun and everything starts small. Don't forget to check out all the other participants movie themed pies today and watch for the next theme to be announced.

I decided to go with the one and only fruit pie I actually love. Peach. This comes about mainly because, though Summer is pretty much over, we had a late harvest here in Utah because of the crazy Spring weather. Which means, you can still get some peaches right now around these parts. I think I am going to end up missing making my usual batch of peach jam this year (just too busy to spend a whole day jamming), but thankfully I've made some batches of cherry, pear and plum to hopefully hold me through Winter.

Anyway, back to the pie. For the first YWPWT? Event the theme was all about pies inspired by your favorite movie. Well, we have been on quite a Roald Dahl kick at our house for the past few months started by Aidan watching James and the Giant Peach for the first time.

I didn't think he would like it because he usually gets creeped out. Well, he did get creeped out, but oh, was I wrong. He LOVED it!! Loved it. Loved the movie, wanted to watch it over and over. Then, after that, started the obsession. I said, "You know, this guy wrote a lot of other books too." So, off to the library we went. We read The Twits and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (which will be soon followed by Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator when we can get our hands on it) and eventually we'll check out one of my personal favorites, The BFG. Now, I realize those are all originally books, not movies, but what brought this pie about was thinking about what started it all. Now, I could have picked a movie I love, but I don't really get to watch grown-up movies anymore, so I went with one of Aidan's favorites.

So, even though I thought about doing something chocolate, since I just did the Chocolate Chess Pie to announce the event, I decided to do something rather unexpected for me and go with fruit. Fresh peaches are best for this pie, but you could make this from bottled peaches as well if you wanted. Cutting the leaves out of pie dough rolled slightly thicker is a really fun way to make a really pretty top crust for a pie and isn't really hard at all. I've even done this just around the edges of a one-crust pie to cover up my total lack of pie-edge-crust-fluting-skills (don't know why I never get it right, but I don't, so there you go - my dirty little secret is out - pie crust as cover-up).

After yesterday's lousy day, I knew I'd better show up here today with something sweet. Speaking of sweet, thank you all for your hugs and support with my lame and crappy attitude yesterday. I've wanted to try to keep things pretty positive here, but sometimes life just has other ideas. I really appreciate you all showing me some love anyway! You all are the very, very best!

Peach Pie with Leaf Crust
(Adapted from Baking: Easy-to-Make Great Home Bakes, Hermes House, Contributing Editor Carole Clements)
2 1/2 pounds ripe peaches, peeled and sliced
juice of 1 lemon
1/2 cup sugar
3 Tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 Tablespoons butter, diced

For the Crust:
2 cups flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
3 Tablespoons cold shortening, cut in pieces
5-6 Tablespoons ice water
1 egg beaten with 1 Tablespoon water, for glazing

For the crust, sift the flour and salt into a bowl. Add the butter and shortening and cut in with a pastry blender until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

With a fork, stir in just enough water to bind the dough. Gather into 2 balls, one a little larger than the other. Wrap in wax paper or plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F with a baking sheet placed on a rack in the center of the oven.

Combine the sliced peaches with the lemon juice, sugar, cornstarch, nutmeg and cinnamon. Set aside.

On a lightly floured surface, roll out the larger dough ball to about 1/8 inch thick. Transfer to a 9-inch pie pan and trim the edge. Place this in the refrigerator to chill while preparing the leaves.

Roll the remaining dough 1/4 inch thick and cut out leaf shapes about 3 inches long. Make 'veins' with the back of a knife by pressing lightly into the dough. Roll a few small balls with remaining dough for a center accent.

Brush the bottom of the pie in the pan with the egg glaze. Add the peaches, making sure to pie them so the peaches are piled higher in the center. Dot the peaches with butter.

Start with the leaf pieces from the outside edge and cover the peaches with a ring of leaves. Place a second ring above, staggering the positions. Continue with rows of leaves until all the peaches are covered. Place the little dough balls in the center and brush with egg glaze.

Bake for 10 minutes. Lower the heat to 350 degrees and continue to bake for 35-50 minutes more, until golden.

TWD: Peach Summer Fruit Galette

I'm blogging from my parents house on a little weekend getaway (ok, so it is technically not the weekend anymore, but there ya go) so this is going to be short and sweet -- just like this week's recipe pick coming to us from Michelle in Colorado Springs the … Summer Fruit Galette.

Now, to be honest, I am somewhat tired of fruit. Nonetheless, I liked the fact that this choice left the fruit option pretty wide open and since I really like making galettes, I was pretty happy with this week's recipe.

I really like Dorie's pie crust recipe since the texture and flavor are fantastic. It is still a bit of a challenge to me though since it is a crust that requires careful handling and treatment. I let mine get a bit too warm while I was preparing the fruit and it allowed some of the butter in the crust to melt, causing the finished product to lose some of its proper texture - but it still tasted great.

I chose to fill my galette with fresh peaches from the Farmer's Market. It was really quite easy and fun to make. I brought it to my parents house to share with the rest of the family since they all love baked peaches even more than I do. Oh, and just so I don't forget to tell you, I did choose to make mine in kind of a rectangle instead of the circle. It left a bit less room for fruit and a bit more room for custard, which ended up being just right for me!

Make sure to check out what the other's in the Tuesdays with Dorie crew were up to this week with their Summer Fruit Galettes and as always, you really should get your copy of Dorie Greenspan's book Baking: From My Home To Yours!

TWD: Mixed Berry Cobbler... Goes Peach

This week's recipe, chosen by Beth of Our Sweet Life was the Mixed Berry Cobbler. As you can see, there are no berries to be found here.

I have been planning on how I was going to make this cobbler all week. I really wanted to get my hands on some blackberries, blueberries and raspberries and try this recipe without fiddling for once, but, alas (yes, I just said "alas" - I'm a dork, what can you do?) I couldn't scrape together extra grocery money at any point to buy all those berries. You see, while berries are in season here for one small pint it is still $4 each so added altogether would be a killer. I didn't want to miss out this week though, and since I really prefer peach cobbler over any other baked or cooked fruit, well - today, you have peach cobbler from me.

Now, peaches aren't actually in season yet, but this is where my bottling excursion last summer comes in. I have been bottling (canning) peaches for the past couple of years and I like to use them in my peach cobbler even when peaches are in season because it just saves some work and I get to bake them for a shorter amount of time.

So, I used Dorie's biscuit top recipe, with the addition of a bit of extra sugar in the dough and some raw sugar on top (when is more sugar ever really bad after all?). I also decided to bake them in the emptied peach bottles because I really, really hate doing the dishes. I used the jar ring lids to cut out the top so they were the perfect size and I just cut a small vent circle out of the center.

I actually have a really, really favorite peach cobbler recipe that I've been stuck on for years now, but I wanted to really give Dorie's cobbler topping a try - especially with all the debate surrounding it amongst the other TWDers. The biggest complaint I was hearing from everyone was that the crust didn't have enough flavor. Well, it is just my opinion here, but it basically is just supposed to be a lightly sweet biscuit - so other than to increase the sugar just a bit (let's face it, when have I made anything "lightly" sweet) I didn't make any changes to the dough.

Now, though we aren't posting Dorie's recipes anymore I usually try to search and see if the week's recipe can be found online already and - even more fun this week - this one is online - but even better it has a recorded interview with Dorie! How cool is that! Anyway, Dorie even mentions that you could make this with peaches in the interview so that made me feel a little better about being berry-less.

My thoughts on the great crust debate? I really liked the crust and thought it was absolutely delicious. If I was making it with a sweet berry filling I'm not sure if I would add more sugar or not (other than the raw sugar on top). The crust baked up very nicely and was a snap to make. The proof? I didn't get around to starting to make my cobbler until about 9 pm tonight and it was all done in just about an hour (start, make, bake, cool a bit and eat).

Don't forget to see how the rest of the TWDers did on this one - it should be interesting with the great debate that was going on this week!

So, here is my peach "filling" recipe, which is adapted from my favorite peach cobbler recipe. If you have fresh peaches, just adapt that recipe a bit to add whatever spice you like.

Peach Cobbler Filling
2 pints bottled peaches, drained and cut into small chunks (approximately equal to 6 peaches)
1/3 cup sugar
2 Tablespoons corn starch
1 to 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon (to taste)
pinch of kosher salt
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Combine all the ingredients in a non-reactive bowl and stir gently. Put into buttered dish and top with the crust. (The mini's baked each at 375 degrees F for about 20 minutes - til golden).

Buy Baking From My Home to Yours

AYE: Go Local! Blackberry Peach Clafoutis

Yes, I know, another clafoutis. It is becoming a bit of a new obsession around our house. What can I say? Is it because it is A) Delicious, B) Easy, C) Versatile, D) All of the Above. Yup, you guessed it. The answer is "D" - all of the above. Seriously, what's not to love. You can put just about anything in it you want, be traditional, or not. I think that next I want to try a savory version, but I promise that in the future, I will group any more clafoutis posts together before this becomes the All Clafoutis, All the Time Blog!

So, the reason I'm posting this one so quickly on the tail end of my previous posts is two-fold. One, is that if you haven't gone and drooled over the incredible round-up of clafoutis on Bron's site right now for the Hay Hay It's Donna Day - #19 Clafoutis Edition, then you need to. You can look through all the amazing entries from many lovely bloggers and even email a vote for your favorite to Bron before May 9th. If, by chance, you aren't familiar with this wonderful event - well, then you should be! This event was created by the so lovely Barbara of winosandfoodies. It was the first food blogging event I participated in and it has been such fun to participate every month.

As I mentioned, Bron Marshall was the host (again) for this last round and now, in case you didn't hear, Bron is adopting the HHDD Event in the future as requested by Barbara. You can read more about that here and here.

The second reason you are getting another one is that because Mrs. W and I hosted the Art You Eat #3 Event this past month with a theme of Go Local! to help celebrate Earth Day. We chose to concentrate on not only sustainability, but the use of local produce and other products. The point was to become more aware of where our food comes from and to try to focus on "local" (within 7 to 8 hours away) products.

For me, that ended up being Tuesday morning's breakfast of a Blackberry Peach Clafoutis. The blackberries are leftovers frozen from last summer's farmers markets and the peaches come from local growers nearby as well. I bottled the peaches last summer when and the eggs and flour both came from a local farm and mill, respectively. The milk and butter also come from a local dairy. I also used dark brown sugar, which of course, is not local, but the point is to use as much local as possible. So, while my ingredients were not "fresh" I wanted to go that route to show that you can preserve items that you use yourself and control what goes into it and have local accessibility more.

For anyone in the Salt Lake City area, just an FYI that the Live Green - Downtown Sustainability Festival is coming up next Saturday (May 10th). It looks like it should be interesting, educational and fun.

So, on to the recipe. Make sure you check out the Art You Eat blog for the round-up of this event and vote for your favorite.

Blackberry Peach Clafoutis
1 cup blackberries (fresh or if using frozen, do not thaw)
1/2 cup canned peaches (or fresh) cut into small bite size pieces
1/3 cup dark brown sugar, packed
2 teaspoons sugar
300 ml whole milk
3 large eggs
pinch of salt
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 Tablespoons butter

Preheat two 6-inch cast iron skillets in a 375 degree F oven on a baking sheet. In the meantime, whisk together the dark brown sugar, milk, eggs, and pinch of salt together in a pourable bowl or pitcher. When they are well combined and the sugar is fairly dissolved whisk in the flour.

Remove the skillets from the oven and melt 1 Tablespoon each of butter in the hot pans. Once the butter has melted, distribute the blackberries and peaches evenly between the two pans. Sprinkle with 1 teaspoon of sugar in each pan over the fruit. Pour equal amounts of batter into each pan over the fruit.

Place the pans on their baking sheet back into the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes, until puffed and golden. Allow to cool for a couple of minutes before serving (can also be served at room temperature).

Enjoy!