Since I have spent the past several days peeling and preparing peaches for the freezer, I thought some peach recipes might be in order.
The big job with peaches is not peeling, slicing and freezing them — the big job is picking them — especially since most of them seem to land on the ground while we are sleeping! We lost a lot of peaches with the last freeze when many just dropped off. A good many were left however and I want to keep as many as possible because my family loves peaches!
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These recipes call for fresh peaches, but I imagine canned or frozen peaches could be substituted successfully.
FRESH PEACH CRISP
1 cup flour
½ cup sugar
½ cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
½ tsp. cinnamon
½ cup margarine
4 cups fresh peaches
1/4 tsp. Almond extract
2 Tbs. water
1/4 tsp nutmeg
whipping cream
Combine first five ingredients. Cut in margarine with a pastry blender or fork until mixture resembles coarse corn meal. Set aside. Combine peaches, almond extract and water. Spoon into a greased 9-inch square baking dish. Sprinkle flour mixture over peaches. Sprinkle nutmeg on top. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 15 minutes. Remove cover and bake 35-45 minutes longer. Serve warm with whipped cream or frozen whipped topping. Serves 6-8.
PEACHES EUDORA
1 cup fresh peaches, peeled and sliced
½ Tbs. flour
½ tsp. orange liqueur, vanilla or orange extract
6 Tbs. Sugar
2 Tbs. Butter, melted
1/4 cup flour
dash of salt
1 Tbs. Shortening
1 Tbs. Milk
1 Tbs. Butter, melted
Mix first 5 ingredients and pour into small baking dish. For pastry, stir 1/4 cup flour and salt together. Cut in shortening with fork until thoroughly mixed in pea-sized bits. Add milk. Roll thin; cut in strips and place over filling. Pour 1 Tbs. Melted butter over all. Bake in 350 degree oven 25 minutes or until golden brown. Serves 1-2. Great with ice cream or whipped topping.
And of course, coming on right behind the peaches will be the figs. I always find it difficult to do anything with figs except eat them peeled right off the tree. But I know we can only eat so many that way and then we have to find something to do with the rest of them. It is seldom that I find a recipe that calls for raw figs, but the following recipe does. I do stem and peel them for any recipe I use them in.
FIG PIE
3/2 cups flour
1 cup butter
½ cup ice water
30 figs
½ cup water
1 ½ cups sugar
3 eggs, separated
2 Tbs. Cornstarch
2 Tbs. Sherry
1 cup cream
juice of two lemons
pinch of salt
Make a pie crust: mix flour, salt and butter together; then add ice water and mix lightly. Refrigerate for 24 hours Next day, roll out the dough, line two pie pans and bake in a 400 degree oven until lightly browned.
Cut figs into small pieces, add ½ cup water and 1 ½ cups sugar and cook over a low heat for eight minutes. Set aside.
Combine beaten egg yolks with cornstarch; add sherry, lemon juice and a little water and mix well. Add cream and mix again. Pour on the fig mixture and cook in a double boiler for five minutes. Cool slightly. Beat egg whites until stiff and fold into cooled fig mixture. Pour the mixture into pie shell and brown in hot oven. Top with whipped cream.
And since many of you have a good supply of cucumbers, here's a recipe for bread and butter pickles. I can't vouch for this recipe since I don't do pickles, but it comes from a very good cookbook where recipes have been tested.
BREAD AND
BUTTER PICKLES
Combine and let stand 3 hours:
6 quarts thinly sliced cucumbers
6 onions, thinly sliced
1 cup salt
After standing time is over, drain well in a colander
In a large pot combine:
1 ½ quarts vinegar
6 cups sugar
½ cup mustard seed
1 Tbs. Celery seed
½ tsp. Cayenne pepper
Bring to a boil. Add cucumbers and onions. Heat to simmering. Do not boil. Pack while hot. When ready to serve, they are best if chilled first. These are very crisp pickles. Makes 8-9 pints.
Hope you enjoy the recipes. All of them came from the "Best of the Best from Louisiana" cookbook, which was given to me as a birthday gift this year.
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