Well, peaches sans cream, really. I'm on my second week being gluten and dairy free, and while it's really not so bad, I do miss a few things. For example, I could sure go for some peach cobbler topped with a fat scoop of vanilla ice cream. It's peach season, after all. A couple weeks back Scott Bobleo and I took Charlie on his first road trip, venturing out to Fredericksburg, Texas in search of peaches.
Peach season in Texas is pretty spectacular. Imagine bushels upon bushels of of extra sweet and tart peaches, bursting with juice, and tasting like you probably imagined peaches should taste as a child. They are really that good, and one of the many reasons I may never move out of this state.
I'm a sucker for bargain bins, so when we spotted a 1/4 bushel box of slightly malformed peaches for $16.00 I lost my senses and snatched the thing up. Never mind that I barely have time to shower lately. Now I had to find time to peel and cook 1/4 bushel of quickly ripening peaches. I do love a good challenge.
With Scott's help we managed to peel and pit the entire box over the course of one day, then whipped up three different peachy projects over the following week, making use of every last morsel of delicious peachiness.
First of all, there was Peach Sorbetto. I used a recipe from the Ciao Bello cookbook, which was more or less the same as their recipe for Raspberry Sorbetto – only with peaches in place of raspberries. This came out really well. It's so light and fluffy that it could almost be mistaken for sherbet, and the flavor is bold and fresh. Thumbs up to this simple, tasty recipe.
Then came Peach Butter. I'm a little perterbed at not having any lovely biscuits to slather it over, but I'll think of something. Perhaps it should meet something savory? If you have any non-carby ways to use Peach Butter do tell. I'd love to hear some ideas. I used this recipe from Smitten Kitchen, with a couple alterations. I cut her recipe in half and added a couple teaspoons of cinnamon. It's smooth, spicy, and pleasantly sweet.
We also used this opportunity to try something totally new. We've never made fruit leather, and since Scott had been borrowing a friend's dehydrator (my man does love a good gadget) now seemed like a good time to give it a go. I pureed the fruit with just a little honey (as suggested in this recipe from Two Peas and Their Pod) and Scott dehyrdated it on parchment into thin, chewy sheets. We also made a batch of lime mango fruit leather while we were at it. I'm happy to report that both batches came out beautifully. I had fun photographing this stuff.
Can you tell?