Baked Apples

Baked apples are an old timey dessert that you don't often see anymore, a shame too, as they are very tasty and easy to make.   When I was a child, every so often mom would make them for my dad.  They were always well received.  I tend to make mine on the simpler side of things, as some use chopped nuts, raisins and other things in the filling.     They are good served as they are, topped with ice cream or even some plain unsweetened heavy cream over the top.    No matter how you eat them, they are good!

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.   Wash, halve and core apples, about one apple per person and place in a shallow baking dish that will just fit the number of apple halves.   Sprinkle the apples with a good quality cinnamon, then put about a tablespoon of brown sugar on top of each half, then top each one with about a teaspoon of butter.   Put a little water in the bottom of the pan and put it in the oven.   Bake about 45 minutes or until the apples are very tender.    Allow the apples cool slightly before serving and serve warm.    Top each serving with some ice cream or plain heavy cream.      And as always, enjoy!   

Instead of apples, you can also use halved and cored ripe pears or halved pitted peaches or apricots.   The peaches and apricots may not take as long to cook, so start checking for tenderness after 30 minutes for those.  

Browned Butter Peach Bars

 I love peaches and grew up eating lots of peaches.  We lived not too far from Campbell, MO, which grows some the absolute best peaches you ever tasted.   During peach season we would make the trek over there and buy 3-4 bushels of over ripes.   I think the variety was Elbertas.   They were big, dead ripe, juicy freestones.   They would be canned (my dad loved home canned peaches), frozen and Grandma Casey still dried some.   And there would be lots of home made peach cobblers too.    So we all grew up eating and loving peaches in any form.   We all still do.   In the past couple of years I have rekindled a love affair with dried peaches.  I love to simmer until tender, using water and a couple tbsp. of cider vinegar.   Then mash with a potato masher, as some cinnamon, not too much, just enough for a bit of fragrance, some brown sugar and some white sugar, tasting so they aren't too sweet.   Then allow to simmer uncovered until thickened.   It is a good substitute for peach butter on toast, used as a pie or cobbler filling or in this case, used in peach bars. 

I have a liking for peach bars, but too many of them are most just sweet than having any real peach flavor.  The shortbread also tends to be a bit bland and boring.   I decided I wanted some thing that was neither bland nor boring.   Also having a good peach flavor.   I decided to try using my cooked dried peaches for the filling and they were perfect, peachy, but not too sweet.   For the shortbread, I decided to kick things up a bit using browned butter, a bit of almond extract and some almond flour.  It was a hit!   If you don't have almond flour or choose not to use it, just use an extra cup of all purpose flour.  

Crust:
2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup almond flour
1/2 cup softened butter
1/2 cup browned butter, cooled
1 cup white sugar
1 egg
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract

Crumb topping:
1/2 cup browned buttter
3/4 cup flour
1/2 cup almond flour (or another 1/2 cup of all purpose)
1 1/2 cup sugar

 2 cups of cooked dried peaches as above, or a can of peach pie filling or a jar of peach jam

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and grease a 9x13 inch cake pan.    Make the crust by mixing all of the crust ingredients until well blended and no lumps.  Press evenly over the bottom of the cake pan and about half way up the sides.   Spread the peaches evenly over the crust.   Mix together all the crumb topping ingredients until they are crumbly.   Sprinkle the crumbs evenly over the top of the peaches, then bake at 350 degrees about 40 minutes, until the bottom and the crumb topping are both golden brown.    Cook completely before cutting into serving sized pieces.    

No reason you can't use other types of fruits for the topping.   They just need to be cooked and not too runny or two sweet.    You could also add some chopped nuts to the  crumb topping as well. 

Grandma Casey's Dried Peach Pie Filling

My Grandma Casey was an old timey Ozark farm wife.   She had little formal education, but she knew about making do with next to nothing.   She also knew her way around the kitchen.   Like most poor farm women of her era, she knew all about preserving foods.    She still dried apples apples in my time, but most of her foods were either canned in jars or frozen.   I loved her fruit butters and canned peaches.   We still enjoyed a lot of old time stuff, but she also had no trouble adapting to new ways of preserving them.    She no longer dried peaches, that I remember, but we all loved the old time fried dried peach pies.    Instead of cooking dried peaches, she would prepare this from fresh peaches and either can or freeze it for fried pies.   Good stuff, too.  She added no spices to it, so if you want to add cinnamon or a pinch of cloves, go right ahead. 

1 gallon sliced over ripe peaches with peel
1 cup cider vinegar
4 cups sugar

Mix together and allow to sit overnight.    Then simmer until cooked down very thick.   Either use at once or freeze or can.     Good stuff!

If you want spices, I would say 2 tsp high quality cinnamon,  if you like cloves, add about 1/4 tsp or less.   Cloves can easily overpower foods if you aren't careful. 

Peach Ice Cream

I recently purchased a new ice cream maker, this one.   I had one like it in the past and loved it, but wore it out.   So I purchased this new model.   It works wonderfully!   I used it to make an awesome peach ice cream today.   I had some very ripe, fragrant peaches that I peeled and crushed with a potato masher, added a cup of sugar and the strained juice of one lemon, making about 1 1/2 cups.   I stirred it well and put in the fridge to chill.   When I was ready to freeze the ice cream, I added 1 1/2 cups of heavy whipping cream and mixed it together.   I then poured into the freezer and froze it until it was done, about 20 minutes.   I then put it in a covered container and put in the freezer to firm up for a couple of hours.

To make other flavors, crush your fruit with sugar in the same proportions.   If you are using blackberries or raspberries, I would suggest straining out the seeds.   Blueberries should be simmered with sugar and lemon juice for a few minutes, then chilled.   Strawberries, just need to be crushed with sugar and lemon juice.   Keep the same proportions of cream:    1 part fruit and 1 part heavy cream.