Are you tired of peaches yet? I think I have told you that peaches have been on sales and I have more peaches in the house than I know what to do with, so I have ended up making a bunch of peach recipes. Hopefully you like peaches or you are probably tired of reading about them.
This time I found a great peach recipe from Smitten Kitchen and actually did it exactly by the direction which is pretty unusual for me. I really liked it, and I would make this again. But I do like to experiment and next time I would probably make a thicker base, maybe add some flour and also more cinnamon.
I did brown the butter for the recipe and think that is a key to the recipe. Still, you can make it with straight-up non-browned butter if you are pressed for time. Simply cut softened butter into the flour (instead of frozen brown butter) and increase the flour by two tablespoons, bringing it to three cups.
Peach Shortbread
Yield: 20 squares
Prep Time: 45 minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes
Ingredients:
Makes a 9×13 inch pan or you can hlve this and bake it in a 8 x 8 pan instead.
1 cup white sugar
1 tsp baking powder
2 3/4 cups plus 2 tbsp cups all-purpose flour (or you can measure 3 cups and remove 2 tbsp flour)
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup (2 sticks) cold unsalted butter
1 large egg
2 peaches, pitted and thinly sliced (between 1/8 and 1/4-inch thick)
Directions:
Brown your butter by melting butter in a small saucepan over medium-low heat. It will melt, then foam, then turn clear golden and finally start to turn brown and smell nutty. Stir frequently, scraping up any bits from the bottom as you do. Keep your eyes on it; it burns very quickly after it browns. Set it in the freezer until solid (about 30 minutes).
Preheat the oven to 375°F. Butter a 9×13 inch pan, or spray it with a nonstick spray. In a medium bowl, stir together sugar, baking powder, flour, salt and spices with a whisk. Use a pastry blender, fork or your fingertips, blend the solidified brown butter and egg into the flour mixture. It will be crumbly. Pat 3/4 of the crumbs into the bottom of the prepared pan, pressing firmly. Tile peach slices over crumb base in a single layer. Scatter remaining crumbs evenly over peaches and bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes, until top is slightly brown and you can see a little color around the edges. Cool completely in pan before cutting into squares.
pierre says
September 13, 2010 at 12:44 pmif you love peaches I am sure you will love my dessert I have posted on my blog ! Your shortbread looks scrumptious !!Pierre
Delishhh replied: — September 15th, 2010 @ 8:26 pm
Pierre – Your recipes looks fabulous. I have another dilemma now. I need to figure out what to do with a bunch of pineapple. Any idea? Maybe i can do your peach recipe with pineapple?
Cathy says
September 13, 2010 at 1:35 pmFresh peaches are the best — the shortbread looks delicious!
cote provence says
September 13, 2010 at 7:12 pmlooks DELICIOUS! I wish I had some right now!
xo
Delishhh replied: — September 15th, 2010 @ 8:28 pm
Ohh this recipe was so easy to make. Do you have an ice cream maker? If so it was easy. And i am sure you can use what ever fruit you have around. Thanks for coming by 🙂
Carrie says
September 14, 2010 at 2:36 pmI ended up making this too! Love Smitten Kitchen. 🙂
Delishhh replied: — September 15th, 2010 @ 8:29 pm
Carrie – so how was it? Did your’s end up like Deb’s?
Piper says
September 15, 2010 at 7:27 amOh you’re killing me with all these peach recipes!! I need to stop visiting before lunch 🙂 This looks so yummy (i love homemade shortbread…mmm)
Delishhh replied: — September 15th, 2010 @ 8:37 pm
Piper – Come by any time 🙂 Now i have to figure out what to do with Pineapple. Any ideas?
Lorraine @ Not Quite Nigella says
September 15, 2010 at 11:01 pmWhat an unusual recipe! That sounds very interesting putting fruit in the shortbread! 🙂
Delishhh replied: — September 20th, 2010 @ 6:57 pm
Lorraine – That is what i thought too but it is realy good. I am going to try this shortbread with other fruits. Thanks for stopping by!
Carrie says
September 16, 2010 at 10:50 amSort of? I think I sliced my peaches too thin. The bread part was fantastic though, it definitely turned out to be more shortbread than peach shortbread.