Peach Shortbread
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.