Peach-Oat Muffins

Please pardon the commission of the number one sin of food photography: the flash. I made this later in the evening on Sunday, and I knew they would all disappear the next morning. A few of the other women in my CPE group and I had talked about baking for the group, and since I was on-call Sunday and couldn't go anywhere, I figured I would make some muffins for our Monday morning session. After demolishing all but 4 peaches from our 27 pounds of peaches, I decided to use the last few and make these muffins.

They turned out deliciously. The peach flavor shone through, and I've come to appreciate whole-wheat flour and oats for making muffins taste more like breakfast and less like dessert. The recipe said they would make 20 muffins, but I shoved it into 12 and was left with beautiful muffin tops. I might overfill my muffin pan more often now!

Peach-Oat Muffins
source: Woman with a Whisk

Ingredients

• 1 c. all-purpose flour
• 1 c. whole-wheat flour
• 1 c. old-fashioned rolled oats
• 1/2 Tbsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. nutmeg, freshly grated
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 c. applesauce (the no-sugar added kind)
• 1/4 c. vegetable oil
• 3 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 c. white sugar
• 1 c. brown sugar
• 4 peaches, pitted and chopped
  

Preparation

• Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Line a muffin tin with baking cups. (I sprayed with Pam because I couldn't find my baking cups.)
  
• Combine the flours, oats, spices, baking soda and salt in a bowl.
• In a separate bowl, combine the applesauce, oil, eggs, and sugars.
• Add the wet mixture to the dry mixture and stir to combine. Fold in the peaches.
• Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin pan. Bake for ~25 minutes. Cool in the pan for ~10 minutes, then remove to a wire rack. If freezing the muffins, freeze individually for 30 minutes before storing them in a Ziploc freezer bag.

Farewell to Summer: Peach Pie Redux

It's that time of year again. I've been in school for a week. The days are getting noticeably shorter. All of the BBQs and county fairs are winding down. It's the end of summer. Despite the heat, summer is my favorite season so I always mourn for a little bit as Labor Day approaches. This weekend I decided that instead of mourning, I would bake my farewell to summer: my last peach pie of the season.

Is there a more beautiful sight in this world than a bowl full of ripe peaches? I think not.

Although this was the same recipe I used here, it didn't turn out quite as well texturally. There must have been more moisture in the peaches than last time because when we cut into the pie, it went everywhere.


Oh well. It's still delicious, especially with some Purity 98% fat-free ice cream on top.

Good-bye peaches. Good-bye summer. See you next year!

Peach Pie

Last week I was over at my parents' house when my dad came in with a big basket of peaches. My family has a little bit of an obsession about peaches. We won't touch the ones in the grocery store, but if there is a ripe, juicy locally-grown peach, we are there. When we lived in Texas, it was Freestone County peaches. Last summer I bought a small paper bag full of them for $8. Joe thought I was crazy until he had one. Almost every summer, they make my grandma's recipe for homemade peach ice cream, so when my dad walked in with all of those peaches, it immediately popped into my head to make a peach pie.

I had never made a two-crust pie or even a fruit pie. My only pie experience was with pumpkin pie around the holidays. Despite my lack of experience, the pie turned out phenomenally, though I give most of that credit to the peaches being so ripe and tasty.



Ingredients:
- 1 (15 ounce) package pastry for a 9 inch double crust pie
- 1 egg, beaten
- 5 cups sliced peeled peaches (about 10 medium-large peaches)
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 cup white sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons butter

Instructions:
-Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F (220 degrees C).

-Line the bottom and sides of a 9 inch pie plate with one of the pie crusts. Brush with some of the beaten egg to keep the dough from becoming soggy later.

-Place the sliced peaches in a large bowl, and sprinkle with lemon juice. Mix gently. In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. Pour over the peaches, and mix gently. Pour into the pie crust, and dot with butter. Cover with the other pie crust, and fold the edges under. Flute the edges to seal or press the edges with the tines of a fork dipped in egg. Brush the remaining egg over the top crust. Cut several slits in the top crust to vent steam.

- Bake for 10 minutes in the preheated oven, then reduce the heat to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) and bake for an additional 30 to 35 minutes, until the crust is brown and the juice begins to bubble through the vents. If the edges brown to fast, cover them with strips of aluminum foil about halfway through baking. Cool before serving. This tastes better warm than hot.

Some of the comments on allrecipes said it was too soggy and needed to cook longer. I didn't have this problem. I took it out of the oven at 32 minutes, and it was perfect. I served it microwaved with a side of Purity 98% Fat-Free Vanilla Ice Cream.

recipe from here