As summer draws to a close, so does a popular summer favorite: fresh peaches. Like with summer’s home-grown tomatoes, most of us look forward to the season that gives us fresh, juicy peaches. There’s nothing that can take their place.
You can freeze peaches and make cobblers and pies way into winter, but that doesn’t compare to biting into a sweet peach right off the tree, especially if you’re lucky enough to have one in your backyard.
As a kid, my mom’s side of the family would get together and take a trip across the Mississippi River to pick peaches at farmers’ orchards in Illinois. We’d come back with our car trunks loaded with several bushel baskets full of peaches. We’d eat them out of the basket until we couldn’t look at another one, and then Mom and I got busy cleaning, paring off the skins and cutting them into slices for either canning or freezing so we could enjoy some throughout the rest of the year.
Back then, one of my favorite treats was to get a bowl of frozen sliced peaches, let them thaw out a little and eat them while they were still half frozen and crunchy. On hot days, it was like eating a peach popsicle.
Before summer is over, while you can still get fresh peaches, you may want to try that trick. Also, I recommend trying this recipe for Peach Crumb recipe.
FRESH PEACH CRUMB
Filling:
5 cups fresh, sliced peaches
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
3 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
Topping:
1 cup flour
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 egg, beaten
Toss peaches with brown sugar, flour and cinnamon. Spray an 11-by-7-inch baking dish or pan with non-stick cooking spray. Arrange peach filling in pan.
For topping, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and nutmeg; sift. Add egg and mix with fork until crumbly. Sprinkle mixture over filling. Drizzle melted butter evenly over crumbs. Bake in 375-degree oven about 55 minutes or until peaches are soft and topping is golden brown.
Cut into squares. Serve warm or cool. For an extra treat, add a scoop of ice cream or whipped topping to each serving. Makes 6 servings.
Note: The filling can be made ahead of time and frozen. Thaw about 45 minutes before adding topping and baking.
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