Over Labor Day weekend I participated in Apex Orchards’ annual Peach Fest. The weather was spectacular, and it seemed to me that there were more people than usual at this always popular event.
Peach lovers of all ages came to celebrate a magical time of year and a magical fruit. I have friends from Georgia who speak with pride of the spectacular harvest in the Peach State.
Georgians’ season may be earlier and longer than ours, but I can’t imagine that their peaches taste any better than ours here in western Massachusetts. I think the current crop is particularly flavorful and juicy … perhaps because of the extended sunny weather this summer.
Peach Fest activities at Apex included music, face painting, eating peach-related treats (including peach-flavored cotton candy), looking at crafters’ wares, and much more.
My own tasks that day were easy and fun. First, I spent a couple of hours preparing and serving simple dishes with peaches to give people ideas for how to use them. The easiest was just tossing peaches into a salad.
I add peaches to salad (and whatever else I can think of!) as much as possible at this time of year. It’s particularly snappy now that freestone peaches have ripened; the fruit slices right off the pits.
In the early afternoon, I left my cooking post to join orchardist Tim Smith and his neighbor Jim Graves in judging a peach-recipe contest. I loved sampling the variety of dishes people created with peaches, from salsa to a bread-like loaf.
The creator of the salsa was Tara Lenahan, the assistant manager of the Farm Store. Tara is a talented artist, a charming salesperson and an excellent cook if her salsa is representative of her culinary work.
She was ineligible to win first prize because she worked at Apex, but we all enjoyed her salsa … and she gave lucky me the rest of the jar to take home.
The coveted blue ribbon went to Susan Grader of Buckland. Her Peach Peek-a-Boo Bars started with a buttery shortbread crust. On top of this she layered a simple peach filling. After the crust and peaches baked and (importantly!) cooled, she drizzled a simple confectioner’s sugar glaze on top.
The combination was a pleasure to look at; true to the bars’ name, the peaches did sort of peek through the glaze. The bars were also delightful to eat, not too sweet and just peachy enough.
I asked Susan about her love of peaches and her history as a baker. She called peaches her “absolutely favorite fruit always.” She noted that she is in the middle of making peach jam and getting ready to can some peaches. She loves having fresh peach flavor in her kitchen year round.
She also enjoys combining peaches with other fruits. She was planning a peach-cherry cobbler when we spoke.
Susan started baking as a child with her mother, whom she called “a wonderful baker.” At one point in her life she baked a lot of wedding cakes professionally. “Then I had a B and B so I always had fresh baked goods,” she explained.
She clipped the inspiration for her Peek-a-Boo Bars out of a newspaper several months ago. She hadn’t made it before she tried it for the contest, but she is an experienced enough baker so she can envision the final product just from reading the recipe.
The night before the contest, she wasn’t sure she wanted to enter. “I just kind of pushed myself,” she recalled. When her bars won first prize, she was happy she had done so.
Susan Grader and I both agreed that one could try this recipe with other fruits as well as peaches. I’m thinking of making it with apples next month. They won’t have the lovely hue of the peaches, but I’m sure they’ll taste of home and hearth … just like fall.
Peach Peek-a-Boo Bars
Ingredients:
for the crust:
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3 cups flour
1 cup (2 sticks) cold butter, cut into small pieces
1 egg
for the peach layer:
5 large peaches, peeled and diced
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
for the icing:
1 cup powdered sugar
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
1 tablespoon milk (more or less)
Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. In a bowl, combine the dry ingredients. Cut in the butter, and then stir in the egg.
Press half of this crust into the bottom of a 9-by-13-inch baking dish.
In a bowl combine the peaches and the lemon juice. Stir in the sugar, the cornstarch, and the cinnamon. Spread this mixture over the crust. Crumble the remaining crust over the peach layer.
Bake the bars for 45 minutes. Cool them in the pan on a rack. When they are cool, combine the ingredients for the icing, and drizzle it over the top of the peach mixture. Allow the icing to set; then cut squares. Makes about 24 bars, depending on how big you slice them.
Tinky Weisblat is an award-winning cookbook author and singer known as the Diva of Deliciousness. Visit her website, TinkyCooks.com.
