By Joy Donovan
There are certain things we must wait all year to enjoy, like the fireworks on the Fourth of July, pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving and Santa Claus’ grand entrance to close out the Macy’s Day parade. But around this time of year in North Texas, there’s another seasonal star worth adding to the list — Parker County peaches.
Lucky for locals, that sweet anticipation doesn’t end after one perfect bite. Every July, the Parker County Peach Festival transforms the courthouse on the Weatherford square into a peach lover’s paradise, overflowing with cobbler, pie and ice cream.
Interested peach patrons needn’t worry that the fruity festival has already slipped by, as this juicy flavor party continues throughout August and beyond, so there are still plenty of ways to savor the season this summer. Consider this your inspiration to get in the seasonal spirit with the following delicious ideas we’ve collected for enjoying the hottest fruit of the summer.
So for those of you heading into August with culinary gusto, below are some recipes we believe to be, ahem, peachy. Shared in their own peach-powered prose is each cook’s preferred perspective for preparing the prized fruit that’s sure to please even the most fastidious reader, right down to the pit of their stomach.
Sounds sweet, right? Let’s begin.
Perfect Peach Preparedness
Growing up in Graham, TX, Susan Todd picked peaches from trees in her family’s yard, gaining culinary mastery of the summer fruit after countless experiences.
“They’re best when picked right off the tree and eaten,” she says. “But a close second is having them in a cobbler.”
She’s famous for hers — at least among her husband, two children and four grandchildren, that is. Thanks to a grandmother teaching her the art of homemade crust, Todd has never needed to rely on store-bought. Her go-to recipe is part of a greater family tradition, adjusted slightly from a version that once won a Parker County contest. She’s tweaked it since, adding a splash of cream and a smidge of almond extract.
“Just a touch, or it can overpower, but a little will enhance the peach flavor,” she says with the scientific confidence from years as a registered nurse. Her panel of experts enthusiastically agree.
“My family says it’s better,” she laughs.
Todd lives in Parker County with these experts, including her husband, Joe, a retired orthopedic surgeon after 35 years in Fort Worth. As a past president of the Tarrant County Medical Society Alliance, the Texas Medical Association Alliance, and the American Medical Association Alliance, she surely considers peaches a healthy choice — and she’s convinced they’re universally popular.
“They’re a pretty good fruit,” she says. “I don’t know many people who don’t like peaches.”
Evidently Todd’s fan club extends outside her immediate family, as each summer, her peach preparedness plan requires her to freeze 10 bags of the fruit, at a quart each, to ensure that, at any time, a peach cobbler can appear — even on Christmas — should her adoring public deem it necessary.
“They’re peeled, sliced, sugared and ready to plop straight into a pan,” she says. “I’m kind of type A about my peach cobblers.”
Alas, this year, in an alarming turn, Todd ran out of her private stash before this season of Parker County peaches restocked. Now she’s pondering her next strategic move, chiefly whether she’s freezing more this year.
Texas Peach Cobbler
Recipe by Susan Todd
Ingredients
- 4 cups peeled and sliced fresh Texas peaches
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- ¾ cup brown sugar
- ½ cup butter
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon almond extract
- ½ cup heavy cream
- Pastry dough for a two-crust pie
Preparation
Preheat the oven to 350° F. Combine the peaches with the sugars, butter and cinnamon in a saucepan over medium-low heat. When the mixture is heated through and begins bubbling, turn off the burner and add extracts and cream. Pour ½ of the hot peach mixture into a 9 x 13 inch baking pan. Roll out pastry and cut large strips of the pastry (about ⅓) to layer over the peaches. Pour the remaining peaches over the pastry strips. Cut remaining pastry into strips and weave on top of the peaches in a lattice crust top. Sprinkle pastry lightly with a dusting of cinnamon and granulated sugar. Bake for around 40 minutes or until bubbling, and the crust is lightly browned. Serve with ice cream if desired.
Illustration from cosmicanna/Shutterstock.com
Can it Be Love?
The family that cans together stays together — and they’ve got the peach-packed pantry to prove it. At Fort Worth’s Stone’s Throw Farm Co., growing gorgeous produce, canning some of it and sealing it up for the seasons ahead has become a family tradition and business.
Trish and Jack Stone built Stone’s Throw with a purpose bigger than the farm’s watermelons. As parents of three boys — Nate, Jackson and Cru — they wanted to create a place where Jackson, who has autism, and Cru, who lives with cystic fibrosis and Type 1 diabetes, could always earn a living. The family’s mission has grown into a promise to support an often underserved part of the community by offering work opportunities for individuals with special needs. And while they do that good work, the rest of us get to enjoy the literal fruits of their labor. In addition to growing tomatoes, okra, cucumbers, peppers, potatoes and so much more, the Stone family also tucks peaches into jars. The 8-ounce jars preserve the summer fruit, ready to use any time.
“They’re our customers’ favorites,” Trish says.
She’s come up with lots of ideas for using the jars of peaches, from dropping a peachy plop across the top of a cream cheese block to swathing a generous amount on a pork tenderloin.
The peach jam, sold at the farm, located at 9560 Crowley Plover Rd., and Fred’s Texas Café in Fort
Worth, comes in both a regular and a hot version. Both are popular with customers.
“People ask me all the time, what’s in it,” Trish says of the popular peach product. “It’s peaches, lemon juice, sugar and a lot of love.”
And people are going to love this recipe for chicken wings using their proprietary peach preserves.
Peach Chicken Wings, Hot or Not!
Recipe by Trish Stone
Ingredients
Wings
- 2 lbs chicken wings
- 2 teaspoons of your favorite chicken seasoning, or just salt and pepper
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- Salt
- Olive oil
- Parchment paper
Sauce
- 1 cup Stone’s Throw Peach Jam or Hot Peach Jam
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- ¼ cup honey
- ¼ cup chicken broth
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
- 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes, optional
- ¼ cup BBQ sauce
- Salt to taste
- Olive oil
Preparation
Wings
Preheat oven to 400° F. Rinse wings and pat dry. Add seasonings and olive oil. Mix until wings are coated with oil and seasoning. Place wings on parchment-paper-lined cookie sheet, not touching each other. Bake for 30 minutes until they look pretty crispy.
Sauce
In a saucepan over medium-high heat, melt butter. Add garlic, cook for 1-2 minutes. Add honey, peach jam, chicken broth, salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, vinegar, BBQ sauce, salt, whisk until smooth. Bring to a boil and stir for 4 minutes until you reach desired thickness.
Put it all together
Remove wings from the oven and place into a large bowl. Pour in the sauce and toss to coat.
Illustration from Rawpixel.com/Shutterstock.com
Blue Ribbon Peaches
The handfuls of blue ribbons from Lynda Sanders’ wins at the State Fair of Texas are crammed into drawers at her Trophy Club home. This creative cook and busy community volunteer has won the prestigious “best in show” more times than she remembers because she does love tweaking a good recipe into a great recipe.
She cooks a lot, using an assortment of ingredients, but peaches are in a special category.
“There is nothing like a good peach,” she says. “They are the juiciest, most fragrant fruit. They are heavenly.”
Chasing down perfect peaches is a pursuit, almost a sport, for her. Whether they’re coming out of Parker County, Fredericksburg, the traveling peach truck, or her own freezer stash, she’s on the hunt. Her frequent partner in peach-seeking is her husband, Nick Sanders, formerly the longtime mayor of Trophy Club. The two are devoted foodies who turn their shared passion into friendly combat every fall, competing head-to-head in the culinary section of the State Fair of Texas.
“Everyone loves a Georgia peach, but we don’t need to go that far,” she says. “Texas has the bragging rights hands down between Parker County and Fredericksburg.”
For good measure, she even buys peach room spray to scent her home. But that won’t match the taste and smell of the recipes she shared for peach cake and hand pies.
Old-Fashioned Peach Cake with Peach Cream Cheese Frosting
Recipe by Lynda Sanders
Ingredients
Peach Cake
- 3½ cups sifted cake flour
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 3¾ teaspoons baking powder
- ¾ cup salted butter, softened
- 2¼ cups granulated sugar
- 3 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon pure almond extract
- 1 cup peaches, washed, pitted and pureed
Peach Cream Cheese Frosting
- 2 8-oz packages cream cheese, softened
- 2 sticks salted butter, softened
- 2 pounds powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 3 peaches, peeled and sliced
- 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
- Fresh peach slices to garnish, if desired.
Preparation
Peach Cake
To make the cake, preheat oven to 350° F. Prepare two 8-inch round cake pans by spraying with non-stick cooking spray, lining the bottom with parchment and dusting the sides lightly with flour. Set aside. Sift together the flour, salt, and baking powder. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat together the butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla and almond extract for 3 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Add the sifted flour to this creamed mixture a cup at a time, alternating with the peach puree. Beat at medium speed for two minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl halfway through. Divide the cake batter equally among the 2 prepared cake pans and spread it evenly. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until cake tests done. When baked, remove from oven and turn out on wire racks to cool. Once cool, the cakes can be wrapped and refrigerated overnight if needed.
Peach Cream Cheese Frosting
For the frosting, start by preparing the peaches. Wash and pit the peaches (leaving the skins if desired to add color and flavor). Add the peaches and 2 tablespoons of granulated sugar to a blender and process until smooth. You should have about 2 cups of peach puree. Pour this puree into a saucepan and, over medium-high heat, cook, stirring constantly, until it has reduced down to a thick paste or ½ cup in finished volume. Let cool completely. Add the softened cream cheese and butter to the bowl of an electric mixer and beat with a paddle to combine. Add the powdered sugar a bit at a time, scraping down the sides as needed. Once all of the powdered sugar has been incorporated, add the vanilla and cooled peach paste and continue to beat on high for another minute until the frosting is fluffy. Assemble the cake one layer at a time, adding about a cup of frosting between the layers and pressing the next layer lightly on top. Ice the assembled layers with a thin coating of frosting and refrigerate for one hour to set before spreading the remaining frosting evenly over the top and sides. Chill for one hour to set the frosting, garnish with fresh peaches if desired and serve.
There’s something special about a cake that’s entirely made from scratch. Perhaps it’s knowing the work that goes into it or the memories of summer that come flooding back with each bite.
This recipe works best with the ripest, juiciest peaches — added to both the cake and the icing for the perfect flavor of summertime in the South. I like to use Texas peaches from either Fredericksburg or Parker County Peaches. Those fresh peaches are the most flavorful. The trick to making the frosting is to cook down the peaches — reducing the water and concentrating the flavor without making the frosting too soft to hold up. Take a bite, shut your eyes and remember the days of yester-year and savor both the flavors AND the memories.
Illustration from vetryanaya_o/Shutterstock.com
Baked Fresh Peach Hand Pies
Recipe by Lynda Sanders
Ingredients
Filling
- 3 small peaches (about 12 ounces)
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- ¼ cup light brown sugar
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest plus 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
- ½ vanilla bean, split lengthwise and seeds scraped, pod reserved for another use
Dough
- 2½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 sticks cold unsalted butter, cubed
- ½ cup ice water
- 1 large egg, lightly beaten
- Turbinado sugar, for sprinkling
Preparation
Peach filling
Bring a medium-to-large saucepan of water to a boil. Fill a bowl with ice water and set aside. Using a sharp paring knife, mark an “X” on the bottom of each peach. Add the peaches to the saucepan with boiling water and blanch until the skins start to peel away (1 to 2 minutes). Transfer to the ice bath and let cool completely. Peel, halve and pit the peaches and cut into ¼-inch pieces; you should have about 2 cups. In the same saucepan, combine the peaches with all the remaining ingredients and bring to a boil. Cook over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until thickened and syrupy, about 12 minutes. Scrape the filling into a small bowl; let cool to room temperature. Cover and refrigerate until cold, 2 hours. While the peaches are cooling, make the dough.
Dough
In a large bowl, whisk the flour with the salt. Scatter the butter over the flour and, using your fingers, pinch it in until the mixture resembles very coarse crumbs, with some pieces the size of small peas. Stir in the ice water just until a dough forms. Turn out onto a lightly floured work surface and knead gently to form a ball. Pat into a 1-inch-thick round, wrap in plastic and refrigerate for 1 hour. Preheat the oven to 450° and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Cut the dough in half. On a lightly floured work surface, using a lightly floured rolling pin, roll out 1 piece of dough 1/8 inch thick. Using a 4-inch biscuit cutter, stamp out 6 rounds and transfer to the prepared baking sheet. Top with a layer of parchment paper. Gather the scraps and form into a ball; roll out again and stamp out 2 more rounds. Transfer to the baking sheet. Repeat with the second piece of dough. Refrigerate for 30 minutes. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Working with 1 dough round at a time, brush the rim with the beaten egg. Spoon 2 teaspoons of the filling into the center and fold the round in half to enclose. Press the edge firmly to seal and transfer to a prepared baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining dough and filling, arranging the hand pies 2 inches apart on the sheets. Brush the tops with the remaining beaten egg and sprinkle with turbinado sugar. To prevent a possible explosion, vent both hand pies by cutting 2 slits on top with a paring knife. Bake until puffed and golden brown, around 18 minutes, shifting the pans from top to bottom and back to front halfway through baking. Transfer the hand pies to a rack and let cool slightly.
If you prefer a sweeter topping for your pies, make a glaze and spread over the top of the pies after they have been baked and cooled. Do brush with beaten egg before baking but omit the turbinado sugar.
Illustration from Marharyta Kovalenko/Shutterstock.com