Peach Muffins with a Brown Sugar Pecan Streusel Topping

Peaches...round 2! I had made a peach summer cake the other day and had about a cup or so of leftover peaches.  I immediately started looking around for a recipe for peach muffins.  I stumbled on a few, one from Emeril.  I didn't have all the ingredients and not wanting to make a trip to the grocery store I decided to keep looking.  After a few minutes I stumbled on a site, Ezra Pound Cake, and her recipe of Sweet Peach Muffins with Brown Sugar Walnut Streusel Topping.  I had pecans and figured this would make an perfect substitution. This recipe made a great muffin.  I was visiting my parents in New York, and I love my mother to pieces but a well-stocked kitchen she has not. She had a 6-cup muffin pan (I was thankful to find that!) Love you mother. I filled up those six, put the rest in a loaf pan and called it done. Both were great. Baking is my passion, my love, my refuge. I believe it should be fun- not stressful. Having a 6 cup muffin pan? No worries...improvise..and keep going. Let's just say these were delicious (muffin and bread form) and did not last long!

Adapted from Ezra Pound Cake (whom she adapted from Sarah Foster's The Foster's Market Cookbook)
Makes large 12 muffins (or 6 muffins, and a 9-inch quick peach bread)
Brown Sugar-Pecan Streusel Topping:

• 1 1/2 cups coarsely chopped pecans (or walnuts)
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

Muffin Batter:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice (I didn't have it..and just put in a little extra cinnamon)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 large eggs
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
• 1 1/2 cups sour cream
• 1 tablespoon dark rum or pure vanilla extract (I used vanilla)
• 1 1/2 cups peeled, pitted, chopped peaches

1. For the Topping: In a small bowl, combine the pecans (walnuts, what have you), flour, brown sugar and cinnamon. Stir in the butter, and mix until well blended.
2. For the Muffins: Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Line 12 large muffin cups with paper liners, and spray the top of the pan lightly with nonstick spray.
3. In a medium bowl, sift together the dry ingredients, from flour to salt, and set aside.
4. In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs, butter, sour cream and rum or vanilla. Fold in the peaches.
5. Add the egg mixture to the dry mixture. Stir until just moist and blended. Do not overmix.
6. Scoop the batter into the prepared muffin pan with a large ice cream scoop (1/3-cup scoop). The batter should come to the top of the paper liner or pan. Sprinkle with the Brown Sugar-Walnut Streusel Topping, and lightly press the topping into the muffin batter.
7. Bake 30 to 35 minutes, until the tops of the muffins spring back when lightly pressed and a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes clean. Remove from the oven, and cool for 5 minutes. Turn the muffins out of the pan, and serve immediately.

Peach Summer Cake

Peaches were on sale this week, so I had to make something with them.  I also was home visiting my family, and peaches just happen to my dad's favorite so it seemed only fitting to do a peach dessert for Memorial Day.

I saw recently posted on the Smitten Kitchen blog (can you tell I'm a huge fan of this blog site?) a strawberry summer cake.  I originally had that recipe in mind when I went to the store, but when I saw all the beautiful juicy ripe peaches on sale I decided they would work just fine.  I have to admit I have in the last year or so I'm getting much better at detouring from original recipes by adapting here and there. Now I know swapping out one fruit for another is pretty low on the kitchen adventure scale, but a person who never diverted even a little bit when it came to a new recipe this is pretty big. 

Ok I have to admit though I think my swap of fruit may have lead for it to be a bit laden with all the extra juice that peaches provide (oh well).  I blanched the peaches first to easily remove the skins, which may have been my fatal mistake there.  I believe that blanching the fruit may have resulted in bringing out all the juice.  Next time, I believe I will painstakingly peel them.  Because it was Memorial Day I had better things to do besides sit in the kitchen and peel peaches.

The cake batter itself turned out lovely and took all my self-restraint not to continually "taste-test" the batter.  I have no self-control when it comes to cake batter.  I did not measure the amount of peaches and just literally stuck them into the uncooked batter until I thought there was enough.  What I found in the end...it could have used more.  A whole lot more.  I ended saving the cup of leftover peaches and turned them into peach muffins, which I'll post later, (so at least I got another dessert out this!). So either measure first, or if you're an anti-measure person (as much as you can get away with while baking) then keep putting more peaches in.  And when you think you're done, put a few more in for good measure.  Trust me, you won't regret it.    Overall, delicious.  A perfect summer treat.

Adapted from Smitten Kitchen's Strawberry Summer Cake

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature, plus extra for pie plate
1 1/2 cups (188 grams) all-purpose flour (can swap 3/4 cup or 94 grams all-purpose flour with 3/4 cup or 75 grams of barley flour, see Note)
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon table salt
1 cup (200 grams) plus 2 tablespoons (25 grams) granulated sugar
1 large egg
1/2 cup (118 ml) milk
1 teaspoon (5 ml) vanilla extract
1 pound (450 grams) peaches, peeled and sliced
Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter a 10-inch pie pan or 9-inch deep-dish pie pan. This cake would also work in a 9- or 10-inch springform or cake pan.
Whisk flour, baking powder and salt together in a small bowl. In a larger bowl, beat butter and 1 cup sugar until pale and fluffy with an electric mixer, about 3 minutes. Mix in egg, milk and vanilla until just combined. Add dry mixture gradually, mixing until just smooth.
Pour into prepared pie plate. Arrange peaches on top of batter, as closely as possible in a single layer. (Feel free to overlap if needed. You won't be disappointed.)  Sprinkle remaining 2 tablespoons sugar over berries.
Bake cake for 10 minutes then reduce oven temperature to 325°F and bake cake until golden brown and a tester comes out free of wet batter, about 50 minutes to 60 minutes. Let cool in pan on a rack. Cut into wedges. Serve with lightly whipped cream.
Do ahead: Cake can be stored at room temperature for up to 2 days, loosely covered.

Cheap Eats of the Week: Pizza Dough!

 Yesterday I decided to make homemade pizza dough.  I got out one of my (ahem) many many cookbooks I own and found this recipe. I have decided recently that buying cookbooks is a bit of an expensive hobby to have. I seem to just love collecting them more often then I use them since I generally find most of my inspiration and recipes online! So I decided this time I would actually get one out.  This cookbook in general I feel could get used quite often. It is titled, "BAKING", by James Peterson and it has very detailed photographs for each recipe.  I generally judge how well a cookbook is buy how many photographs it has. And this one doesn't disappoint.  It is an extremely large cookbook, boasting over 300 recipes and nearly 2,000 photographs! (I told you it had a lot).  I really do suggest you check it out.

But anyway back to my pizza dough.  If there is anything as cheap or as versatile as pizza dough please someone let me know.  It is extremely cheap to make- it's more of the time commitment one has to put into it.  But when you do the results are amazing! I had recently gone out and purchased new yeast packages. I had an old one sitting around since (well, since I can't remember that should tell you something).  I still gave the old yeast a go, but with no bubbles produced my assumption was confirmed. Time to buy new. At about $2.00 a package for three, thats a good amount of yeast. 

I first started by "activating the yeast" in a small bowl, basically waking the little guys up.  I put the 1/2 teaspoon in, about a tablespoon of flour, and a tablespoon of barely warm water.  I let it sit for about 5 to 10 minutes. I then determined there weren't enough bubbles and a little bit more yeast. I have no idea if I really needed to do this, (as I feel I'm still "green" when it comes to using yeast), but I figured why not.  Yeast , in case you're curious is the smallest eukaryotic organism, belongs in the fungi kingdom because it can't make its own food, and is the most widely researched eukaryotic organism due to its ability to replicate so quickly. It is able to convert starch into alcohols (beer makers rejoice!) and carbon dioxide (hello bread!). Ok sorry the science teacher felt I need to divulge a little about yeast. Perhaps I should have called this blog, "The Dorky Baker". Anyways back to the dough...

I added my activated yeast to my flour and water and put my mixer on medium speed. It wasn't coming together as much as I would have liked, so I added a little bit more water and my salt. Not sure if this was due to the first nice hot day we had in Boston all May.  I added my extra virgin olive oil and continued mixing. At this point it started to look like dough!

After 7 minutes no high speed with my dough hook attached, I let it rise on the counter top for about 4 hours in a well-oiled bowl. Although like I said it's cheap, it is a bit time consuming. Don't plan on coming home and having pizza on the table in about an hour! This would be a good recipe to do the day before and let it rise in the refrigerator overnight or even while you're at work!  When I came back from the gym (yes I need to have balance in my life with all the baking I love to do) I was so excited to see that it had risen! (It's these little things in my life that I get most excited about).
Tonight I plan to use the dough-so I'll post my finished pizza recipe tomorrow and let you know how it turned out!  Next I'd like to try Smitten Kitchen's "Really Simple Homemade Pizza Dough. An amazing food blog I can only inspire to (I suggest you check it out)

Pizza Dough Recipe
Adapted from Baking, by James Peterson

Makes 1 ½ lbs. dough enough for two 11- inch thin pizza crusts

3 cups flour

¾ cup barely warm water

½ tsp. active dry yeast proofed in 1 Tbs. barely warm water

¼ tsp. salt

6 Tbs. extra virgin olive oil

Before beginning, proof yeast in the barely warm water.

(I let sit for a couple minutes and then give it a stir.  Then I let it sit for another 5 minutes or so). **If of course you don't see immediate bubbles being produced, admit defeat and get new yeast!

Mix the flour, water, and yeast in a bowl. Add the salt and mix, then add the oil.  Knead the dough with a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook on medium speed for about 7 minutes or until the dough is smooth and passes the windowpane test. Turn the mixer to high speed if needed to get the dough to slap against the sides of the bowl.   You may also, during this time, pull the dough is mixed evenly.  Put the dough in a bowl and cover with plastic wrap. (I put mine in a well-oiled bowl and then covered it. Allow to double in volume, at room temperature for about 4 hours or at room temperature for 1 hour and then overnight in the refrigerator.

I saved the dough to the next day...and then of course roll and top with whatever you want