Peach Cinnamon Rolls

A fresh swirl of peach in every cinnamon soft bite.

Peaches

1/4 c sugar
3-4 small peaches, skins removed

Rolls

3/4 cup milk

1/3 c melted butter

2 1/2 teaspoon yeast

1/3 c sugar

1 teaspoon salt

2 eggs

3 1/2-4 c wheat flour

Filling

1/4 cup butter

1/3 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup natural sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg, fresh grated or ground

Instructions

1. Chop up peaches, throw out the pits, and cook in a saucepan over med-low with sugar for 10 minutes or until peaches are soft and fall apart. Set aside to cool.

2. Heat milk (either in a sauce pan or microwave) until milk begins to simmer- add butter. Let cool until at warm temperature (about 120˚).

3. In a deep bowl, add milk mixture, yeast, and sugar. Let sit for five minutes to let the yeast do it's work. Add 3 1/2 cups of flour, salt, eggs, 2 tablespoons of the cooled peaches- mix until combined. Add the remaining flour, 1/4 cup at a time until the dough forms a nice ball and pulls away from the bowl. Turn out the dough onto a clean surface and knead the dough until smooth and elastic- at least eight minutes.

4. Grab a clean separate bowl, lightly spray the dough with cooking oil and place in a warm draft free spot until dough has doubled in size (around an hour and a half.)

5. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and roll out into a 10 by 14 rectangle.

6. Rub room temperature butter over entire surface and cover with sugar and spice mixture. Top with cooled peaches-reserve 2 tablespoons of peaches for glaze.

7. Carefully roll the dough into a log, some peach filling may want to fall out, just tuck it back in. Cut into 12-16 1 inch thick pieces. Place pieces, cut side down in a sprayed 9x13in pan. Cover with a clean towel and let rise in a warm place for another hour or until rolls are the size you like.

8. Preheat the oven to 350˚ and bake 20-25 minutes until cinnamon rolls are golden in color. Let cool slightly then slather on your favorite cream cheese glaze mixed with remaining cooked peaches.

Calories calculated using Sparkrecipes Calculator: 262 calories per roll (out of 12)

Peaches and Cream Muffins

Last month the peaches in my parent's orchard ripened and I went a little crazy canning peaches, making peach honey and peaches n' cream ice cream. I also made peach muffins, but I forgot to post it until now when I got a sudden craving for another of these sweet muffins. They are really good and just another reminder that summer is quickly fading fast.

The leaves are already falling in my yard, but I can cling to summer a little bit longer with these yummy beauties.

Peaches n’ Cream Muffins

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup canola oil
2 large egg
2/3 cup milk
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cup fresh peaches, peeled and chopped

Cream cheese filling:

3/4 c cream cheese, at room temperature
1 teaspoon lemon zest
2 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Streusel Topping (Cut together until resembles coarse crumbs)
3 tbl flour
3 tbl brown sugar
1/4 tsp cinnamon
4 tbl butter

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease a muffin tin well (I don't care what people say, muffins don't have liners on them, cupcakes do!). Set aside.
2. In a medium bowl, mix together the flour, salt, baking powder, sugar and cinnamon.
3. In a separate bowl, mix oil, egg, milk, and vanilla together.
5. Gently fold in the the wet ingredients into flour mix until just combined, do not over mix.  The batter will be thick. Fold in the peaches.
6. In a small bowl, mix together the cream cheese, lemon zest, sugar, and cinnamon. Mix until creamy and smooth.
7. Fill each muffin cup half way with batter. Next, add a small spoonful of cream cheese filling to each muffin cup. Cover the cream cheese filling with the remaining batter. Sprinkle streusel topping just before baking.
8. Bake muffins for 17-20 minutes, or until muffins are golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean. Remove the muffins from the pan and let cool on a cooling rack.

Makes one dozen muffins.

Grab summer off the tree and make up a sweet morning batch of these beautiful muffins. Enjoy!


Pictures coming soon.

Peachy Keen (Part 3) Ice Cream

Not long ago I bought an automatic ice cream maker with the grand idea that all the flavors of the world were my fingertips. What would I create? What did I want?

Everyone knows the kind of ice cream they like. But how to break that down into a recipe?

I wanted something rich and creamy with hints and subtle suggestions of flavors. I love Alton Brown and he went through the steps of how ice cream is made, the different kinds of ice cream bases from the cheap-y kind that you get for $2.00, to some of my favorite rich and creamy kinds that are $7.00 for a pint! Oh, but so worth it!

Looking at a variety of recipes, I wanted the kind that use eggs and cream to gain that smooth flavor.

This is recipe creates an AMAZING Peach flavor without being overwhelming. I made a gallon, and it went fast!

I'll just have to go pick more peaches and make more very soon :)
Peach Ice Cream- Makes One Gallon

• 5 cups of peach puree, blend them with the skins on!
• 3 whole peaches, skinned, chopped and set aside.
  
• 6 egg yolks
  
• 3 1/2 cups of white sugar
• 4 cups heavy cream
• 2 cups milk (more milk fat the better, I use whole)
• 2 tsp vanilla (or 1 vanilla bean with the seeds scooped out)
• 1/2 tsp of salt

1. Mix together eggs and sugar until blended. Slowly add the puree until smooth.
   
2. Add the cream, milk, vanilla and salt, blend well. I used my KitchenAid mixer for this recipe and the bowl was almost overflowing
3. Pour the mixture into your ice cream maker and follow your manufacturers instructions. Be careful not to overflow and leave room for expansion. You're making ice crystals people! Add the chopped peaches later following the instructions. This recipe was too big for my little 1 quart maker, and I ended up pouring 2 1/2 cups at a time, 4x!
   
4. Remove ice cream from the machine to a freeze safe bowl, cover with lid.
   

One Quart (Many thanks to Mr. Beautiful for helping with the math)

• 1 1/4 c of peach puree
• 1 peach skinned, chopped and set aside
• 2 egg yolks
• 1 c of white sugar
• 1 c of heavy cream
• 1/2 c milk
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1/8 tsp salt
  

There you have it! Enjoy this beautiful dessert.

Peachy Keen (Part 2) Honey

So in my previous post, I described my adventures in canning peach slices here and in the process I had you keep your slimy peach skins in the refrigerator until now.

I made the super sweet, deliciously different topping: Peach Honey. It's so easy you wonder why you never made it before.

The Juice

Now, normally a recipe for Peach Honey would have you boil your skins in water (just enough to cover them) until they are soft and tender. Then, take your skins and place them in a cheesecloth and squeeze as much juice as possible from them.

The goal is you want the juice, not the pulp. I am fortunate enough to own this wonderful contraption: The Jack Lelanne Juicer. I just put in my peach skins and the pulp popped out the back while giving me the juice! Talk about easy!

After juicing my saved skins, I hardly had any juice and I need 8 cups of the stuff! So I just de-pitted more peaches and popped them in, skin and all! I really love my juicer! 10-12 (I lost count) peaches later I had plenty of sweet juice.

All you need for Peach Honey is:

• A large pot
• 8 cups of peach juice
• 4 cups of white sugar
• a VERY big pot or canning pot to sanitize/vacuum your jars
• Ball Jars (this recipe made 2 pints!), lids and rings
• Jar grabber
• Jar funnel
• a wooden spoon and large ladle
  

Hot Peaches...Check it and See...I got a fever of...

Place your peach juice in the smaller of the two pots and turn up the heat to med-high. Bring to a steady boil and boil! After a few mins, add 2 cups of sugar. Mix thoroughly with the wooden spoon and boil until it looks well dissolved. Add the remaining sugar and repeat. Now it's just waiting. You boil and stir every few minutes until your peach juice has the consistency of honey.

This would be a good time to sanitize your jars. Read my blog about canning peaches if you don't know how.

Before:

After (I think) 2 hours:

Once you reached the desired consistency*, take out your ball jars from the warm canning water. Return that water to a boil! You may have to add more water at this time, there needs to be enough to have 2 inches above the jar lids to bathe them properly.

Place your funnel on top of the clean jars and fill within 1 inch from the top.

Wipe the edges with a clean cloth, place on the lids and rings (screw tight), and return to the boiling canner water for 5 mins.

Remove from the water with your jar grabber and place in a cool, draft and dry area where the jars wont be disturbed for awhile. The Honey will thicken further as it cools.

Isn't it beautiful? Look at those delicious sugar crystals we made in the honey, mmm....You're going on my waffles tomorrow morning!

Easy right?

* if your honey doesn't thicken up, just add 1/3 of a packet of pectin and 1/3 of added sugar.

Peachy Keen (Part 1) Canning

Yesterday, Mr. Beautiful wanted to go out into our field and pick some peaches. He brought me these:
And this monster!

What is a lucky girl to do? I'm starting out with canning sliced peaches since I eat peaches practically every day (sometimes with my yummy scrambled egg whites on the side). And having a toddler around, it would be economical of me to get these bad boys in the cupboard before the season is out.

It was a race between the birds and me, and I must have picked about 18 lbs total.

You will need:

• Peaches, washed skinned (I'll explain how) and sliced
• Jar Funnel
• Jar Grabber
• One VERY large pot (also known as a water bath canner), a saucepan and a 3quart pot
• A big plastic bowl
• Ice
• Ball Jars (this recipe makes about 7 pint jars)
• Large spoon and ladle
• White sugar

Select Your Fruit

Make sure you pick peaches that are ripe but still a bit firm, little to no bruises and free of wiggly critters. Put simply, the kind that you would want to eat yourself. How many should you get? On average it takes about 5-7 peaches to fill a quart jar. I'll let you do the math.

Make a Sugar Bath and Hot Bath

Most of us buy our peaches packed in either water; light, medium or heavy syrup. The added sugar helps improve color and retain the fruits shape while packed. I prefer to go the less caloric-adding path and opted for light syrup.

Pour: 6 cups of water and 2 cups of white sugar into a pot and boil just enough to dissolve the sugar. Turn the temperature down to keep it warm.

*For Medium syrup the ratio would be 3c sugar to 6c water, and heavy syrup is 4c sugar to 6c water.

Now that you have your syrup done, you need to get ready to can. Time to clean those ball jars!

Sanitizing

Even if you just bought those jars, rings and lids and they came right out of the plastic packaging, you still need to sanitize them to kill off any hidden bacteria that could later ruin an entire jar of peaches 6 months from now. And that would be heartbreaking, shouldn't it?

This job is easy if you are lucky enough to have a dishwasher with a "sanitize" function. Just run all the parts through and keep them clean in the washer until you need them.

If you're like me...sigh, and wash everything by hand. You need to fill your VERY big pot with water and place your jars inside, set on the stove. Bring the water to a rapid boil for 10 mins, then turn off the stove. Keep the jars in the hot water until needed. Back to the Peaches!

Prepping the Peaches

Get your 3 quart pot and fill 2/3 of the way full with water and place on the stove. By this time you should have: Sanitizing pot warm with jars (or in the dishwasher), a saucepan of warm sugar water, and your 3 quart pot.

Bring the 3 quart pot to a steady boil. While you wait, wash your peaches in the sink (no soap, just warm or cool water) to remove the "fuzz" and sort out any sticks and leave you may have collected. Let drain in the sink.

Take your plastic bowl and fill with water and about 1-2cups of ice to make an ice bath.

Next part is fun!

Take a slotted spoon and drop 3-5 peaches into the boiling water for 30-50 seconds. Remove from the water and drop into the ice bath for a few minutes. The skins of the peaches will slide off easily now! If the skins don't slide easily it is probably because the peaches were not ripe and you have to boil them a bit longer. It's OK to put them back into the water.

Easy! Kids would love to peel the slimy skins off and it's much faster then peeling by hand. This same technique can be used on tomatoes, plums, apricots or pears.
Save the skins in the refrigerator for peach jam!

Slice the peaches open and remove the pits. Slice into halves or wedges whatever you'd like and set aside until all the peaches are done. Sprinkle some lemon juice over the slices to prevent browning while you work.

Hot Packing

Time for our sugar bath! Drop in the peaches and let barely boil for 5 mins.

This boiling the peaches isn't "necessary," but I think it is. It kills off any surviving bacteria on the peaches, helps prevent floaters and makes them a bit softer so you can pack more into each jar :)
Take out the jars from the warm water, put your jar funnel on top and slowly fill with peaches. Pack them in pretty good, but only fill the jar 1 inch from the top. Ladle some hot syrup over the top to fill it 1/2 inch from the top.

Why the head space? Not enough room above the food doesn't allow the movement of liquid or the expansion of solid foods. If there is not enough room, some of the liquid or food is forced out and prevents making a solid seal. Too much space means trapped air (i.e. bacteria) can infect or darken your food. You can use a knife to double check for air bubbles.

Use a clean cloth to wipe the rim from any spilt syrup, place on the lid and screw on the ring. I tilt the jar just a bit to make sure I got the ring on tight (but not too tight). Fill the rest of the jars in the same fashion. Admire your work, you're almost done!

Place the jars back into the VERY big pot and bring to a rapid boil. Boil for 20 mins.

My mother says this step isn't necessary either, you can simply invert the jar and leave alone for 20 mins and the heat from the jar and the syrup will seal them for you....well, I'd rather be on the safe side.

Boiling the jars once filled will supposedly harden the glass jars and create an effective vacuum sealing the jar.

After 20 mins, remove with the jar grabber and place on top of a towel in a cool draft free place where they won't be bumped or disturbed for 24 hours.

Fruits of your Labor

And that's it! From start to finish, I made 7 jars in 3 hours. Was it worth all that work? I'd say yes since homemade good almost ALWAYS beat the commercially made goods anytime.

When cool, smack on a homemade label with your name on it and be proud. These babies will keep for a year if stored in a cool, dry place.

Some browning may occur or some might even change color (due to the chemical reaction in the fruit when processing).But, that doesn't mean it's spoiled. All fruits do brown a little bit, that is to be expected. But if you see mold, throw it out! Keep and wash the jars for another day.

Next blog, remember I said to save those peach skins....