Tom grows his peaches in the relative balmy climate of Paradise, near Plains. This week, he’ll have several kinds of cooking and canning peaches. He’ll also have super sweet white peaches, which are best for eating fresh or pureed and served with champagne or Prosecco in a Bellini cocktail.
All these varieties are Freestone. Another thing to remember is that Tom only picks fruit that’s fully ripe and fully sugared. Once a peach is picked, it will not get any sweeter, only softer.
Peaches are a particularly good fruit to grow because if only 8 percent to 10 percent of the blossoms on a tree set and yield fruit, that’s considered a full crop. For cherry trees, a yield of 35 percent is a full crop. Last year, every blossom on Tom’s peach trees set, so he had to thin them three times. The size of a peach makes it easy to pick a lot in a short time. Three people can harvest 1,000 pounds in a day.
My favorite way of enjoying Tom and Lynn’s peaches is eating them fresh, which I do daily until the season ends. Although many cooks freeze or can peaches or turn them into jams, I’m not one of them. But I do bake with fresh peaches so long as the result enhances the fruit’s taste. And here’s a dandy recipe that does just that. To learn more about peaches, including some terrific recipes, visit topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/p/peaches/index.html.
Fresh Peach Upside-Down Cake
A generous quantity of peaches, nestled onto a layer of brown sugar caramel and covered with a butter cake batter is a lovely twist on that old standby, pineapple upside-down cake. I use only local, fully ripe yellow peaches for this. The cake is tender, with a tight crumb. Leftovers are great for breakfast the next day. The caramel syrup sometimes discolors the cake; do not be alarmed. You will need a 10-inch cast-iron skillet. Serve plain or with whipped cream. Best when very fresh.
Peach topping
4 large ripe yellow Freestone peaches (about 2 pounds total)
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
2/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar
Cake batter
1 1/3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (measure flour by spooning flour into dry measuring cups to overflowing and sweeping off excess with a straight edge; don’t shake or bang cups)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon pure almond extract
2 large eggs
3/4 cup buttermilk
Halve the peaches along their seam and remove the pits. Cut each peach half into three even wedges. Using a sharp paring knife, carefully peel away the peach skins. If peaches are fully ripe, the skins will come off easily. Ignore any bruises on the fruit.
Melt the 4 tablespoons butter in a 10-inch cast-iron skillet over medium heat. Stir in the brown sugar and cook, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon for several minutes, until the mixture is thick and bubbly and the sugar has turned a deep dark brown color and is almost completely melted. Watch this step carefully so the sugar does not burn. Remove the pan from the heat.
Arrange the peach wedges tightly in concentric circles over the hot caramel. Really pack the peaches in. If you have any peach wedges left over, cut them into smaller pieces to fit into empty spaces. Try to cover the caramel layer completely with peaches.
Adjust two oven racks with one in the center and the other on the lowest position. Set a baking sheet on the lower rack, and preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
For the cake, whisk together the flour, salt and baking soda thoroughly in a medium bowl. In another medium bowl, beat the butter with a hand-held electric mixer on medium speed until smooth and creamy, about one minute. Gradually add the sugar while beating on medium speed. Scrape the bowl with a rubber spatula, and add both extracts. Beat on medium high speed for 3 to 4 minutes, until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time until thoroughly incorporated. Scrape the bowl again.
On lowest speed, beat in about one-third of the dry ingredients just until completely mixed in. Beat in half the buttermilk, then half the remaining dry ingredients followed by the remaining buttermilk. When smooth, mix in the last of the dry ingredients.
Spoon some of the batter over the peaches going around the edge of the pan first, then fill in the center with the remaining batter; smooth the top and place the pan on the center oven rack.
Bake about 40 minutes, until the cake is well-browned; it springs back when gently pressed in the center, and a toothpick comes out clean. The cake should reach right to the top of the pan. Remove the pan from the oven and place it on a heatproof surface for 5 to 10 minutes. Run the tip of a small sharp knife all around the edge of the pan to release the cake.
Cover the pan with a rimmed dessert platter; hold it firmly in place with one hand and, with the other hand, use a potholder to grasp the hot handle of the skillet. Carefully invert the two. Wait for one minute, and slowly lift off the skillet. If any fruit has stuck to the pan, replace it on the cake. Serve warm or at room temperature.
- Makes one 10-inch cake, 8 to 10 servings.
Greg Patent is a food writer and columnist for the Missoulian and Missoula.com magazine. He also co-hosts a weekly show about food with Jon Jackson on KUFM Sundays at 11:50 a.m. His cookbook, “A Baker’s Odyssey” was nominated for the 2008 James Beard Award.
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