Peach and Plum Oatmeal Crumble Bars

I can't believe how busy I've been lately. I'm attributing it to the end of summer madness and that silly little thing called my full time job (poor excuse... I know). However, I do have a bunch of recipes that I need to post and I also have a couple days off coming up which means it's time to try some new recipes! Oooh, and I can't wait to start sharing my fall recipes. I LOVE FALL.

In the meantime here is another delicious summer stone fruit recipe! It's pretty darn tasty and after it cools it is easily cut up into bars - which means it's easy to pick one up on my way past the plate and shove it in my mouth (yikes...) or it's awesome served warm with some vanilla ice cream on the side!

INGREDIENTS:

Filling:

5 cups peeled, chopped peaches and plums. (about 3 or 4 of each)

5 tsp cornstarch

1 lemon, juiced

Pinch of ground nutmeg

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tbsp brown sugar

Crust:

1 1/2 cup all purpose flour

1 1/2 cup uncooked quick oats

1 cup packed brown sugar

3/4 cup butter, softened

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

DIRECTIONS:

Combine all filling ingredients in a large bowl and set aside.

Preheat oven to 

375 degrees F. Combine all crust ingredients in a large bowl. Mix with your hands or with a wooden spoon until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.  Reserve 1 1/2 cups of the crumb mixture. Press remaining crumb mixture into the bottom of a greased 13x9 inch baking pan. Spread filling over pressed crust. Then finish off by sprinkling the reserved crumb mixture over top of the filling.

Bake for 30 - 35 minutes until bubbly and golden brown.

Cool completely and cut into bars or serve warm with ice cream!

NOTES: Make sure you have ripe flavorful peaches and plumbs because the flavor of the fruit really comes through in these bars. Mmmm... ENJOY!

Recipe: Slightly adapted from The Baker Chick

Peach Fruit Leather

I have a sick love of peaches. So much so that I buy more than I could possibly eat before they go bad. So, I looked up a recipe for peach fruit leather and I found the easiest recipe ever.  Are you ready for it?

INGREDIENTS:
4 ripe peaches, skin on.
1 tbsp honey
(double as needed)

DIRECTIONS:

Oven: preheat to 225 degrees F. Pour the mixture onto a parchment lined baking sheet and spread evenly. Bake for 3 - 4 hours or until dry and not sticky to the touch. Remember cooking times with vary depending on how thick you spread your mixture. ( I would check every hour just to be safe) When you take the leather out of the oven it will look dry. Allow to cool and sit for several hours and it will soften up nicely.

Cut with a knife and peal away from parchment, or leave parchment on and make fruit roll ups.

Dehydrator: Spread evenly on trays and cook at 135 degrees for 5 hours. You may line with parchment or if you wish lightly oil the trays. wiping off excess with a paper towel. Let cool and peal away from the trays.

Recipe : Weelicious

Peach Raspberry Cobbler

This is hands down my favorite cobbler recipe. I first made it about five years ago when I saw it in Cooking Light Magazine. It really lets the delicate summer fruit flavors shine and the biscuit topping is: to. die. for.

INGREDIENTS:

Filling:

1/2 cup sugar

2 tbsp all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp lemon zest

1/4 tsp salt

4 cups peaches, peeled and chopped (approx. 5 peaches)

3/4 cup fresh raspberries

1 tbsp fresh lemon juice

cooking spray

Topping:

1 1/3 cup all-purpose flour

1/3 cup granulated sugar

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

3 tbsp chilled butter, cut into small pieces

2/3 cup low-fat buttermilk

1 1/2 tbsp turbinado sugar

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees 

Prepare Filling: combine sugar, flour, lemon zest and salt in a large bowl. Add the peaches, berries and lemon juice, mix together. Spoon mixture into a baking dish coated with cooking spray. Bake filling at 400 degrees for 15 minutes.

To prepare topping, combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt, stirring with a whisk. Cut in chilled butter with a pastry cutter or two knives until mixture resembles a coarse meal. Add buttermilk; stir just until moist. 

Remove dish of filling from the oven and drop dough onto the peach mixture to form 8 rounds. Sprinkle dough evenly with turbinado sugar. Bake at 400 degrees for 25 minutes or until bubbly and golden brown.

Yields 8 servings. 

NOTES: 

The original recipe calls for less peaches and blueberries instead of raspberries. I have also made this version and it is also amazing. However, I only had raspberries at home. I personally like the raspberry version better. 

If you want to be really bad and add more biscuit just double the recipe for topping. Oh those biscuits are delish! I'm pretty sure portion control by only having 8 biscuits is the reason it is in Cooling Light Magazine.

Recipe: Adapted from Cooking Light Magazine, July 2007