Peach Crumb Cake

Lately I've been feeling a little guilty about neglecting the blog, but this past week I just haven't felt like baking. I don't know if it's because of all of the last-minute baby prep or because Stephen went back to school this week and we've been trying to spend as much time together as possible. Either way, I've been avoiding the kitchen. Yesterday after I saw him out the door I mustered up the energy and will-power to bake up a breakfasty treat. We had a giant lone peach sitting on our counter that was begging to get used in something other than a smoothie. Since I had both buttermilk and sour cream on hand (a rare occasion in our household) I jumped on the opportunity to make a coffee or crumb cake. I started off with a light, moist cinnamon cake, topped it with slices of fresh peach, and then covered it with a sweet brown sugar crumble. By the time it had finished baking our entire house smelled heavenly- I was ready to dig in! I let it cool for half an hour before slicing it up, but let me tell you the wait was worth it, because the result was out of this world! Fresh, light and perfectly sweet!

Peach Crumb Cake

Ingredients

1 c. all-purpose flour
¼ c. cake flour

½ c. sugar

8 tbsp. (1 stick) butter, room temperature

1 egg + 1 egg yolk

¼ c. sour cream

¼ c. buttermilk

1½ tsp. baking powder

¼ tsp. salt

½ tsp. cinnamon

2 tsp. vanilla

1 extra large ripe peach (or 2 small), skin removed, thinly sliced

Crumb topping:

⅓ c. + 1 tbsp. all-purpose flour

½ c. brown sugar

4 tbsp. butter, cold

½ tsp. cinnamon

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly spray an 8x8" baking dish or a 9" round baking dish, set aside.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat together butter, sugar and vanilla until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add egg, then egg yolk, mixing until just combined.
3. In a small mixing bowl, whisk together flours, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. With mixing speed on low, alternate dry ingredients with sour cream and buttermilk (this will help prevent the mixture from curdling). Mix until well combined and no flour pockets remain. The batter will be relatively thick.
4. Remove bowl from stand and spread the batter evenly into the prepared dish. Place the sliced peaches on top, making sure to completely cover the batter.
5. In a small mixing bowl combine all crumb topping ingredients. Using a pastry blender, cut the butter into fine pieces, creating tiny lumps in the mixture. Pour the mixture over the peaches, spread evenly.
6. Place in oven and bake for 35-40 minutes or until a cake tester inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean (I baked mine in a round dish and it took about 38 minutes). The topping should be nice and brown and the center should look slightly moist. Remove from oven and allow to cool for 30-45 minutes before serving.

Inspired by Spoon Fork Bacon's Blueberry Cardamom Crumb Cake | Makes approximately 8-12 servings

Biscoff Peach Crisp

Ok folks, it's summer which means that it's crisp time! Let's start out with this one... Biscoff Peach Crisp. If it weren't for the fact that Stephen and I were taking this over to our friends for an after dinner dessert, we probably would have eaten the whole thing by ourselves... in one sitting... seriously. I had been dreaming about making this crisp for months, and now that it's finally peach season I told Stephen that we had to make it! I literally threw this together in a matter of minutes. It was a good thing Stephen wasn't watching at the time because I snuck in a few ingredients that he's less than keen on. #1 oats- but really, a crisp just wouldn't be a crisp without a few oats in the topping. #2 cinnamon- for some reason he's not a big fan of it, but the flavor here is just to enhance the sweetness of the peaches and brown sugar, it by no means overwhelms the crisp. And #3 Biscoff cookies- I crumbled them up and used them as part of the topping. He was smitten and so was I! We served it up with a nice big scoop of vanilla ice cream- talk about the perfect summer treat! Enjoy!

Biscoff Peach Crisp

Ingredients

5 ripe peaches, skin removed and sliced

3 tbsp. sugar

1 tsp. cornstarch

¹⁄₈ tsp. salt

¼ tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. vanilla

Topping:

⅔ c. all-purpose flour

⅓ c. old-fashioned rolled oats (not quick-cooking)

¼ c. sugar

¼ c. brown sugar

4 Biscoff cookies, crushed to your liking

6 tbsp. (¾ stick) butter, cold and cubed

¼ tsp. cinnamon

¹⁄₈ tsp. salt

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Set aside an 8x8 or 8x6 glass baking dish.

2. In a large mixing bowl, combine the sliced peaches (don't slice them too thin), sugar, cornstarch, salt, cinnamon, and vanilla. Toss gently and allow to sit while preparing the topping.

3. To prepare the topping, in a medium size mixing bowl, combine the flour, oats, sugar, brown sugar, crushed Biscoff cookies, cinnamon, and salt. Mix to combine. Using a pastry blender, cut in the cold butter. Mix until medium size clumps remain, about the size of dime, maybe a little bit smaller.

4. To assemble, pour the peaches into the baking dish, cover with topping. Place in oven and bake for 25-30 minutes. Keep a careful eye on the top, making sure that it doesn't get too dark- if the peaches are not soft yet and the top is getting too dark, cover with foil. I didn't have a problem with mine, but all ovens are different!

5. Remove from oven and allow to cool for 20 minutes before serving warm.

NOTE: For a 9x13 pan you will need to double the recipe.

Life Made Simple Original Recipe | Makes 4-6 servings

Blueberry Peach Coffee Cake Muffins

The other morning I woke up wanting to make muffins. So far with this pregnancy I've been craving two things: fruit and peanut butter. With a counter full of fresh peaches and blueberries, I decided to make a batch of coffee cake muffins. I was a little hesitant about using so much fruit in one muffin but these turned out to be one of the best muffins I've made in a while- I loved them!!! They're light and fluffy and topped with a crunchy cinnamon crumb topping. The thing I like the best about these is that they just get better with time. The following day I ate two for breakfast and the flavors were even more bright and delicious! I think these would be great with blackberries or raspberries too... the options seem endless!

Blueberry Peach Coffee Cake Muffins
Ingredients
½ c. all-purpose flour
¾ c. cake flour
½ c. sugar
6 tbsp. (¾ stick) butter, room temperature
1 egg + 1 egg yolk
¼ c. sour cream
2 tbsp. milk
¼ tsp. baking soda
¼ tsp. salt
½ tsp. ground cinnamon
1½ tsp. vanilla extract

1 peach, sliced thinly and skin removed
⅓ c. blueberries

Cinnamon crumb topping:
½ c. all-purpose flour
3 tbsp. sugar
3 tbsp. brown sugar
4 tbsp. (¼ stick) butter, melted
¾ tsp. ground cinnamon

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line one muffin tin with regular baking cups, tulip baking cups or panettone baking cups, set aside.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine butter and sugar. Beat on medium until light and fluffy, about 1 minute. Add egg, mix then egg yolk. Mix in vanilla until just combined.
3. In a medium size mixing bowl, combine flours, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Whisk to combine. With mixing speed on low, alternate dry ingredients with sour cream and milk. Mix until the batter is smooth and no flour pockets remain.
4. To make the cinnamon crumb topping, in a small bowl whisk together flour, sugars and cinnamon. Pour the melted butter over and using your hands, mix until it becomes clumpy.
5. Scoop 1 tbsp. of batter into the bottom of each muffin cup, spread to cover the entire base. Place a few slices of peaches over. Cover with remaining batter, then top with remaining peaches and the blueberries. Sprinkle the crumb topping over each, gently pressing it down. You will notice that there is a generous amount of topping, you'll want to use it all!
6. Place into oven and bake for 25-28 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean and the tops of the muffins are golden brown. Remove from oven and allow to cool in pan for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
Life Made Simple Original Recipe | Makes 12 standard size muffins