From peach desserts to salads to quick breads, the editors in the Epi Test Kitchen know how touse up a crate of ripe summer stone-fruit.
I too have cooked with my fair share of the fruit. In fact, I grew up in the country—on the southern Tennessee border—where I, just likethe Presidents of the United States of America,ate me a lot of peaches—and no, despite what the '90s band says, they did not come from a can. Nor did they come from Georgia, a state famous for its peaches and where my godparents still live. Instead they came from Chilton County, Alabama, where the unequivocally best peaches in the world are grown. Seriously. Don't argue with me about thisverified fact. And while enjoying their juicy, drippy sweetness fresh out of hand is one of the things that epitomizes summer for me, I do like to throw the ripest ones into acobbler.
But cobblers require heat, and in August—in my enclosed, windowless Brooklyn kitchen—my oven is only getting turned on for reasons imperative. Luckily my Epi cohort Anna Stockwell has created an elegantlate-summer dinner partywith a peach dessert that requires zero oven time. Instead of being baked, lightly spiced peaches are poached in a slow cooker in the time it takes for guests to gobble up her (also slow-cooked) main course.
但它不只是挖走甜点可以out of a slow cooker. Cakes can too. Several layers of paper towel, pinned between the lid and crock, absorb excess moisture while a buttery brown sugar glaze melds with fresh-sliced peaches, a hit of spicy crystallized ginger—plus gingersnap cookies—and tender yellow cake batter. Dollop finished slices withvanilla-scented crème fraîcheand extra crushed gingersnaps.
In the rare mid-summer moments when I do decide to go all-out, the quintessential standard for summery peach desserts is in order: a peach pie. And since there's no such thing as slow-cooker pie—at least there shouldn't be—the oven will have to be turned on. This recipe, though, is totally worth it. The glossy, cinnamon-scented peach filling is set withtapiocaand topped with a lattice of the flakiest, butter-rich crust imaginable. To gild the peachy lily, a drizzle of bourbon-infused caramel finishes things off.
Finally, for days when turning on heat of any kind is simply not an option, I plan to keep this dessert on hand. A short poach is required, but that can be done on a day when steam doesn't feel like the enemy, and then stashed in the refrigerator until ready to freeze. The resulting fruit is a sweet, vanilla– and mint-infused treat, similar in texture to sorbet. And just to make the Presidents of the USA happy, if you really can't bear the steam, a similar dessert can be achieved with (shhhh…) the canned stuff.
