peach « The Unappreciated Baker

Tuesdays with Dorie: Peach Upside-Downer

September 14, 2010 at 8:12 am | Posted in Cake, peach | 2 Comments
Tags: Cake, peach, tuesdays with dorie, upside down

Due to Rosh Hashana and all the holiday-ing that ensued, I was a bit behind on this week’s recipe. I had bought peaches last week in anticipation (see, I am planning ahead!) but I did not have a chance to make the cake until Sunday night, which come to think of it is not that last minute.

I was really happy to see that Dorie provided the peach option for this cake as there is no way in heaven that I was going to be able to get my hands on fresh or frozen cranberries. It’s just not a fruit that exists here in Israel (may have something to do with the climate, hmmm). The most I can get are dried cranberries, or canned cranberry sauce imported from America. Besides, it’s still peach season here, so why not take advantage?

This week’s recipe was hosted by Sabrina of Superfluous. She just got married in August (actually on the same day as my brother!) so congratulations to her and her new husband and may they find only happiness together.

Sabrina picked the Cranberry Upside-Downer and I was really excited to make this. I haven’t made an upside-down cake in a long time, in fact, I think I’ve only made one other upside-down cake ever. (When I brought the cake into work on Monday, my coworker asked, “Why did you need to flip it over?” I didn’t really have a good reason for that except that that’s what the recipe said.) This cake turned out so easily and nothing got messed up when I flipped it over!

Margarine-sugar mixture waiting for placement of peaches (right next to break the fast potato-leek soup - mmmm)

I almost didn’t make this until Monday night because I was so tired. Sunday was a fast day (almost like practice for the 25 hour long fast of Yom Kippur), and unfortunately, our air conditioning decided not to work on Saturday night, and on top of that, the Little Rocker decided to get up about four times during the night. So we woke up on Sunday morning tired, already dehydrated and not ready for a fast day. By the end of the day I was just so wiped that I almost went to sleep right after putting the Little Rocker to bed, but then I remembered this week’s recipe, and I sucked it up and made the cake.

So glad I did.

The hardest part of the cake was pitting and slicing the peaches – just goes to show how hard it was, and in about 20 minutes, I had the cake in the oven, smelling up the house.

Peaches are in!

Dorie recommends to eat the cake warm – no problem there, and when I tried the cake after it was done I was surprised. I am used to apple cakes, and the peaches just added something special to the cake and made it just a little bit different.

Cake batter in and ready for the oven

In order to further our dieting goals, I decided to bring the cake to work so that we wouldn’t eat it all. As I packed it up in the morning, Rocker Dude protested. I asked if he wanted to try the cake (his excuse the night before was that he had already brushed his teeth, humph). He said that he had planned on eating a slice for breakfast. I offered to cut him a slice, but he declined. I am not blaming him, he is under a crazy amount of stress, poor guy. He just started a new job teaching high school English, and on top of that he has to defend his masters’ thesis on Monday – he’s a bit stressed – you can do it baby!

And when he passes (because I know he will) champagne and cheesecake for everyone!

Right, back to this week’s recipe – everyone, go get some peaches and make this cake! But only if you want to eat something totally delicious.

Out of the oven!

Check out the recipe on Sabrina’s blog here and see what other TWD bakers did here.

Peach Upside-Downer

Tuesdays with Dorie: Crunchy and Custardy Nectarine Tart

August 24, 2010 at 7:41 am | Posted in custard, Fruit, nectarine, peach, tart | 4 Comments
Tags: custard, nectarine, peach, tart, tuesdays with dorie

This week’s recipe was hosted by Rachel of sweet tarte. She chose the crunchy and custardy peach tart. I have actually made this recipe a couple of times already, each time a bit differently. The first time I made it with canned peaches because it was the middle of the winter and there were no fresh peaches to be had. The second time I made them, I forgot to specify to dear Rocker Dude when he bought the fresh peaches that I would need them the same day, so they were really hard. I have to say that I liked the tart better with the canned peaches than with the underripe fresh ones. This time, we are at the height of peach season, so I was going to do this right, well, sort of.

Pitted nectarines. Not the neatest job in the world.

I used nectarines so that I wouldn’t have to peel them before putting them into the tart.

Tart crust ready to be baked.

I also decided to slice up the nectarines completely and make a spiral pattern in the tart instead of partially cutting them and spreading the nectarine half. I did this with the canned peaches (because they came sliced) and it came out looking really nice. I used an extra nectarine half because I made a ten-inch tart instead of a 9 inch one.

Nectarine filling

The recipe is really east to make. The topping takes about 1 1/2 minutes to mix up, then get your tart crust going add filling (which requires no pre-cooking by the way) and bake the whole thing!

We just came back from America on Wednesday, so it has taken the Little Rocker a while to get back to the right time zone, giving us a few hard nights. Friday morning, when I made this tart, I was only about half-functioning. And the Little Rocker and I walked out to the farmer’s market in the 108 degree heat – we got the greatest pickles ever! (And some fresh mangos and grapes too.) So when we came back I was pretty wiped and all I could think about was if I had enough freezer space I would have tart crusts already frozen and then I wouldn’t have to procrastinate baking. Haven’t we all had those days? Granted, I procrastinated by finding cool things to bake, but it is procrastination nonetheless.

Crunchy and Custardy Nectarine Tart

We brought this tart to our friend S.’s house for lunch on Saturday and it was well received, though Rocker Dude did say that he did not like the tartness of the nectarines with the creaminess of the custard filling. Oh well, can’t please everyone.