I got to enter into a peach competition! I wanted to create something different but still traditional. Something that made the Peaches the star! After doing a ton of research of recipes and hunting for the best peaches, I came up with a Peach Upside Down Cake recipe. My Mom found these white flesh peaches that were perfectly firm for baking, yet they had a great juicy flavor. Also the pit came out easily which was helpful when slicing them. My Mom entered into a contest too her peach pie and peach crumble, both perfect by the way!!! Though neither of us won we still had allot of fun cooking and eating!
Peach Upside-down Cake
Ingredients
For the Cake
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| Layers create pretty pattern when you flip the cake upside down. |
- 1 ½ c. Wheat Flour
- 1 ½ c. White Flour
- ¾ c. White Sugar
- ½ c. Room Temperature Butter
- 2 Eggs
- 1 c. Water
- 1 ½ tsp Baking Powder
- ½ tsp. Baking Soda
- 1 Tbs. Apple Cider Vinegar
- 1 tsp. Salt
- 1 tsp. Vanilla
- 1 Tbs. Orange Zest (about 1 large orange)
- ½ Tbs. Lemon Zest (about 1 small lemon)
- ½ tsp. Ground Nutmeg and Cinnamon
- ¼ tsp. Ground Ginger
For the Peach Sauce
- 1 Tbs. Orange Juice (fresh is always best)
- 3 Tbs. Maple Syrup
- ¼ tsp. Ground Nutmeg
- 1 Tbs. Melted Butter
- 1 Tbs. Flour
- 1/8 c. White Sugar
- 4-5 c. Sliced & Skinned Peaches (about ½ inch slices) (about 5-7 peaches)
About 1 Tbs. of lemon juice for the Peaches
Cinnamon Sugar to be used as optional cake topping
Directions
For the Peaches
Begin by preheating your oven to 350 degrees and gather all ingredients and supplies
needed. Organize ingredients so that they will be easily accessible. Prepare the peaches by
washing. You will add peaches to a gallon pot of boiling water. Water should be brought to a
rolling boil then reduced to a simmer. Set up a separate bowl of ice water. When water is
simmering take a slotted spoon and carefully put in the water, one at a time. Blanch the
peaches for 30 seconds. When 30 seconds is up shock peaches in the cold water and then peel,
pit, and slice the peaches. Set peaches aside in a bowl and pour the lemon juice evenly over the
slices. This is to enhance flavor and prevent browning.
For the Sauce
Next you will want to start on the sauce. In a large bowl whisk together the orange juice,
maple syrup, freshly ground nutmeg, melted butter, and sugar. Gently fold the sliced peaches
into the sauce. Make sure that the sauce is evenly distributed throughout the slices. Lastly dust
peaches evenly with flour, stir till evenly coated. This will help it thicken. Pour into a cake pan
of your choosing.
For the Cake
Start by creaming your butter, sugar, eggs, orange and lemon zest, and vanilla, (Using a
stand mixer is suggested). In a separate bowl combine baking powder, wheat and white flour,
salt, and spices. And then right before you are about to begin mixing the dry and creamed
mixture, in a small bowl combined the Baking Soda and Apple cider vinegar, quickly add this to
the creamed mixture. Alternate the dry mixture and the water into the creamed mixture until
flour is entirely incorporated. Carefully smooth cake batter uniformly on top of peaches in the
cake pan, making sure not to touch the bottom of the pan. Sprinkle a smooth layer of
Cinnamon-Sugar over the top of the batter. This will create a sweet crackly crust on top.
Bake depending on size of pan; it will take about 45 min to an hour. Check frequently
(without releasing too much heat) by poking cake with a tooth pick, when tooth pick comes out
clean the cake is done. Serve with Vanilla Ice cream warm or as breakfast when cool. Enjoy!
Peach Crisp
Butter bottom of a 9 x 11” baking dish
Place sliced peaches in the bottom of the dish and spread out evenly.
6 large sliced Peaches
1 Tbs. Flour
1/8 cup organic sugar
Combine all the dry ingredients together in a medium sized bowl,
1 ¼ cup brown sugar
¾ cup flour
¾ cup quick oats
1 tsp. nutmeg
1 ¼ tsp. cinnamon
With hands or fork Mix in butter until crumbly texture:
½ cup soft butter
Sprinkle this mixture evenly over the peaches. Bake 350o for 30 – 45 minutes, or until the peaches are
tender when poked and the topping is golden brown and crispy.
Remove from oven and serve while warm or let cool.
Peach Pie
In a large bowl combine:
3 Tbs. flour
¼ tsp. ground nutmeg
½ cup raw sugar
Toss sugar mixture over:
Enough pealed cut up Peaches to fill a large deep pie pan.
Place peaches into your pie pan that has been lined with an ‘oil flour’ crust; sprinkle the bottom of the
crust with a little flour before placing the peaches into it.
Put a top crust on top and slit the top, you can glaze and sugar if you like.
Oil Pie Crust
Stir together into a medium sized bowl:
2 cups unbleached flour
1 tsp. salt
Pour Oil into the flour mixture:
2/3 cup Sun or Safflower Oil (expelled pressed)
Stir until flour is moist…
Pour into this:
¼ cup Cold Water - Important – Do not leave this out!
Flour some waxed paper; place a little over ½ of the dough in the center for the bottom crust.
Flatten the dough, sprinkle with flour. (Dough is sticky) Place floured wax paper on top of the dough,
roll out in-between the 2 pieces of wax paper.
Peel off the top wax paper, if you are creating any designs cut the dough as you wish at this point.
To place dough into a pie dish make sure the dough is just bigger than your pan. Invert your pan and
place it on top of the dough, slide your hand in between the table and the remaining wax paper.
Quickly flip the dough and pan together so the pie sits upright.
Carefully mold the pie crust as you peer off the wax paper. Cut off excess raw crust with knife. For
tart pan simply use your fingers to shape the dough into the shape of the pan.
If you will not be cooking the pie filling in the crust and you just need to bake the crust alone place
parchment paper over the crust, fill it with dry legumes, or pie weights. Place your pie crust into
preheated over at 350o for 10 – 15 minutes, or until golden brown. (If you use beans they can be
reused over and over, just let cool and place in a mason jar for later.)
Cooking Pie with pie Filling: To prevent crust from bubbling up on the bottom of the pie, prick it with a
fort. If your pie fillings juicy sprinkle bottom crust with some flour. Then simply place the filling into
the raw pie bottom layer of crust.
Roll out the remaining pie dough between floured pieces of wax paper, peel off top wax paper,
invert it onto the filled pie, then peel off the wax paper.
Cut off excess crust; cut some slits in the pie with a knife, or place pie bird in the center to allow
steam to escape. This helps prevent volcanic eruptions of bubbling juices.
To flute the edges pinch with fingers into a fancy pattern or simply use a fork. The idea is to seal the
edges so the juices stay inside the pie while baking.
At this point, you can brush the top of the pie with an egg wash (one egg beaten with one tablespoon
of water). This gives the pie a shiny glaze. Heavy cream brushed on also makes a nice brown crust.
If you like you can sprinkle a coarsely ground sugar (raw / turbine sugar) on top of the glaze.
Place your beautiful creation in oven, Depending on the fruit used it could take anywhere from 45
minutes to an hour and 15 minutes. Be patient. When the pie is bubbly and golden brown, and the
fruit is soft, remove from the oven to cool on a rack. Most fruit pies like to sit a while to solidify.
However, if you just can’t wait, enjoy hot with a bit of vanilla ice cream. .
There are so many ways to shape pie crust, use your imagination!
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