Life is Peachy!

Life is peachy lately. Things seem to be humming along at a fast pace, and my days are filled with all sorts of urban homesteading activities. Aside from the canning, I now have the garden to tend. Let me tell you, I am loving getting my hands dirty and weeding away. I am also staring Christmas crafting in the face. I hope to get an early start this year... just like every year. For now, though, I am thoroughly busy with canning. As you can see by my lack of posting, most of my time has been occupied with things like canning. At the end of August, it was all about peaches. I bought a 25 pound box of peaches as well as a couple of other pounds along the way for canning projects. The first thing I do when I take home a large box of any produce is to sort it right away looking for any bruised fruit. The bruised fruit gets quarantined from the rest of the lot to ensure that no further spoilage is encouraged. This box had just enough fruit with bruises and spoilage for an early peach cobbler.

This time around, I decided to try out the recipe from Cook's Illustrated. If you do not have a subscription to the website, I highly recommend it. The amount of recipes at your fingertips as well as knowledgeable equipment reviews are well worth the subscription fee in my opinion. I have to say that the recipe was rather fussy, but I felt like it was worth it, at least for the topping. One thing that I do recognize now is that I will no longer be using the boiling water technique in these pictures for peeling peaches ever again. I find that this method does not work very well for my favorite type of peach, the O'Henry. While this is a super freestone peach, it does not want to be skinned for some reason. I have, therefore, decided to only peel them from now on with my awesome Messermeister serrated peeler. Yes the peeler is a bit expensive, but I have to say it is well worth the price. I will, however, miss the beautiful color that the boiling water turns when scalding the peaches. It is the most wonderful purple hue!

The other big advantage of the O'Henry peach is that it remains firm even through cooking. I like that the flesh does not all go to mush when processing it or turning it into a cobbler or pie. The slices still have integrity and a wonderful texture. Here is where the recipe gets a bit fussy, and while the step is totally necessary for a good result, I wished there was another way. The recipe has you macerate and strain off the extra juice from the peaches so that the cobbler does not become a soupy mess. The topping was another story. It was as simple as most recipes, and it resulted in a very tender biscuit due to the addition of yogurt.

I do want to make one more of these before all the fresh peaches have left the market. I especially love the extra crunch on the top of the biscuits that the sugar crusting creates. I do think that I will add a bit more cinnamon to it next time as I am a cinnamon fan. I highly recommend this recipe and have saved it as a favorite. I do have to say, though, that this did not dethrone the Dutch oven cobbler that we made when camping. That was so good, and I am not sure if it was the long hike before dinner, or that it was just really that good that made it taste so delicious. Perhaps some day I will make both at once and taste them side by side. Until then, try out this recipe and for an added touch of awesome, serve it hot with a little scoop of homemade vanilla ice cream!

Cheater Cream Puffs

As I talked about yesterday, I love desserts. Cream Puffs are up at the top of the list. I used to beg my Grandmother to make these for me, and when I was a kid I was sure they were so hard to make. Once I headed off to college, I asked for the recipe from her, and I found out that they were really not all that hard to make. I did not think about blogging this recipe until after they were in the oven, so there are not many pictures of the early steps. I apologize for that. Hopefully from descriptions alone I can walk you through the process. Why do I call these cheater cream puffs? Well they are filled with instant pudding, so no need to be a custard making master for this recipe. They are fast to make and easy too. It makes for a quick midweek dessert. So, without further ado, here is the recipe for cheater cream puffs!

Ingredients:

~ 1/4 cup butter
~ 1/2 cup water
~ 1/2 cup flour
~ 2 eggs at room temperature (this is important)
~ Your favorite cook and serve pudding. I usually use vanilla. I think it turns out best
~ Semi-sweet chocolate chips

Let the eggs sit until they reach room temperature. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Heat the water in a saucepan until boiling. Add the butter, reduce the heat to low, and melt the butter. Add the flour and mix until it is fully incorporated. Remove the pan from the heat and add the eggs one at a time, making sure to fully incorporate them. The dough should be really thick and putty or pasty like. It will also be a lemony color. Place the dough by the spoonful on a parchment lined cookie sheet. The dough should make six full sized cream puffs. Make sure to pat down any tall peaks in the dough. I am not sure if you can make mini cream puffs with this seeing as I have never tried. If you do try it, let me know what you find out about the cooking times. Bake the cream puffs in the 450 degree oven for 10 minutes, and then reduce the oven temperature to 400 degrees and bake for an additional 25 minutes. When they are done they should look like this:

While the cream puff shells are baking, make your favorite filling. I typically use Jello brand vanilla cook and serve pudding. Once I cook it, I make sure to pour it into a bowl and cover the top with plastic wrap so the skin does not form on the pudding. While I love pudding skins, I need all the pudding that little box provides for the filling for these shells. Make sure to cool the pudding completely. When you are ready to serve them, slice them in half with a serrated knife. The interior should be rather hollow. If it is not, you can just push the middle out to make it hold more of the filling. Fill with pudding. If you like a chocolate top like I do, melt some semi-sweet chocolate chips in the microwave and spread on the top of the cream puff. Simple and easy! Make sure that you do not fill the puffs until right before you want to eat them otherwise they will get soggy and not be pleasant to eat. You can keep uneaten shells in a plastic bag for a few days before they get stale, but I am sure they will be gone well before then!