Blueberry Peach Buckle

I can't believe I've never shared this recipe. It is so simple and delicious! You can have it for breakfast, a snack, or dessert.  It keeps well and freezes wonderfully. You can use fresh or frozen fruit and the rest of the ingredients are pantry staples. 

A buckle is essentially a cake filled with fruit and (optionally) topped with a crumble topping. Buckles, along with similar evocatively-named desserts like grunts, slumps and cobblers, are a great way to use an abundance of fresh fruit before it goers bad. 

At this time of year we still have a lot of fresh berries and stone fruits in the local markets. This recipe uses peaches and blueberries, but you could use any berries you like, or even plums. 

This recipe comes from The Joy of Cooking, and I've been making it for years.  I like to add oats to the crumble topping, but you can leave them out or skip the topping altogether (but I recommend it!)

Recipe (slightly adapted from The Joy of Cooking)

Buckle
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
1/2 cup milk
2 medium peaches, pitted and diced
1 1/2 cups blueberries

Crumble Topping
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons flour
1/4 cup rolled oats
2 tablespoons butter

For the buckle, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. In a separate bowl mix together the butter, sugar and egg until fluffy.  Add the milk slowly and mix until combined. Stir in the dry ingredients until just mixed. The batter will be quite thick. Carefully fold in the peaches and blueberries. 

Spread the batter evenly in a greased 9-inch square baking pan.  

Mix the crumble topping ingredients together until combined and sprinkle over the buckle batter. 

Bake at 350 degrees for 50 minutes until a wooden skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean.  Cool 20 minutes before serving. 

Tart of the Month - Bourbon Peach Icebox Cake

This is only very tangentially a tart.  Icebox cake has a "crust" in the form of cookies and a "filling" in the form of whipped cream and fruit, so I'm calling it my tart of the month so I don't have to turn on the oven!

Icebox cake is actually really easy to make.  A magic process takes place when you layer cookies with whipped cream. They take on a cake-like consistency as they moisten and become almost like solid cake when sliced. 

Peach Salsa with Grilled Pork Chops

Peaches are still very much in season around here.  Last week we ate two full baskets between the two of us!  This tasty, easy peach salsa used up four of them.  It's great with pork and would be nice with chicken too.

Here's what you need:

4 ripe peaches
1 small red onion
2 jalapeño peppers
juice of one lime
cilantro or parsley

Peach Raspberry Crisp

Are you ready for a shocking confession?  I've never made a pie.  

Well, to be more accurate, I've never made a pie crust.  I've made a key lime pie with graham cracker crust, but that barely counts as pie.   I've never made pie crust from scratch or baked a real pie.