I love August! It’s my birthday month and it’s also prime peach season! I am lucky enough to have an abundance of farmer’s markets where I live so it’s easy to find plenty of fresh, local fruits and vegetables during the summer. Peach season lasts for only a few short weeks, so I take advantage of the supply while it lasts. I love baking with peaches—I have blogged about several peach recipes like these for peach slab pie and peach crisp. Although I enjoy them in various baked creations, there’s nothing like biting into a whole, juicy peach and eating it in its simplest form. This shortcake recipe allows you to enjoy the fresh, unbaked fruit while accompanying it with a heavenly little almond shortcake, beautiful blackberries, and a cool scoop of vanilla ice cream (or whipped cream if you prefer.) If you want to know what late-summer tastes like, this is it, folks!
Ingredients
Shortcakes:
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 4 tablespoons sugar
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 8 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into pieces
- 1 large egg, beaten
- ½ cup half-and-half (you can use whole milk if you don’t halve half and half on hand)
- 1 ½ teaspoons almond extract (I use 2 teaspoons of almond extract becuase I lovvvvve it so much!)
- 1 egg white, beaten
Fruit:
- 6 peaches, peeled, cored and sliced
- 1 pint fresh blackberries
- ½ cups granulated sugar (you can use less depending on how sweet you want to make your fruit—honestly, NO SUGAR at all is my favorite way to serve the fruit. I like to let the natural sweetness take center stage!)
Whipped Cream:
- 2 cups heavy whipping cream
- ½ cup granulated sugar
*You can also substitute vanilla ice cream for the whipped cream—which is my preference.
Instructions
- With oven rack in lower middle position, preheat oven to 450 degrees.
- In food processor, pulse the flour, 3 tablespoons of the sugar, baking powder and salt. Add butter and process until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Put into large bowl.
- Mix the beaten egg with half and half and almond flavoring in a small bowl. Pour into bowl with flour mixture and stir until just combined. Turn the mixture onto floured surface (mixture will be sticky) and knead until just combined.
- Pat dough into large rectangle, about ¾ inch thick. With a 2 ½-inch fluted biscuit cutter, cut out 6 dough rounds. Place on a baking sheet and brush the tops with egg white.
- Sprinkle with the remaining tablespoon of sugar.
- Bake until the biscuits are golden brown, about 13-15 minutes.
- While the shortcakes are baking, prepare the fruit in a large bowl with a cover. First, sprinkle sliced peaches with Fruit Fresh to prevent them from turning dark. Add a splash of warm water to peaches to moisten, then add the blackberries and stir in the sugar. Cover and refrigerate until ready to use.
- In a large mixing bowl, whip the cream and sugar until peaks start to form.
- After removing the golden brown biscuits from the oven and allowing them to cool, slice them in half. Assemble the shortcakes by adding a spoonful of peaches and blackberries and a dollop of whipped cream to one half of the biscuit, and then top each shortcake with the other biscuit half.
***Strawberries, blueberries, also make for good substitutes for this shortbread recipe.
Photo credit: Rose Kesting
Recipe Credit: Adapted from https://farmflavor.com/
Leave a Reply