Summery Peach-Blackberry Shortcakes

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

1. With oven rack in lower middle position, preheat oven to 450 degrees.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. Sprinkle with the remaining tablespoon of sugar.
6. Bake until the biscuits are golden brown, about 13-15 minutes.
7. 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.
8. In a large mixing bowl, whip the cream and sugar until peaks start to form.
9. 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/