This week was peachy around here!
Chelsea showed up mid-week with 40 lbs of peaches and we over-ambitiously flash-boiled every single one of them to make for easy peeling so we could make them into a variety of recipes for the freezer.
Well, we ran out of steam mid-peeling (read: the kids ran out of steam mid-peeling) so we didn’t accomplish as much as a typical sister-kitchen day, but my freezer overfloweth anyways and these Peach Almond Bars were my favourite new peach recipe of the season.
Peach season may be waning, but I hope you can scrounge up 4 or 5 ripe peaches to whip up these bars!
Peach and almond is one of my favourite flavour combinations, and the dough on these squares reminds me a lot of the dough for boterkoek / butter cake, one of my favourite simple, classic recipes. Like that butter cake, I can’t stop eating these squares! The icing drizzle is totally not optional, it makes the bars that much more special and bumps up the almond flavour perfectly. If I’d had some sliced almonds on hand I definitely would’ve thrown a few of those in with the peaches too. I ended up making 3 huge pans of these I liked them so much, and I may “forget” to give Chelsea her share.
I made one pan with half brown sugar in place of granulated sugar, and the dough wasn’t such a pretty white colour but I think I liked the flavour even better, so I’ve included that option in the recipe too!
Have you done anything yummy with peaches this summer?
- DOUGH:
- 1 cup butter, softened to room temperature
- 2 cups sugar (all granulated sugar or substitute 1 cup with brown sugar)
- 4 large eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp almond extract
- 3 cups all purpose flour
- 1 tsp salt
- PEACH FILLING:
- 4 cups peeled, chopped fresh peaches (approx. 4 peaches)
- ¼ cup brown sugar
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- ½ Tbsp flour
- ½ tsp vanilla
- GLAZE:
- 1 cup powdered sugar/icing sugar
- 2 Tbsp cream or milk
- ½ tsp almond extract
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees and lightly grease an 11x15" baking dish or large jelly roll pan.
- For the dough, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add in eggs one at a time, beating after each addition. Add vanilla and almond and mix to combine. Add flour and salt and stir just until incorporated. Spread ¾ of the mixture in the prepared pan.
- For the filling, gently toss all ingredients in a medium bowl and spread evenly over base dough.
- Drop the remaining batter all over the top of the peaches - it will spread as it bakes so don't worry too much about how it looks!
- Bake for 35-38 minutes, until edges start to brown (the squares will not brown much and the middle might still look soft, but they will continue to set as they cool).
- For the glaze, stir together all ingredients, adding more cream if necessary to achieve desired drizzling consistency. Drizzle all over the bars.
Recipe source: Adapted from A Farmgirl’s Dabbles, where you’ll find many, many more must-try recipes!
So jealous of your peaches! I missed the chance for a big order this year. Enjoy them all for me!! These bars are my kind of food. Almonds and peaches are meant to be together!
40 pounds of peaches?? That is awesome! I love almond flavor with any fruit, so these peach almond bars are right up my alley!
Wow, that would be a lot of peaches. Looks delicious!
This makes me want to go get some more. . .
Yummy! And very pretty pictures…I love your dishes!