Peach Season
It’s finally peach season! I adore peaches, lets not lie I adore most fresh fruit. But there’s just something about a ripe juicy peach that screams baking to me. Hence the foray into peach focaccia, I’ve been waiting and waiting for good southern peaches to make their way up here to Chicago so I could bake with them. Not to slight the great produce from Michigan, but nothing compares to a southern peach. They just taste better.
About a week ago, Susie and I were downtown and without lunch plans decided to stop by Eataly to treat ourselves. If you’ve been following us on Instagram….you know what we had for lunch! Anyway, while waiting for a table we were browsing the upstairs and saw both fresh strawberry and peach focaccia. I’d never seen fresh peach focaccia before, but it makes total sense. I mean focaccia is basically just a flatbread with yummy things added, why not add peaches when they are in season?
Pairing Focaccia With Peaches
So I’ve taken my focaccia recipe and sweetened it up a bit to better fit the peaches. It’s still the basic concept, but I’ve switched olive oil for melted butter and sugar for salt. I’m not gonna lie, I cheated and used the bread machine to do the hard work for me. I just didn’t have the time to knead and knead with the oil method. I highly recommend using it if you have the time. I’m not saying it’s bad the quick way, but there is a taste and texture advantage with the oil method. I always try to make the extra time, but sometimes I just can’t do everything by hand because my to-do list is too long.
More Fruit Friendly Recipes:
- 2 1/4 teaspoons yeast
- 1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1/2 cup warm water
- 2 cups flour
- 2 cups bread flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 3 tablespoons canola oil or melted butter
- 2 medium thinly sliced peaches, skin intact
- 5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- In a small bowl combine yeast,sugar and warm water. Set aside for 5 minutes, until bubbly.
- In your stand mixer fitted with a dough hook combine both flours and 1 teaspoon salt. Stir in the yeast mixture, then mix in buttermilk and 3 tablespoons canola oil. Mix on low till dough starts to come together and then turn up to medium for 8-10 minutes. (These 8-10 minutes simulates kneading, saving you a lot of time.)
- When done, move to a greased bowl, cover and allow to rise until doubled in size. When risen, punch down dough, turn out onto a floured surface and roll to fit a 9x15-inch well greased baking sheet. Let rise about 20 minutes, until puffy.
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Make random indentations in the dough with your fingers, layer with fresh peach slices and brush the entire thing with melted butter. Sprinkle with brown sugar and bake until golden 25-30 minutes. Slice and serve while still warm.
