Summertime for me means endless amounts of fresh fruit. One of my favorite summertime fruits is peaches.
When they are ripe, they can be juice, sweet, and soft. I bought a basket of peaches at the supermarket this week and decided to make something different than the traditional peach pie. I tried out these peach dumplings from the smitten kitchen cookbook and I am glad I did. These are essentially mini-sized pies and they are now my new favorite fruit pie. The recipe called for a bourbon sauce which I have left out because I prefer to eat these with ice cream or whipped cream.
Peach Dumplings
Serving size: 6
Total Time: 1 hour and 15 minutes
Source: Recipe adapted from SmittenKitchen cookbook.
Pie Crust:
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
16 tablespoons (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cold
1/2 cup ice-cold water
Filling:
3 large peaches
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
Pinch of salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Few fresh gratings of nutmeg
1 tablespoon butter, cut into 6 pieces, kept cold
1 large egg, for glaze
Step 1: To make the dough, mix by hand the cut-up butter with flour, sugar and, salt until mixture becomes coarse crumbs. Slowly add cold water until a ball of dough forms. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
Step 2: To make the filling: Halve peaches and remove pits. Alternatively, you can cut the peaches into cubes and mix with brown sugar mixture.
Step 3: Roll your dough out to a 12-by-18-inch rectangle (this is pretty tricky, mine looked more like a large circle), and divide into six 6-inch squares.
Step 4: To assemble dumplings, mix brown sugar, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg together in a little dish. Spoon one lightly packed tablespoon on top of each peach half, smooshing as much of the sugar mixture as you can into the center. Dot the top of each with a piece of cold butter. If you are using cubed peaches, you can mix in chunks of butter, brown sugar filling, and peaches in a bowl. Add a spoonful into the center of each square. Center a peach half, cut side up, in your first pastry square. Bring corners up to meet each other over the center – if it feels tight, or as if you’re short of dough, make sure that the dough underneath is flush with the peach curve; it tends to get slack – and seal the seams together, pinching with your fingertips.
Step 5: To bake dumplings, preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Arrange dumplings in a buttered 9-by-13-inch baking dish, and bake for 30-40 minutes or until pastries are puffed. If you want a golden crust, brush the top of each dumpling with an egg wash. Serve with whipped cream or ice cream.
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