School or no school, we try to enjoy one last hurrah over the long weekend. You can bet that grills are fired up; coals sizzling as fat melts down...smoke clinging to the humid air. But there is also tons of fresh produce on display, like tomatoes so ripe and flavorful that you can eat them like apples, to peaches that streak your chin and arms with sticky sweet juices, to corn so sweet it's like eating sugar from a cob. Those are some of my favorite things about the tail-end of summer.
Well, today the Sunday Supper crew is joining Gallo Family again, and we're bringing you a menu filled with Labor Day Entertaining recipes. So, of course, my mind was turning over all sorts of riffs on that produce that just screams summer in my ear. Both of the wines that we are featuring this month are sweet and light bodied. Either would compliment a Sunday Supper under the late-summer sun. The first is Sweet Red, and the second is Gallo's newest varietal, Riesling.
To me, the perfect summer dessert is something that uses freshly picked fruit, berries, or cherries. Think pies, crisps, cobblers, and buckles - that sort of thing. I hadn't made a buckle in a number of years. And I'd never actually made a buckle using anything but blueberries, though I remember eating my grandma's peach buckle when I was a kid.
Are you asking what in the world a buckle is? I put it in the same category as those other fruit desserts I mentioned (I think most people do)...a category that includes crisps, crumbles, pies, cobblers, pandowdies, betties, slumps, and grunts. With names like that, it's no wonder it's my favorite dessert category. But what makes a buckle a buckle is that it has a sort of cake base. The base is poured first, and the fruit is set over the top of it. It often has a streusel or crumb topping, as well, though I didn't use one this time. As it bakes, the batter rises up and the fruit "buckles", allowing the batter to encase the fruit.
So, to enhance the flavor of the ripe, juicy peach filling, I added the Riesling to it. Also the seeds of a vanilla bean to round it out a bit. The flavors were basically a match made in heaven. I could eat the filling itself with a spoon and be entirely happy.
Peach Buckle (w/ Riesling)
This Peach Buckle, infused with vanilla and Riesling wine, makes the perfect end-of-summer dessert. Serve it warm and top it off with a scoop of vanilla ice cream!
by
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 45 minutes
Keywords: bake dessert nut-free soy-free vegetarian peaches vanilla beans wine Labor Day July 4th cake American summer
Ingredients (serves 6-8)
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon corn starch
- pinch of sea salt
- 1/2 cup Riesling
- 1 vanilla bean
- 2 pounds (5 or 6) peaches, peeled, pitted, & sliced (a heaping quart prepared)
- 4 ounces unsalted butter
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
- 3/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
- few good grates of nutmeg
- 1 1/2 cups buttermilk
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350° F. If using a 12" cast iron skillet to make the buckle in, go ahead and put that in the oven now (otherwise just have a 3 quart baking dish ready).
Whisk dry ingredients together. Dump them into a large pot, then whisk in the wine. Cut the vanilla bean in half lengthwise and scrape the seeds from it; add both the seeds and the pod to the pot. Set pot over medium-high heat, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer gently for 2-3 minutes, whisking to make sure everything is combined and that there are no lumps. Gently stir in the peaches using a wide wooden spoon, and let bubble up gently around the edges for another 1-2 minutes. Remove from heat.
Using oven mitts to handle it, very carefully place the butter into the cast-iron skillet (or the baking dish if not using cast iron), and then slide it into your preheated oven until the butter is melted and bubbly, 5 minutes or so.
Whisk the dry ingredients together, then whisk in the buttermilk until smooth. Pour into the hot pan, over the melted butter; DO NOT STIR. I REPEAT, DO NOT STIR!
Remove the vanilla bean pods from the reserved peaches. Now, carefully spoon your peaches as evenly as you can over the batter, drizzling any liquid in the pan over the top. Slide back into the oven and bake for 45 minutes, or until the batter crust (which has now risen to the top and encased the peaches) is golden and cooked through.
Serve warm, preferably with a big ol' scoop of vanilla (or buttermilk) ice cream.
*Peeling your peaches is optional. Some people prefer it, but I don't like that extra step of blanching, so I skip it. They slide off a bit once they're cooked, but again, that doesn't bother me. Entirely up to you.
You could also use several smaller skillets or baking dishes, depending on how you'd like to present your cobbler. If you do this, just be sure that the volume adds up to about the same amount as using one larger skillet or pan. Divide the butter, batter, and peach mixture as evenly as you can amongst the smaller skillets. Watch your baking time, it should be about the same, but may fall on the shorter side.
Compensation was provided by Gallo Family Vineyards via Sunday Supper, LLC. The opinions expressed herein are those of the author, and are not indicative of the opinions or positions of Gallo Family Vineyards.
