There are peaches, and there are peaches. There are the ones you buy at the supermarket with no taste, or the ones you buy and have to wait for 4 or 5 days for them to ripen before eating them, and there are just picked, juicy, ripe, let’s-eat-them-today peaches that taste like summer sweetness. I have met few folks who do not like a good, ripe peach that you can eat in hand while the juice runs down your arm, which is one of life’s simple joys. This post is an ode to those kind of peaches.
In a few days there will be a new peach cookbook released by Gibbs-Smith Publishers that I had the pleasure of working on. “Just Peachy” by Belinda Smith-Sullivan. She is a person extraordinaire. Not only do her familial roots run deep in the South, she is a woman-of-the-world in both a culinary and travel sense.
Here is one of my favorite pics of Belinda amongst all those ready-to-pick South Carolina peaches. The granddaughter of Mississippi sharecroppers, Belinda is also a chef, food writer, creator of her on line of spice blends and a commercially-rated pilot who resides in South Carolina where some of the best peaches in the world grow which are the inspiration for this book.
The lovely photography in this book is by Mark Boughton. Check out his work on line. I had the rare chance to both style the food and do all the tabletop photo-prop styling for this cookbook and it was a great, just peachy time! Thanks Belinda and Mark.
This recipe, “Blueberry Peach Pecan Scones”, is easy to make and bake in less than 45 minutes total time. Serve them warm from the oven with homemade peach preserves (another recipe in the book you will love) and a smear of softened butter.
Because of all the peaches and blueberries, these scones are not as dry as some and were still good a few days after I baked them.
You can add the lemon glaze that is part of the recipe, or as I did, just sprinkle them with decorating sugar for the crunch.
Here, have a bite. Enjoy.
Blueberry Peach Pecan Scones
Ingredients:
- 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 3/4 cup sugar (I used half white and half raw sugar)
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 3/4 teaspoons baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon cardamom (I love this spice so I used a bit more)
- 1/2 cup butter
- 1/2 cup buttermilk, or heavy cream
- 1 egg
- zest of 1 lemon
- 1 teaspoon almond extract
- 1 cup of peeled and chopped ripe peaches
- 1/2 cup pecan pieces, toasted
- 1/2 cup frozen blueberries (I frozen fresh berries on a flat tray and used instead of grocery store frozen, which you can use)
- 1/4 cup milk, for wash
- (My addition – 1/2 cup plain decorating sugar)
- Glaze recipe: 1/4 cup fresh squeeze lemon juice + 1/2 cup confectioner’s sugar, sifted
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
- In a medium bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cardamom. Cut butter into flour mixture using a pastry blender or your fingers until it resembles coarse meal. This step can also be done in the food processor.
- Combine buttermilk, egg, lemon zest and almond extract. Stir into the flour mixture along with the chopped peached, pecans and blueberries just until combined.
- On a lightly floured work surface, gather dough into a loose ball and flatten somewhat. Dust with flour, dough will be sticky, and roll out to about 3/4 inch thick. Cut dough into 4 inch square and then cut squares diagonally to make triangles. Place on parchment lined baking sheet. Brush with milk. (Dust with decorating sugar if you are using.) Bake for 20-25 minutes until golden brown.
- For the glaze mix together lemon juice and sugar until sugar dissolves. Drizzle over warm scones if desired.
Based on original recipe by Belinda Smith-Sullivan from her cookbook “Just Peachy” published by Gibbs-Smith Publishers.
Teresa Blackburn teresablackburnfoodstyling.com
