Peach Bars

One of the most beautiful things at my parent's house is their peach tree.  Every year it gives off fruit better and better as the tree matures.  Thank you Mr. Peach Tree for all your lovely fruit you offer us!

About 20 minutes before I picked these peaches we witnessed a deer enjoying herself to a couple of these precious ones - which are like candy to her!  The amazing part of this is that my parent's house is literally 3 feet away from this tree.  My parents and sister were inside getting dinner ready having a grand ole time with music playing, laughing and chatting away with the windows wide open and there was the deer just having a delightful little snack unbeknown to those that were inside the house.  Jeff and I were only able to see the deer because we were driving up the driveway as she ate away at the fruit.  Needless to say the deer decided to leave the rest of the peaches for us when she saw our car pull up the driveway.  How nice of her!

This is one of two recipes that I made with the peaches I harvested that evening. The second peach recipe I made will be coming soon to a computer near you. :-)

Peach Bars

(recipe from The Brown Eyed Baker)

Ingredients:

For the Crumb Topping/Dough:

3 cups flour

1 cup sugar

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

1 egg, lightly beaten

For the Filling:

5 cups peaches, diced or sliced and peeled (about 7 peaches)

2 Tbsp lemon juice

1/2 cup flour

1 cup sugar

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Grease a 9x13 baking pan.

2. Make the crumb topping/dough.....in a medium bowl whisk together the flour, salt, sugar and baking powder.  Cut up butter into small slices/chunks....

......then with a pastry cutter blend the butter into the flour mixture until crumbly.

3. Lightly beat egg....

...add to the butter/flour mixture...

4. Pour 1/2 of mixture into prepared baking pan and pat down....

Place the pan and the other 1/2 of crumb topping/dough mixture in refrigerator as you prepare the filling.

5. To prepare the filling place the diced/sliced and peeled peaches into a medium bowl..

....sprinkle with lemon juice...

....gently stir to get the lemon juice all over peaches.

6. Whisk together flour, sugar, salt and spices and then add to peach/lemon juice mixture.  Mix gently all together.

7. Pour peaches evenly onto prepared crust....

8. Crumble the remaining crumb topping/dough mixture on top of peach layer...

9. Bake in preheated oven for 45 minutes or until the top is lightly brown...

Cool completely before cutting into squares and serving.

YUM!

Happy Peach Bars Baking!