Peach Shortcake

One of the best things about summer is when fresh peaches appear at the farmers' market.  We made a trip Memorial Day weekend and I could smell them before I got inside the vendor's area.  Boy, was I excited.  Peaches surely smell like heaven, ergo:  heaven must smell like peaches.  The wonderful fragrance of peaches is something I look forward to each and every summer.  More than the fragrance of peaches, I look forward to eating fresh, sweet, delectable peaches anyway they can be fixed.

For Memorial Day I made a peach cobbler for us and a gluten free peach crisp for our son in love.  I will post that recipe tomorrow.  The gluten free peach crisp is delicious by the way.  Dan is not a major fan of cooked fruit.  He will eat peach cobbler, but he prefers peaches just sliced and sweetened, eaten mostly over ice cream.  Since we had family coming for dinner this weekend, I decided to make shortcake to have with our peaches.  This recipe is from Paula Deen and it is oh so good and really easy.

Here is what you need:

4 cups Bisquick baking mix
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups milk
2 tbsp melted butter
1 1/2 tsp almond flavoring (I used vanilla)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.  Grease a 12 cup muffin tin.  Mix all the ingredients together and pour into the muffin tin.  Bake for 15-20 minutes until brown.  Remove from oven and they look like this.

They look almost like popovers, but are sweet and soft like a big biscuit and they pair with the fresh sliced peaches beautifully.  I just peeled and sliced a big bowl of peaches and sweetened them with sugar and let them sit so the sugar would help draw the juice out.

When it was time for dessert, I sliced a shortcake in half and put sliced peaches and lots of juice on the bottom half of the shortcake.  Put the top on and added a few more peaches.  I made some fresh whipped cream and put a big dollop on top.  Dan added a big scoop of vanilla ice cream to his.  Whatever floats your boat.

I like the idea of the individual short cakes instead of one big cake so it doesn't get all soggy from the peaches and juice before we can eat it all.  You could use any kind of berry on these shortcakes.  How good would they be with fresh blackberries on them when they come in?  Oh my!

If you love peaches as much as we do, you will want to give this recipe a try for sure.  Oh, the pleasures of summer and all the wonderful fresh foods and fruits to enjoy.  It's a wonderful world we live in.

Everyday Donna

Things to Remember:

There is nothing like a warm summer day full of sunshine, toes in the grass, eating a fresh, ripe, juicy peach while the juice runs down your arm.   May be the closest we will get to heaven on earth.  donna