peach recipe – Brownie Mischief

Vanilla Bean Glazed Peach Turnovers

Fresh, juicy peaches wrapped in tender, flaky crust, coated with sweet vanilla bean glaze

Servings 4 6-inch turnovers

Ingredients

Peach Turnovers

1 ½ cups (172g) all purpose flour
1 ½ tablespoons (18g) granulated sugar
⅜ teaspoon fine sea salt
2 tablespoons (24g) vegetable shortening
6 tablespoons (85g) cold, unsalted butter, cubed
1 ½ teaspoons apple cider vinegar
8 ounces (227g) peeled and sliced ripe peaches (about 1 1/2 cups of 1/4-inch (.6cm) thick slices)
1 teaspoon lemon juice
2 tablespoons (25g) packed brown sugar, divided
¼ teaspoon vanilla bean paste
1 teaspoon cornstarch
¼ teaspoon cinnamon
Egg wash: 1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon (15 ml) of water
Pressed edible flowers for garnish (optional)

Vanilla Bean Glaze

½ cup (60g) powdered sugar, sifted
1 tablespoon (14g) unsalted butter, melted
½ teaspoon vanilla bean paste
½ teaspoon meringue powder (optional)
1 dash fine sea salt
1-2 tablespoons (15-30ml) whole milk

Instructions

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, granulated sugar and salt. Work in the shortening with your fingertips until it's evenly dispersed. Work in the butter until flat dime-sized pieces are formed.
In a small bowl, combine 1/4 cup (59ml) of ice water and the vinegar. Sprinkle the ice water mixture over the flour mixture a little at a time and stir just until the dough comes together. You may not need all of the liquid, depending on your climate. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Fold the dough over onto itself a couple of times. Divide the dough into 4 equal portions and form the portions into disks. Cover the dough disks with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or up to overnight.
In a medium-size bowl, gently toss the peaches with the lemon juice. Add 1 tablespoon (13g) of brown sugar and stir to combine. Let the peaches sit for 30 minutes. Drain the excess juices from the peaches, then toss with the vanilla bean paste. Sprinkle on the cornstarch, cinnamon and the remaining 1 tablespoon (12g of brown sugar and stir gently to coat the peaches.
Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 375ºF (190ºC). Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
On a lightly floured surface, roll out the 4 disks to about 1/8-inch (.3cm) thickness. Cut each one into a 6 1/4-inch round. Transfer the dough rounds to the prepared baking sheet. Spoon the peaches onto one side of the dough rounds to within 1/2-inch (1.3cm) from the edges. It's helpful to arrange the peach slices by hand. Brush the perimeter edges with egg wash using a small pastry brush or your fingertip. Fold the dough over and press the edges to seal. Crimp the edges with a fork. Brush the turnovers with egg wash. Cut two 1/2-inch (1.3cm) ventilation slits in each turnover.
Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until the turnovers are golden brown and the filling starts to bubble. Transfer the turnovers to a cooling rack to cool completely. While the turnovers cool, make the vanilla bean glaze.
In a small bowl, whisk together the powdered sugar, melted butter, vanilla bean paste, the meringue powder (if using), salt and 1 tablespoon (15ml) of milk. Add additional milk if needed to reach the desired consistency.
Using a small pastry brush, brush the icing onto the cooled turnovers. When the icing is almost set, apply pressed blossoms to the tops of the pies if desired.

Notes

To find my favorite vanilla bean paste, click here.

Keyword pastry, peach turnovers, pie

Summer is nearly over, and after the recent heatwave here in Southern California, I’m more than ready to welcome fall weather. But before I put on my fluffy sweater and dive into pumpkin spice everything, I want to enjoy the tail end of peach season, don’t you? Farmer’s markets and stores near my home are still brimming over with fresh peaches, so I picked up some peaches and decided to give them a proper goodbye and send them off in style.

I created some luscious peaches and cream filled, bite-size puffs of choux pastry, called profiteroles. They’re like cream puffs, only smaller. The filling is creamy, but so light and airy that I’m convinced that these profiteroles have no calories! The recipe I’m sharing with you uses fresh peaches, but feel free to substitute frozen peaches if fresh peaches aren’t available. There are a lot of steps to this recipe, but the steps are done in stages and are very easy to do.

I decorated my profiteroles with fresh, pesticide-free miniature rosebuds, also known as spray roses. If you can’t find miniature rosebuds, pesticide-free rose petals would be a good substitute. You may not get a chance to embellish these little beauties. They have a way of popping into people’s mouths even before you can decorate them!

Peaches & Cream Profiteroles

Bite-sized puffs of choux pastry filled with a creamy, fresh peach filling and topped with fresh peach icing.

Print Recipe

Course Dessert

Cuisine French

Servings 18

Ingredients

Peach Purée

2 large fresh peaches, peeled, pitted and sliced *see note below
½ teaspoon fresh lemon juice
½ teaspoon natural peach flavoring

Peaches & Cream Filling

1 cup whole milk
⅓ cup (2 ounces) granulated sugar
2 tablespoons (1/2 ounce) cornstarch
¼ teaspoon fine sea salt
1 egg
2 tablespoon (1 ounce) unsalted butter
¼ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
⅛ teaspoon pure almond extract
peach purée recipe above
⅔ cup heavy whipping cream

Profiteroles

½ cup water
4 tablespoons (2 ounces) unsalted butter, cubed
⅛ teaspoon fine sea salt
½ cup (2 1/4 ounces) all purpose flour
2 eggs room temperature

Peach Icing

¾ cup (3 ounces) powdered sugar, sifted
2 tablespoons reserved peach puree
1 tablespoon heavy whipping cream
¼ teaspoon natural peach flavoring

Instructions

Peach Purée

Purée peaches in a blender or food processor. Strain puréed peaches through a sieve. Stir in lemon juice.
Place puréed peaches in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat.
Reduce heat and simmer until peach purée is reduced by half.
Remove from heat. Stir in peach flavoring and set aside to cool completely.

Peaches and Cream Filling

Bring milk to a boil in a small saucepan over medium heat.
Meanwhile, whisk sugar, cornstarch and salt together in a medium bowl. Add the egg and whisk until smooth.
When milk starts to boil, remove from heat and pour 1/3 of the hot milk into the egg mixture and whisk to combine.
Pour the egg mixture into the remaining hot milk and cook over medium heat, stirring continuously, until the mixture comes to a boil and thickens.
Remove from heat. Stir in butter and extracts.
Pour mixture through a sieve placed over a bowl. Cover the surface of pastry cream with plastic wrap. Let cool.
Set aside 2 tablespoons of cooled peach purée. Add remaining peach purée to cooled pastry cream and stir to combine. Chill in refrigerator.
In a medium bowl, whip heavy cream to stiff peaks with an electric mixer at high speed. Fold whipped cream into peach pastry cream mixture. Set aside in refrigerator.

Profiteroles

Preheat oven to 400ºF. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper.
Combine water, butter and salt in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat.
Reduce heat. Add flour and stir vigorously with a wooden spoon until mixture pulls away from sides of the pan and forms a ball.
Transfer mixture to the bowl of a stand mixer. Mix on low speed until steam dissipates and mixture cools to lukewarm.
Add eggs one at a time and beat with an electric mixer at medium speed, until smooth, stopping to scrape down bowl.
Transfer mixture to a piping bag, fitted with a large round tip. (**I used Ateco tip 808.)
Pipe 1 1/4 inch mounds, about 2 inches apart onto prepared baking sheets. Smooth tops with a wet finger.
Bake for 15 minutes, then turn oven temperature down to 350ºF and continue baking until golden brown, about 8-10 more minutes. Using a toothpick or skewer poke a small hole in each profiterole to let steam escape. Place on a wire rack to cool completely.
Using the tip of a paring knife, poke a pilot hole in the bottom of each profiterole.
Place peaches and cream filling into a piping bag fitted with a medium round piping tip. (***I used Wilton tip 12.)
Place piping tip into the pilot holes and fill each profiterole with filling.

Peach Icing

In a small bowl, whisk all icing ingredients together and spoon over filled profiteroles. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Notes

*To make peaches easy to peel, blanch them in boiling water for about 30 seconds, then dunk in ice water.

**To find Ateco tip 808, click here. ***To find Wilton tip 12, click here.