When You Need a Treat - Peach Kuchen!

By Guest Blogger Peg Cochran / Meg London

Giovanna “Gigi” Fitzgerald, the amateur sleuth in my Gourmet De-Lite series, (coming in 2012 from Berkley Prime Crime), provides gourmet diet meals to a select group of clients.  Gigi, however, does not believe in being deprived and thinks it’s fine to treat yourself occasionally as long as it’s something good.  (Sorry, but Twinkies don’t qualify!)

Most people would agree—dessert of any sort is a real treat!  While the following recipe for Peach Kuchen isn’t even remotely low-calorie, it definitely is good!  This is one of my husband’s favorites—I made it for him while we were dating.  (Yes, the way to a man’s heart IS through his stomach!  

I’ve made a few changes—I prefer to bake this in a decorative glass pie plate (10”) because I think it looks prettier (otherwise substitute an 8 x 8 inch pan), and I exchanged half the white sugar for brown.  It’s very easy to make once you get the hang of it.

I think you’ll agree, this version of Peach Kuchen (kuchen is cake in German) is worth every single calorie!  And if peaches aren’t your thing, substitute a pint of washed and stemmed blueberries for a real treat!

PEACH KUCHEN

2 c. all-purpose flour

1/4 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 c. white sugar

1/2 c. brown sugar

2 Tbs. White sugar

1/2 c. butter

6 fresh peaches - peeled, pitted, and halved OR 2 - 15 oz. cans peaches in lite syrup, drained (better to use canned peaches than fresh ones that aren't quite ripe or are mealy)

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

2 egg yolks

1/2 c. sour cream

1/2 c. heavy cream

Directions:  Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).

Sift the flour, baking powder, salt, and 2 Tbs. sugar into a large bowl.  Cut in butter by pinching between your fingers until the mixture resembles coarse cornmeal.  (I use my food processor to do this - like making pie dough but without the water.)

Butter, cut into flour mixture.

Press the flour/butter mixture into the bottom and up the sides of a pie plate.

Place the peach halves on top of the crust in a nice pattern.  Mix together the remaining sugar and cinnamon; sprinkle over the peach halves.

Bake for 15 minutes in the preheated oven.  While the peaches are are baking, whisk together the egg yolks and sour cream and heavy cream in a medium bowl. Pour over the peaches after the 15 minutes are up.

Baked peaches, right out of the oven

Baked peaches, topped with batter

Return the dish to the oven, and bake for approximately 30 minutes more, until nicely browned on top.  Cool slightly before serving.  Serve warm or at room temperature.

Bon Appetit!!

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Peg Cochran grew up in a New Jersey suburb about 25 miles outside of New York City.  After college, she moved to the City where she managed an art gallery owned by the son of the artist Henri Matisse.  When her first daughter arrived, the new family moved back to the New Jersey suburbs where her second daughter was born

After her husband died, Peg remarried and her new husband took a job in Grand Rapids, Michigan where they now live (on exile from NJ as she likes to joke).  Somehow Peg managed to segue from the art world to marketing and is now the manager of marketing communications for a company that provides services to seniors.

Her greatest love though has always been writing—particularly mysteries!  She has two cozy mystery series debuting from Berkley Prime Crime—the Gourmet De-Lite series set in Connecticut and featuring Gigi Fitzgerald who provides gourmet diet meals to a select group of clients and the Sweet Nothings Vintage Lingerie series, written as Meg London, set in Paris, Tennessee with Emma Taylor who finds murder and mayhem in the quiet countryside.

As for pets—she has a schizophrenic cat (really) named Frazzle and a Westhighland White Terrier Reggie who is desperately in need of losing a few pounds.  But you know what they say:  If your dog is overweight, it means YOU aren’t getting enough exercise!