Baked Peaches

Peach season is a great time of the year, and this old-fashioned Baked Peaches recipe will make you love peach season more than ever.

It’s hard to imagine during winter, but there comes a time when summer fruits are so abundant that you start thinking about ways to enjoy them other than just in their natural packaging.

This Baked Peaches recipe is super easy and a great way to enjoy peaches during the festive season.

How lucky are we in Australia that Christmas coincides with peach season?

Which peaches work best for Baked Peaches?

Peaches can be clingstone, freestone or somewhere in between.

Clingstone peaches have seeds that cling to the flesh of the fruit whereas freestone peaches have seeds that easily come away from the flesh.

This recipe requires the peaches to be cut in half and the seed removed, so using a freestone variety will make this task easier.

However, supermarket varieties are often clingstone as these fruits are easier to eat.

You can use clingstone peaches here, and I used them when testing this recipe. It’s just a little more fiddly to halve the peaches and remove the seeds. But still completely do-able.

I’ve included tips on halving and de-seeding peaches below.

The recipe from 1943: Baked Peaches

This recipe is based on one recorded by Nana Ling in January 1943.

She would have been knee-deep in peach season back then and living on many acres in Buttai, near Maitland.

Mum often tells me about the sprawling orchard they had out there, and the wonderful stone fruits. I can practically see the trees laden with fruit and taste the peaches when she talks about it.

One of Nana Ling’s sons wrote a memoir and talks about how there was no fruit fly back then to upset the season, too.

Ahh, the good ol’ days!

The ingredients for Baked Peaches

This recipes uses half a kilo of fresh, ripe peaches. Any variety will do.

You’ll also need:

• banana
• apple
• blanched almonds
• brown sugar
• cinnamon
• nutmeg.

Making Baked Peaches

Wash and dry peaches before splitting in half and removing the seed.

Use a sharp knife to cut in half and then twist each half in opposite directions to pull apart into halves.

If you’re using a clingstone peach, this process may be a little more difficult.

If the halves aren’t separating, run the knife around the split again and, using your fingers, gently pry the halves apart moving around the entire length of the split. Then attempt to twist the halves apart again.

To remove the seed from a clingstone peach, use a teaspoon to gently dig it out.

You then chop the apple and banana, mix in the almonds, spices and half the sugar, and spoon the mixture into the hollows left by the seeds.

Finally, sprinkle the peaches with the remaining sugar and place into a moderate oven for 40 minutes.

Enjoying your Baked Peaches

You can enjoy this beautiful summer dessert warm or cold.

It’s absolutely wonderful served with brandy custard. Serving the peaches like this makes a perfect dessert for Christmas.

However, you can also enjoy the peaches with store-bought custard, ice cream or yoghurt.