Written By: Chef Peggy Aoki
The heat is on! Mother Nature brings us the hottest days in July, creating the most delicious ripe summer fruits. A bowl full of peaches, nectarines, cherries, or berries is the perfect breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snack just as is. Simple and fresh, you can enjoy these all alone or with a spoonful of greek yogurt or decadent whipped cream.
Make a Crumble
I love a simple peach crumble, which is the next easiest way to enjoy summer fruit. Slice the peaches into an oven-proof dish. Toss the peaches with a couple of tablespoons of cornstarch with them to thicken the juices that will be released in the heat of the oven. Shower the peaches with a simple no-recipe needed combination of soft butter, brown sugar and rolled oats in equal portions stirred together with a fork. Bake in a 350-degree oven just until the topping browns and the peaches are very soft. You can use any summer fruit in this most simple of baked fruit variations. A little scoop of vanilla ice cream would be delicious. Plan to make a little for breakfast the next morning!
Make a Jam
Sometimes I go overboard at the farmer’s market and end up with a few more pints of fruit than I can eat, and that’s when I make a jar or two of jam. My mother’s generation sweated over dozens of jars of jam in the summer, but I prefer to make a quick small batch that I enjoy right away rather than store away.
Peel, pit, and slice the fruit, weigh the fruit you’ll use, and place it in a bowl you can cover. Weigh out half the weight of the fruit in white sugar and sprinkle over the fruit. Cover the bowl and allow the fruit to sit for several hours, up to overnight. The fruit will have some undissolved sugar, some liquid, and the cut fruit. Scrape all of this into a pot deep enough to allow it to boil up several inches without overflowing. Stir well, add the juice of one lemon and cook the mixture until large bubbles appear all over the top of the jam and when you dip a spoon in (carefully, it’s hot!) you can draw a line across the spoon that does not disappear. This can take 5 to 10 minutes depending on the amount of fruit you start with. Keep a close eye on the pan because sugar can burn quickly. Carefully spoon the jam into jars, and allow them to cool then refrigerate.
Enjoy your jam with yogurt for breakfast or on ice cream for dessert, or with a juicy grilled pork loin. I like to shake up a few spoonfuls of jam into a cocktail, too!
Take a cooking class with me!
For more ways with summer fruit, check out the great summer classes the chefs at Fēst are offering. From galettes to ice cream to grilled Santa Maria barbeque, you can make all the summer dishes you are dreaming about with a chef to guide you!
Recipes
Fruit Crumble Topping
For an 8x8 inch pan
Ingredients you'll need:
¼ cup rolled oats
¼ cup brown sugar
4 tablespoons soft butter
(optional, cinnamon, crushed walnuts, sliced almonds as desired)
Procedure:
Slice the peaches into an oven-proof dish. Toss the peaches with a couple of tablespoons of cornstarch with them to thicken the juices that will be released in the heat of the oven.
Shower the peaches with a simple no-recipe needed combination of soft butter, brown sugar and rolled oats in equal portions stirred together with a fork.
Bake in a 350-degree oven just until the topping browns and the peaches are very soft. You can use any summer fruit in this most simple of baked fruit variations.
Chef Recommendations:
Serve with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Plan to make a little for breakfast the next morning!
Simple Jam
For about 2 cups of jam
Ingredients you'll need:
2 pounds of stone fruit or berries
Sugar as needed
Juice of one lemon
Procedure:
First, peel, pit, and slice the fruit. Then weigh the fruit you’ll use, and place it in a bowl you can cover. Weigh out half the weight of the fruit in white sugar and sprinkle over the fruit.
Cover the bowl and allow the fruit to sit for several hours, up to overnight. The fruit will have some undissolved sugar, some liquid, and the cut fruit. Scrape all of this into a pot deep enough to allow it to boil up several inches without overflowing.
Stir well, add the juice of one lemon and cook the mixture until large bubbles appear all over the top of the jam and when you dip a spoon in (carefully, it’s hot!) you can draw a line across the spoon that does not disappear. This can take 5 to 10 minutes depending on the amount of fruit you start with.
Keep a close eye on the pan because sugar can burn quickly.
Carefully spoon the jam into jars, and allow them to cool then refrigerate. Keeps in the refrigerator for 1 month.
Chef Recommendations: Enjoy your jam with yogurt for breakfast or on ice cream for dessert, or with a juicy grilled pork loin. I like to shake up a few spoonfuls of jam into a cocktail, too!
Fēst, pronounced 'feast', is a collective of Chefs, Pastry Chefs and Sommeliers who teach guided, interactive and completely customizable classes to cooking-curious people of all skill levels around the world.