10 Delicious Peach Recipes You’ll Definitely Want to Make This Summer
Photo by Stanislav Churikov/Unsplash Food Lists recipes
We are well into stone fruit season—that summer epoch when farmers market stalls and grocery store produce sections are piled high with cherries, apricots, nectarines and plums. But for me, as a Southerner, the peach reigns supreme over them all.
Unfortunately, this has been a year of heartbreak, peach-wise. Due to unseasonably warm December temperatures in the South followed by a bitter freezing spell in March, much of South Carolina’s and nearly all of Georgia’s crop—the second- and third-largest peach producers in the U.S., respectively—was lost. That means we here in the South have a tough choice: whether to eschew the stone fruit altogether in favor of regional loyalty or turn to California peaches, where the bulk of the country’s production lies.
I personally am unwilling to forgo this juicy fruit for an entire summer, particularly when there are so many ways to incorporate them into a meal. And because the California peach season extends into September, that means we can still be tasting summer even as the leaves are beginning to turn. Here are some peach recipes you have to try out this season.
1. Grilled Steak and Peach Salad from Erin Lives Whole
Yes, peaches can be an entree! This effortless salad features steak and corn—both grilled, which means you’re not switching on the oven to cook—sliced peaches and arugula (or any other salad greens), tossed with goat cheese crumbles and an easy dressing composed of pantry ingredients like olive oil and balsamic vinegar.
2. Peach Caprese from Simple Healthy Kitchen
The tomato-basil-mozzarella combo of Italian caprese is perhaps the most quintessential summertime flavor combination, but swapping in peaches for a few of the tomatoes makes for a delightfully sweet change-up. Peel and slice the peaches, then slice the tomatoes and fresh mozzarella (packed in water) and plate everything before drizzling with balsamic sauce (or a high-quality, peppery olive oil) and scattering with fresh basil leaves.
3. Grilled Peach and Ricotta Pizza from The Local Palate
Created by star chef Steven Satterfield of Atlanta’s Miller Union (don’t miss his latest cookbook, Vegetable Revelations), the most complex part of this grilled summer pizza is making the dough, and that itself only takes about four simple steps. But you can skip doing that altogether by using a premade dough if you want to cut down on the time you’re spending in the kitchen. You’ll top the dough with ricotta cheese, sliced peaches, salt and olive oil before grilling; once the bottom is browned, finish the pizza with sprinkled salt, a scatter of basil leaves and a drizzle of honey.
4. Homemade Peach BBQ Sauce from Seeking Good Eats
If you have an abundance of ripe peaches, making a batch of barbecue sauce is the perfect way to use them up, and this recipe promises to be sweet, spicy and savory—a wonderful flavor combination for all the summer grilling you’re undoubtedly doing. This sauce will work on everything from tofu to chicken, pork and ribs. This sauce keeps for a few days in the refrigerator and in the freezer for up to a year, so you can have the tangy taste of summer on your hamburger even in the dead of January!
5. Frozen Peach Bellini from EatWell101
A bellini is, by definition, made with peach puree, and this cocktail makes for a nice variation of the usual OJ-based mimosas served during weekend brunches. Even more refreshing would be this easy frozen bellini, created with fresh peaches, ice cubes and Prosecco—perfect for the hottest days of summer that still loom ahead of us.
6. Peach Pie Ice Cream from Grandbaby Cakes
By now, you might be wondering where all the dessert recipes are—fear not, gentle reader. No list of peach recipes would be complete without sweet treats, with peach ice cream leading the pack. Grandbaby Cake’s no-churn ice cream recipe is both simple and delectable: Just blend whipped cream, cream cheese and condensed milk into an ice cream base, crumble a baked store-bought pie crust into bits, sugar the fresh sliced peaches and mix everything into the ice cream base. The hardest part will be waiting for it all to freeze long enough before diving in with a giant spoon.
7. Grilled Peach Splits from Smitten Kitchen
This is perhaps the fiddliest recipe on this list, as there are several elements involved in the assemblage of these grilled peach splits: grilling the peaches, whipping cream and making cookie crumbs and caramel. Of these four, the caramel is the trickiest. The cookie crumbs and even the whipped cream, which is blended with either sour cream or crème fraîche, can be made ahead of time. Before the splits are distributed to your eager eaters, Smitten Kitchen’s Deb Perelman recommends adding a scoop of store-bought vanilla ice cream.
8. Edna Lewis’ Peach Cobbler from NYT Cooking
Just as a peach recipes round-up isn’t complete without peach ice cream, it would also be incomplete without peach cobbler. There’s no need to look further than Edna Lewis’ recipe. Lewis was a revered Southern chef who made it her life’s work to revive and preserve Southern—and in particular, Black—cooking and food traditions. Her cobbler calls for a homemade double crust, which may seem unusual to modern cooks (but it’s not a pie!), and the peaches are tossed with a relatively minimal amount of sugar and spice. As such, this cobbler is best made when you have really ripe, sweet peaches on hand and their flavor can shine through.
9. Jocelyn Jackson’s Peach Cobbler Cookies from The Kitchn
How about turning peach cobbler into cookies? Jackson, the cook activist and co-founder of People’s Kitchen Collective in Oakland, California, has done just that. She combines a cup of diced fresh peaches, cinnamon, whole-wheat and all-purpose flours with a few other basic baking ingredients to create these delicious cookies that can be stored at room temperature in an air-tight container for several days—if they last that long.
10. Yellow Peach Crumb Buns from The Violet Bakery
While U.K.-based Claire Ptak calls this confectionary “buns,” Stateside bakers will understand this to be a coffee cake, perfect for serving at breakfast or as a late morning or late afternoon snack. Ptak, whom Meghan Markle tapped to bake her wedding cake, notes that her inspiration for this recipe came from the Bisquick box’s own coffee cake recipe, but Ptak’s inclusion of yogurt gives the cake a subtle tang, and sliced ripe peaches add color and sweet, bright flavor. (Note that the ingredient amounts are given by weight, according to UK custom; an inexpensive kitchen scale works well for this purpose.)