Peaches

Last summer, during the end of my pregnancy, all I wanted to eat was raw summer fruit -- plums, peaches, nectarines, just plain or at most cut up in a little yogurt.

This year I have discovered the delights of baking with stone fruit. A few weeks ago we got a couple pounds of plums from the produce co-op, and to keep them from going to waste, I scoured my recipe books for a good recipe to use them up.

I finally found one in my 1971 copy of Joy of Cooking -- Apple, Peach, or Plum Cake Cockaigne -- and have made it a couple of times, once with just plums, and once with a few peaches thrown in.

Yesterday we found gorgeous peaches for a very good price per pound, so I bought two big bags and just spent the afternoon slicing and peeling them and then laying them out on cookie sheets in the freezer. Once they are frozen, I divided them into one cup baggies so that I can easily bake with them during the winter.

Apple, Peach, or Plum Cake Cockaigne (from Joy of Cooking)

Use a 9 x 9 x 2 1/2 in. pan. Preheat oven to 425.

If the fruit used is very juicy, reduce the liquid in the dough by at least 1 Tbsp.

Sift before measuring:

1 c. all purpose flour

Resift with:

1 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. salt

2 Tbsp. sugar

Add:

1 1/2 to3 Tbsp. butter

Work these ingredients like pastry.

Beat well in a measuring cup:

1 egg

1/2 tsp. vanilla

Add enough milk to make 1/2 cup.

Combine with the flour and butter to make a stiff dough. Pat the dough into the pan with a floured palm or spread it in part with a spoon and then distribute it evenly by pushing it with fruit sections when you place them in closely overlapping rows.

Use about:

3 to 4 cups sliced, pared apples or peaches, or sliced, unpared plums.

Sprinkle with a mixture of:

1 c. sugar

2 tsp. cinnamon

3 Tbsp. melted butter

Bake about 25 min.