🍑 Peach Season!

Have you smelled a peach recently? Pure, utter glory. In the words of Anne of Green Gables: “Drink them in!”

These peach bars will fill your whole house with that warm and decadent.

If you know anything about me, you know the experience matters just as much as the destination. Therefore, buy peaches at your farmer’s market, snag a few from a friend’s tree, make an adventure out of acquiring them. Let it be an experience before it even becomes dessert.

A little backstory: I used to own a wedding cake & bakery business for three years. Baking was once how I relaxed, how I connected with my creative side. Then I monetized it. (Don’t we all ruin things we love that way?) By July 2023, I had closed the business and since then, I’ve only baked a handful of times. But these peach bars? They were the first bake I actually plotted, daydreamed about, and sought after.

Here’s what I made — and what I’ll do differently next time.

✨ The Recipe I Made

Shortbread Crust (9x9 pan)

• 1 cup butter, room temperature

• ½ cup sugar

• 2 cups flour

Steps:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.

2. Cream butter & sugar, scrape down sides

3. Add flour and mix until just combined.

4. Press into pan to form crust.

5. Bake 15–20 minutes — not fully done, but firm enough to hold peach filling.

(Pro tip: Too much dough? Bake extra as shortbread cookies!)

Peach Filling

• 8 peaches (roughly — I didn’t measure)

• ½ cup sugar

• 1 Tbsp cornstarch

• ¼ tsp cinnamon

• 1 tsp lemon juice

Steps:

1. Score peaches, then cover with boiling water for 5 minutes. Skins should peel right off.

2. Dice peaches and toss with sugar, cornstarch, cinnamon, and lemon juice.

3. Pour over partially baked crust.

Streusel Topping

• 1 cup brown sugar

• 1 Tbsp cinnamon

• ½ tsp salt (skip if using salted butter)

• ½ cup butter, room temperature

• 1½ cups flour

Steps:

1. Cream butter and brown sugar.

2. Add cinnamon, salt, then flour.

3. Crumble topping over peaches.

4. Bake at 350°F for about 30 minutes, until golden and crispy.

Verdict: Delicious. Crust is RICH, like Hamptons-in-diamonds rich. But by the next day, the shortbread crust had gone soggy. Still edible (with coffee? Divine), but not as crisp as I’d hoped. No backbone.

🌼 What I’ll Try Next Time

Sugar Cookie Crust (instead of shortbread):

• 2¼ cups flour

• ½ tsp baking powder

• ¾ cup butter

• 1 cup sugar

• 1 egg

• 2 tsp vanilla

Steps:

1. Cream butter + sugar.

2. Add egg + vanilla.

3. Mix flour + baking powder separately, then add to wet a cup at a time. Don’t overmix. The gluten doesnt like it - well actually it totally does, but doesnt make for a good cookie.

Peach Filling (improved):

• Cook peaches down in a saucepan until jammy.

• Skip the cornstarch — sugar naturally thickens as it reduces.

• This should cut back on excess liquid and prevent soggy bars.

Enjoy, besties!

Now remember, I am not a nutritionist, just someone who likes food. 💗✨