Blueberry Peach-za

Never one to shy away from a little word-play, today’s recipe is a Blueberry Peach-za. You can be fancy and call it a galette if you want, but why would you now that you have heard of a peach-za?

Another pretty simple recipe (sensing a trend?), you’ll need fresh peaches and blueberries, sugar, flour, egg, almond and vanilla extract, lemon zest and your grandma’s famous pie crust recipe as clearly pictured here.

The most difficult part of this recipe is cutting the peaches. Slippery things, aren’t they?

Every pizza needs a good base sauce. We used (once again) my dad’s blueberry jam. I think peach or another complimentary jam would work well here, too, but we had this on hand. As a side note, I’m so glad to see I am already comfortable using food-blogging tropes such as “had this [insert hard-to-come-by-organic-and-homemade thing here] handy.”

Make sure to leave enough room on the edge to fold that crust over without ending up with a soggy crust – we left about 2″. I

Mix the fruit, sugar, flour and extracts in a bowl until evenly coated and then spoon them onto the center of the pie crust.

If your child dumps the contents unceremoniously into the middle of the crust, I have it on authority that it still works out just fine. I sliced the edge a couple of times to help with the next part.

Fold the crust edge over so that it just touches the fruit. Then, we pinched the crust a bit because playing with pie crust is fun and we wanted to do it. Brush the edges with egg wash.

Pip tip: use a fork to break the yolk of the egg first and then its easier to whisk the egg in a small container (I know this sounds pedantic, but it’s actually a good tip)

Add some lemon zest to the top of the peach-za and drizzle with honey if you’re feeling sweet. You can also add more granulated, brown, or turbinado sugar at this point if you want. YOU DO YOU.

Whoa! What’s that? Leftover crust and filling?? What goes with pizza? Calzones of course. Fill the middle, fold it over and pinch the edges together, egg wash the top, cut a couple of slits in it, drizzle with honey and pop in the oven with the peach-za!

Keep an eye on the peach-za and “calzones” while they bake just in case the crusts over brown, you can cover it with foil so it doesn’t get too brown!

When it’s done, slice it up and serve it warm with vanilla ice cream. The cool, smooth ice cream cuts the tart, richness of the peach-za and you end up with a dessert almost as beautiful as the word-play that inspired it.

This keeps in the fridge for a week and using a toaster oven to warm it is almost as good as when it’s fresh out of the oven. (Leftovers pictured below)

Recipe

  • ½ package of refrigerated pie crust (thawed)
  • 4 peaches, pitted, peeled and sliced
  • 1 cup of blueberries
  • 2 tblsp blueberry jam
  • 2 tsp almond extract
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 tsp lemon zest
  • ¼ cup of granulated sugar
  • ¼ cup of all purpose flour
  • 1 large egg, lightly beaten
  • honey (optional)
  • Vanilla ice cream (optional)
  1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Place pie crust on a pizza pan or stone lined with parchment paper and put the blueberry jam in the center of the crust spreading it outward. Leave approximately 2” of crust bare.
  2. Combine peaches, bluberries, vanilla and almond extract, sugar, and flour in a bowl until the fruit is evenly coated.
  3. Spoon filling into the center of the crust spreading outward. Again, leave about 2” of bare dough. Fold the bare dough over on itself, covering just the edges of the fruit. Brush the edge with egg wash. Drizzle honey(optional) and top with lemon zest.
  4. Bake 40 minutes. Keep an eye on the crust and if it starts browning, cover with foil. Remove from oven and let cool for a bit. Serve warm with cold vanilla ice cream.

InstantPot Pumpkin Applesauce

Welcome to the inaugural post of Salt & Pipper, a joint collaboration between an almost nine year old (Pip) and her mom who has a sketchy record of following through with writing projects (managing expectations? Check!)

Why a blog?

Mostly because my new kitchen has given me all the inspiration without spontaneously endowing me with writing, photography or the hustle skills to create a big girl blog.

Look at this kitchen. Just look at it.

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Secondly, and the reason I think I might follow through with this, my daughter Pip wants to be a baker when she grows up (and an actress and a writer and sometimes a vet) and likes to help me in the kitchen. For her eighth grade project, she has decided to create a cookbook, so I thought a blog might help us start documenting and organizing. For the record, she starts third grade tomorrow. Third. Girl has vision.

So, here we are. A mom with okay cooking skills, a girl with vision, and a pretty kitchen.

Our first recipe will be an easy one: InstantPot Pumpkin Applesauce, because it’s perfect for school and work lunches and we are desperately trying to usher in Fall.

Start off with an assortment of apples. We mixed it up with honeycrisps, fujis and Granny Smiths. We did 6 for this recipe.

Peel and large dice them. You can not peel them if you’re some kind of monster.

This recipe really is fool proof. Just throw everything in the pot and give it a mix. And technically, I don’t even think you have to give it a mix.

Pip tip: when adding dashes of seasoning pour the seasoning into your (clean) hand first and then sprinkle it in to better control the amount.

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Set the pot to 8 minutes high pressure. Quick release when it is done and smell the autumn-y deliciousness while the pressure releases.

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Your creation will look like this when you open the pot:

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Looks a bit like curried potatoes, doesn’t it? You can probably use a potato masher at this point, but if you have an immersion blender, I say fancy it up!

At this point, ours was a bit tart. I think we used too much lemon (we used juice from a whole lemon, I adjusted in the recipe below so the next step might not be necessary) so I added about a tablespoon of honey to cut the tartness. This is entirely optional.

Let it cool a bit (or don’t. You do you.) and spoon out 1/2 cup portions. Makes about 10 servings.

You can top with fresh blueberries, walnuts or if you have access to my dad’s (“Granddad” to Pip) blueberry jam, plop some of that in when it’s hot to add more dimension.

Pip, who is a Harry Potter nut claims this tastes like Pumpkin Juice, a Wizarding World of Harry Potter concoction of mostly apple juice and pumpkin purée, so yep. It probably tastes a lot like that. I wouldn’t know because what nut goes to Diagon Alley and doesn’t drink Butterbeer? (Answer: Pip)

Accio Pumpkin Applesauce!

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InstantPot Pumpkin Applesauce

  • 6 medium to large apples.
  • 1 cup canned pumpkin purée
  • 1/2 cup water
  • Juice of half a lemon
  • 2 cinnamon sticks
  • 1 tsp of vanilla
  • 1 tsp of pumpkin pie spice (or more)
  • Dash of salt
  • Honey to taste (nutrition below is with 1 tblsp added)
  1. Peel and large dice apples
  2. Place apples, lemon juice, pumpkin purée, cinnamon sticks, vanilla, pumpkin pie spice, water and salt in InstantPot*.
  3. Set InstantPot on manual high pressure for 8 minutes.
  4. Quick release when 8 minutes are up.
  5. Blend and add honey to taste (optional)

*If you don’t have an InstantPot (you should get one) you can make this in a slow cooker. I don’t know how, but I’d guess you just follow the recipe but cook it on low for 4-6 hours or something like that. What do I look like? A food blogger?

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Prepare to be whelmed

A kid with vision and a penchant for adding chocolate chips when not necessary + mom with just okay cooking, baking, writing, and photography = a food blog that is surely to delight the handful of people who either love us unconditionally already or stumble across it by sheer twist of cyber-fate.

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Cooking and baking is both mental and physical therapy. – Mary Berry