Peach Crumb Bars

Peach-mania 2011 continues. It wasn't enough to make peaches and cream pie, bourbon peach crisp, stone fruit pie, baked peach oatmeal, and a peach cherry upside down cake-- My favorite fruit of the summer has found its way into yet another dessert.

I was on dessert duty for this week's "vampire night" and I was not only inspired by the sweet taste of summer I call peaches, but by this recipe from Smitten Kitchen (originally from AllRecipes). Obviously I swapped out blueberries for fresh peaches, and I made some other changes to enhance the new flavors.


Crumb Crust:
1 cup granulated sugar
3 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp nutmeg
2 sticks butter
1 egg

Fruit Filling:
6 peaches, cored and diced (peels on because I like the texture, and as previously mentioned, I am lazy)
6 TBSP corn starch
1/3 cup sugar
zest and juice of one lemon
1/4 tsp nutmeg

Preheat oven to 375 and grease a 9x13 pan. Comine ingredients for crumb crust until crumbly (mine was like a mixture of pea-size lumps and grainy/sandy stuff). Press half of mixture into bottom of pan. Combine peaches with lemon juice and zest and toss with dry ingredients until coated. Distribute evenly over crust. Sprinkle remaining crumbly stuff over the top and pop in the oven for 45 minutes. Cool completely and then transfer to refrigerator. Once chilled, cut into pieces and enjoy!

These bars are buttery and crumbly (as advertised) and are sweet but not too sweet. I also love how the nutmeg enhances the natural sweetness and flavor of the peaches. I am pretty sure I could eat the whole pan!