Feeling Peachy

My friend, whom I met three years ago, is back in town.  Yea!  She invited me over for dinner so we could catch up on what's taken place in each of our lives.  When I asked her what I could bring, she said dessert.

No problem!

Last week I saw a yummy looking peach shortbread on smittenkitchen.com.  Voila!--I happened to have all the ingredients on hand.  (I love that!)

So...dinner was scheduled for Monday, Labor Day.  I spent the morning basking in the leisure of waking up late, enjoying my first cup of coffee, and reading.  It was a tremendously bright outside.  (Rain however was in the forecast for Tuesday.)  

Into the kitchen I went and began assembling the needed ingredients.

Peach Shortbread

Recipe adapted from smittenkitchen.com

1 cup white sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

3 cups flour

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup (2 sticks) cold butter (cut into small cubes)

1 egg

2 peaches (I used white flesh peached) - sliced thinly

Preheat oven 375 degrees.  Butter a 9x13 pan.  (I used a glass baking dish.)

Combine and stir sugar, baking powder, flour, salt & spices.

Using a paster blender, blend in butter with the flour mixture.  Then add the egg.  Use your fingers to massage and blend mixture.  Result will be a crumbly crumb.

Pat 3/4 of crumbs into pan.  Tile peach slices over crumb in single layer.  Scatter remaining crumbs over peaches (I did not use all of my remaining crumbs.  It seemed too much.  Use your judgement and preference.)  I then dusted the peaches with some sugar--very lightly--along with a few dashes of cardamom (my preference).

Bake 30 minutes until top is slightly brown and edges are colored.

Let shortbread cool completely before cutting into squares.

The result was delightful.  Not too sweet, the peaches contributed such a fabulous taste to the buttery shortbread.  I say it makes for a good brunch item...pairs quite well with one's favorite cup of coffee.  Sit back, relax and enjoy.  There's a lingering flavor of summer in a square of peach shortbread.

Savor the last bits of Summer!