Peach Cobbler, Cookies

Because I had peaches.

I spent the day baking today, with the bedroom air conditioner (only air conditioner) on full blast and the bedroom door open, with a fan in the hallway directing the cool air into the kitchen.

What? I wanted to bake.

I made bacon and onion quiche, banana almond muffins, and peach cobbler cookies. 

Yes, peach cobbler in a cookie.

I'm back at turning things that aren't cookies into cookies. And making way too many of them.

Peach Cobbler Cookies

• 3/4 c butter
• 1 1/2 c brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp cream
• 2 c flour
• 1/2 c ground almonds (or more flour)
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1 c chopped peaches

And of course, stuff is missing from the ingredient pic. But it's not the vanilla. Because I forgot to put vanilla into the banana muffins, so I made sure it was on the counter for the cookies.

NOTE: I made a double recipe.

Cream together the very soft butter and brown sugar. I opted for brown sugar in this one to get that slightly caramelized flavour that you get from baking fruit. White sugar would also work, and would result in a lighter, more biscuit like colour, but I wanted caramel, so that's what I did.

Add the egg (I doubled things, remember), vanilla, and cream and beat them all together.

Sift in the flour, baking powder, and nutmeg. Or, just pile them up on top of the wet stuff and give the dry part a bit of a stir before stirring it into the wet.

Add the ground almonds (also called almond flour, but not as finely textured as I think something should be in order to be called "flour") and then fold in the peaches.

I contemplated tossing the peaches with a bit of flour or cornstarch, but ended up just dumping them in as is. I was using fresh peaches though. If you're trying this with canned, I suggest opting for the extra bit of flour.

The dough will be very soft, and feel borderline too soft. Fridge it. After only about 15 minutes, the edges will have firmed up, and since you're dropping this by tablespoon onto parchment paper, the edges are all you need. Just put the bowl back into the fridge while the first batch bakes.

When you're baking on a hot day, leave the preheating of the oven to the last minute.

350 degrees.

Bake for 12 minutes. They'll be golden on the edges, but soft and cakey in the middle.

Soft and cakey with sweet bursts of bright summer flavour.

What are you doing with all of your summer peaches?

Picatta Pasta Salad

I'm not fond of eating leftovers, so I remade chicken picatta into a brand new dinner!

This is another one of those 20 minutes or less super fast dinners. Granted you need leftover chicken picatta, but that was yesterday's dinner, and we won't worry about that right now. Live in the moment! Super fast dinner!

Picatta Pasta Salad

• 2-4 pieces of leftover chicken picatta
• picatta sauce
• 2-3 cups cooked pasta
• 1-2 tbsp fresh basil
• 1-2 tbsp green onion (or red if you prefer)
• 1-2 tbsp capers
• 1-2 tbsp artichoke hearts
• 1-2 tbsp sundried tomatoes
• 1-2 tbsp olives
• 1-2 tbsp pine nuts
• 1-2 tbsp grated parmesan cheese
• 1-2 tbsp lemon juice or wine
• 1-2 tbsp olive oil

Okay, yes, the measurements are more approximations than anything, but adjust as you need/like/have in the fridge.

If you have leftover pasta, this dish is even faster than 20 minutes. I didn't have any so I needed a few extra minutes.

While the water is coming to a boil, collect all the ingredients, and change out of work clothes.

I like to toast my pinenuts, so I did that in a small dry pan over medium heat. Give the pan a shake from time to time, between ingredient choppings works, and when they're nice and golden, turn the heat off.

As the pasta boils, chop anything you want chopped.

If your pasta is freshly boiled, cool it by running it under cold water.

If you have enough picatta sauce to just use it as the dressing, perfect. Me, I didn't (frankly, I'm not sure there's any such thing as enough picatta sauce) so I extended the dressing with wine and olive oil.

Combine everything in a nice big bowl and stir it gently.

If I had any lemon, I probably would have added a bit of lemon zest as well.

And what do you know, dinner!

How do you get creative with leftovers?