In just a few words, I received a warning: “She made you a cake.”
I was preparing for a weekend getaway in the suburbs, staying at the house of my friend’s mother, Susan. She had baked a delectable peach, bourbon, and pecan cake from Claire Saffitz’s cookbook “What’s for Dessert.” The only warning it really needed was that I would definitely want a second slice. The combination of soft peach slices and a batter filled with toasted, crushed pecans created a cake that tasted like a delightful Georgia summer.
The next morning, when my friend and I went downstairs for coffee, Susan had already whipped up a second stone fruit cake: Vallery Lomas’s highly-rated apricot upside-down cake, a breathtaking tribute to warm days.
We are now approaching the peak of stone fruit season. Apricots, cherries, nectarines, plums, and peaches are ripening, ready to adorn your table in cakes, tarts, and crumbles.
Susan’s cakes are forgiving even if you only have slightly underripe fruit. In Vallery’s recipe, the apricot halves soften considerably, creating a caramel-like texture under the buttery cake batter. Claire’s peach cake recipe includes a helpful trick of brushing warmed peach or apricot jam, strained to a runny consistency, over the fruit for extra sweetness.
But once your stone fruit is perfectly ripe, it requires minimal heat or assistance. Consider Ali Slagle’s stone fruit caprese, a delightful celebration of July’s abundance. You can use a combination of nectarines, peaches, plums, and cherries instead of the traditional tomatoes, accompanied by creamy mozzarella and fresh basil.
Cherries are particularly delicious in savory dishes, such as Angela Dimayuga’s black cherry-pistachio salad with charred scallion vinaigrette or Sara Kramer’s cucumbers with labneh and cherries, where the fruit is lightly pickled to enhance its flavors.
However, an all-cherry dessert during the height of summer is hard to resist. As I write this, Susan stands before me with the New York Times Cooking website open on her laptop and her stand mixer ready, embarking on her latest stone fruit baking adventure: Samantha Seneviratne’s cherry almond cake.
One more thing!
Did you know that despite Georgia’s reputation, California and South Carolina actually grow more peaches than the Peach State? This year, Georgia peach farmers are facing one of the worst crop yields in generations due to a warm winter and a few freezes in March.
Some chefs in Georgia are getting creative with the limited peach supply, while others are turning to alternative fruits, as my colleague Kim Severson reports.
So, if you’re searching for Georgia peaches this summer and encounter pricey or empty baskets, rest assured that any of the aforementioned recipes will taste marvelous with whatever stone fruit you can find. And if you reside in the tristate area, New Jersey’s peach harvest is thriving this year.
Thank you for reading, and see you next week!
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