Spiced Peach Bread

I found this recipe and printed if off in the Fall, but I am just now getting around to making it. It sounded like something that Scott would LOVE, so I just had to get to it eventually. And I was right! He said he would be asking for it over and over again. To see the original recipe, go here: https://theviewfromgreatisland.com/spiced-peach-bread-recipe/

Spiced Peach Bread

• 1 cup dark brown sugar, packed
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 3 large eggs, at room temperature (you can also use extra large eggs)
• 1 3/4 cups cake flour (you can also use all purpose flour)
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp allspice
• 1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp ground cloves
• 1/2 cup cultured buttermilk
• 2 cups diced peaches, skin on. For me this was 3 smallish peaches.
• 1 tsp coarse sparkling sugar

Preheat oven to 350F Lightly butter a 9x5 loaf pan and line it with parchment paper with long ends so you can lift the bread out later for glazing and slicing.

Put the brown sugar and butter into a stand mixer and cream until light and fluffy ~ a full 5 minutes. Make sure to get all the lumps out of the sugar.

Beat in each of the eggs, one by one, making sure each egg is fully incorporated before adding the next one. Continue beating for another 2-3 minutes. The batter will be light and fluffy.

Whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt and spices and add to the mixer, alternately with the buttermilk, beginning and ending with dry ingredients. Finish mixing by hand, to make sure everything is thoroughly mixed, but don't over beat. Fold in the peaches.

Turn the batter into your prepared pan. Spread out evenly, and sprinkle the top lightly with sparkling sugar. You can use regular granulated or raw sugar if you like.

Bake on the center rack for 50-55 minutes, or until fully risen and a toothpick inserted near the center comes out without wet batter clinging to it (moist crumbs are fine.)

Let the bread cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then remove, using the parchment paper handles. You can slice while it's still warm, or wait for it to cool.

*If you don't have cake flour you can use regular all purpose flour, or make your own cake flour: to make a cup of cake flour take a cup of regular flour and remove 2 tablespoons, replacing it with 2 tablespoons of cornstarch.  Sift everything together twice.

Tips from the author:

They can take a while to cook because the batter is thick and the shape of the pan is deep and narrow. Give it the time it needs to get that all important center cooked through.  I will very often place a loose sheet of foil over the top of the bread towards the end of cooking so the crust doesn’t get too brown before it’s had a chance to completely cook through.

The toothpick test isn’t always accurate…use visual cues, too.  If the center is not fully risen, or is sunk down, keep cooking.  If you see wet batter in the cracks on the top of the bread, let it go a little longer.

Tips from Marsha:

I used peach fruit cups for my fruit and needed about six of them (drained). I also baked mine for about 50-55 minutes but needed to tent the loaf with foil after about 20-30 minutes to prevent over browning. Also, a 1/2 pt. of buttermilk is a cup, so you only need half of the carton. If you want to use the whole thing, then you might try doubling the recipe and making two loaves and freezing the second, except it makes a fairly large amount so that could start to get hard to mix in the mixer. I'll have to report back later if I ever try that. Also, I used my bigger metal loaf pans. This amount of batter would not have fit in my smaller glass pans.