The best high altitude peach or nectarine quick bread recipe

Living in Arizona, many people have fruit trees in their yard.  When they ripen, people are always willing to share their bounty with anybody willing to take some.  I am lucky enough to have friends with a nectarine tree so this year they gifted me with about 50 pounds of nectarines.  There aren't a lot of nectarine recipes out there, but luckily, nectarines and peaches are interchangeable in recipes.  Nectarines, luckily, are easier to work with since they do not require peeling.

After making jam, butters, salsa, plain canned fruit, and so much more, I had a lot of pureed nectarine pulp that I wanted to use, so I found a recipe for peach cake, adjusted it for altitude, and used the nectarine puree I already prepared.



Nectarine Pulp -- we left it chunky

If you do not have any nectarine pulp hanging around, it is easy to make.  I just take nectarines, put them in a crockpot and cook them until they just fall apart.  If they were cooked with the pits in them, just strain the pulp through a colander to remove the pits.  This is a set it and forget it type thing.  Leave it in the crockpot to cook down and thicken some, or your pulp will be very juicy.  I leave mine a little chunky, but you can put it in a blender or use an immersion blender to make it smoother if you want. 

If you just have a few nectarines or peaches, you can also do this in the microwave or stovetop.  Either way, the pulp is just cooked down fruit.

So now that you have the pulp, you can make the nectarine or peach quick breads.  These are really easy, and are sort of like banana bread...just using nectarines or peaches instead. 

The changes needed for low altitude are at the end of the recipe.  This was tested at 5700 feet so if your altitude is a lot higher, you might still need to make a few adjustments.

 

 

Peach (or Nectarine) Bread Recipe

Makes 2 loaves or 12 mini bundt cakes

Adjusted for 5600 feet altitude 

¾ cup + 2 tbsp granulated sugar

2 eggs

½ cup vegetable oil

2 ¼ cups peach or nectarine puree

2 ¼ cups all purpose flour

1 tsp cinnamon

7/8 tsp baking soda

7/8 tsp baking powder

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup chopped walnuts, optional

 

Mix together sugar, eggs, vegetable oil and puree in a large bowl  until well blended.  Add in remaining ingredients and stir until just mixed together. 

Place batter in 2 loaf pans that have been greased and floured.  You can also make these in mini bundt pans, cupcake tins or even mini loaf pans. 

Bake at 375° for about 30 minutes for mini bundt pans or 40 minutes for loaf pans.  They are done when a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean and the tops are slightly browned. 

Let cook for 10 minutes then remove from pan and cool on a cooling rack.    

Note:  If you are baking this at low altitude, use 1 cup of sugar, 2 cups of peach puree, 2 cups of flour, a full teaspoon for both baking powder and baking soda, and bake at 350°.  I don’t have baking times for these, but you can start checking them a few minutes before times shown for high altitude.