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.

 

The best and easiest blueberry lemon Danish recipe

When we go to LA, we love to go to the farmers market.  Besides all the great veggies and fruit, they always have food vendors where we can get things that are delicious.  One of our favorites is the blueberry lemon Danish.   

I decided to try making them at home so we did not have to travel to LA so often.  This was my take.  I was not planning on writing this up except maybe for me and my nephew, but lots of people asked for the recipe, so here it is.  I did not measure as I made this, so amounts are approximate.  If you need a recipe with exact measurements, then this might not be for you. 

To make this recipe easy, I chose to use puff pastry rather than homemade Danish dough.  It was still fabulous.  Here's what I did.





 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

First, I made the lemon filling.  I mixed together cream cheese and lemon curd. I used homemade lemon curd, but you can easily buy it from the grocery store. 

I was cooking some frozen blueberries anyway, so I just took some from the pan before they broke down too much.  In the blueberries I added some brown sugar, cinnamon and lemon.  You can easily use fresh blueberries or even canned blueberry pie filling.  I drained the liquid from the blueberries before I used them on the Danish.

I rolled out one sheet of puff pastry into a 12" square.  I tried to keep the borders straight but if yours rolls out with a less than perfect border, cut the extra parts off.  Try not to roll the puff pastry too hard or it will impact how much your pastry puffs.  Cut the puff pastry into four equal pieces.

The next part is a little tricky.  Each square will need to be cut so that you can make the design.  Use a sharp, pointed knife.  Cut along the top and sides of each strip at about 1/4 inch.  You will cut from the edge to almost the center for each corner.  Look closely at the photo to get a better idea of what this should look like.  While this does not have to be perfect, cutting it properly is important.

Now for the fun part.  Take some of the lemon curd/cream cheese mixture and place it in the center of each piece of puff pastry.  Use a spoon to spread it out just a little.  A few tablespoons should do it and this photo shows about 1 tablespoon.

 

 

Put a tablespoon or two of the blueberries on top of the filling.

 

 

  

  

To form the Danish, carefully take one outer corner of the puff pastry and pull it to the center.  Repeat the same with each corner, gently pressing the center pastry together.  If you want, lightly fold the outer points of puff pastry up a little, but you do not have to do that if you do not want.  Put a little blueberry over the center where the puff pastry folds meet.  I used several berries to cover the center.

  

Put the pastry on a sheet of parchment paper.  Do not use a silpat as is shown in the photo or your puff pastry will be soggy. Here's the recipe.  I hope you enjoy as much as we did.

 

Blueberry Danish

Makes 4
 

Ingredients

•   1 sheet puff pastry thawed
•     6 oz cream cheese, softened
•   2 tbsp lemon curd (or to taste…may use more; maybe less)
•     ½ - 1 cup blueberries (I cooked them a little, added a little sugar and lemon, but left them whole. You probably could use raw ones…or even canned blueberry pie filling if you must)
•   Powdered sugar

Instructions

 

Mix together cream cheese and lemon curd until smooth.  It should not be too lemony, but you can make it to taste.  Set aside.

 

Prepare blueberries by either cooking them slightly with some added sugar and lemon or using them uncooked…or just using blueberry pie filling (as a last resort).  See the texture of the blueberries on the photo below.

 

Roll out puff pastry to 12”, being careful not to press too hard or it will impact the puff you get from the pastry

 

If the pastry is uneven, cut off extra bits to make pastry square.  Cut the pastry into 4 squares.  Separate carefully.

To make the shape use a sharp, pointed knife.  Cut along the top and sides of each strip about ¼” in.  You will cut from the edge to almost the center for each corner.  Look closely at the photo to get a better idea of what this should look like.

 

Place a few tablespoons of lemon crème on the center of the puff pastry.  Slightly spread out.

 

Place blueberries on top of cream.  I ended up using more than this…maybe about 1 ½ times as much.

 

Fold each of the pre-cut edges into the center to make a shape like this.  (that’s why you don’t cut the dough all the way through and stop cutting  at the middle.  Add more blueberries on top of the center of the crust.  I added a lot more on the final product than I did on the first ones.

 

Place on parchment paper (DO NOT USE A SILPAT LIKE I DID IN THIS PHOTO.  THE BOTTOMS WILL NOT BAKE NICELY)  Bake in preheated 400° oven for about 15 minutes or until crusts turn brown.  This is how they will look directly from the oven.  Move to a wire rack and let cool.

 

Sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve.