Peach Oatmeal Bars

Everyone has one of those cabinets where, no matter how hard you try, things just seem to get lost in there for some time, right? Right?? Comfort me here, okay? :)

So in an attempt to find something completely unrelated to baking, it was discovered that I still possessed a jar of peach preserves from Harry and David. They weren't there too long. Darcy (Dave's older sister) sent us a gift box from H&D for Christmas. So, they were still good. I bookmarked this recipe from Vegetarian Times probably around that same time, and somehow the two met in my mind in a moment that could only be described as fateful luck. :D

The recipe came together like a dream, with my only change being the addition of some nutmeg and ginger, figuring it would compliment the peach preserves. Which, yes, it did. When I took the pictures for this post, admittedly, I ate two of the display models afterwards. But what good models they were! ;)



Ingredients:
1¼ cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
½ tsp. baking soda
¼ tsp. salt
1 cup light brown sugar
½ cup unsalted butter, softened
1 large egg
1 tsp. vanilla extract
½ tsp. almond extract
2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats, divided
1 cup peach preserves/jam

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350F. Grease a 9-inch baking dish.

Sift together flour, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt in large bowl; set aside.

Cream sugar and butter until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and extracts until smooth. Add flour mixture to butter mixture; mix until combined. Stir in 1-3/4 cups oats. Spread 2/3 of batter on bottom of prepared baking dish. Spread peach jam over the batter with back of spoon. Add remaining 1/4 cup oats to remaining batter. Crumble over top of raspberry jam.

Bake at 350F for 30 minutes, or until golden. Cool completely on wire rack, before cutting into bars.

Peach Cobbler

Since it was Valentine's Day and all yesterday, I decided to make Dave a giant heart-shaped cookie. It didn't go well, and that's all we're going to say on that subject!

A couple weeks ago, we were watching Good Eats (I have a huge non-sexual crush on Alton Brown.), and the episode was on peaches. Dave mentioned he really liked peach cobbler. Now, the boy may eat almost anything, but he's kinda fussy about baked goods (Don't tell him I said that LOL). So, anyways, I jumped on this knowledge.

I know fresh peaches would have been best, but they're not in season and were a bit pricey, hence the use of the frozen ones. In my defense, at least they're the Whole Foods brand of frozen fruit. ;)

Unfortunately, they didn't come out to be as pretty as I'd like them to be. In fact, if I based it off of what it looked like, I probably wouldn't have even eaten them. But we decided to go for it anyways, and I'm glad we did. It tasted a WHOLE lot better than it looked. Thankfully.

I found the original recipe over at Tartelette and altered it for my peaches.

Ingredients:
Filling:
16 oz. frozen peaches
¼ cup sugar
2 Tbsp. lemon juice
2 Tbsp. cornstarch

Streusel topping:
½ cup butter, cold
½ cup light brown sugar
1/3 cup flour
Cinnamon (I just shook it in, no measuring)
Nutmeg

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350F.

Filling: Combine all ingredients in a medium-sized bowl. Divide between four rammekins. Place the rammekins on a baking sheet, in case the fruit spills over. Set aside.

Topping: In a bowl, combine the flour, sugar, and spices. Add the butter, cut in small pieces, and mix with your fingertips until it appears crumb-like. Sprinkle evenly over the dishes.

Bake at 350F for 20-30 minutes.