Peaches

Hey y'all, I'm Paula Deen and I'm so excited because we're having a peach party today here in my kitchen

And peaches are my all-time favorite fruit to cook with. I'll show you a recipe for a fruity cheesecake that's one of Savannah's very favorites

Then we're going to take the short out of shortcake. It's a teeming tower of peach temptation

and for a fuzzy peach finish, pucker up for a peach cobbler

packed with crumbly gooey goodness. So y'all, wipe your chin and come on in

It's just peachy in here. I don't know if y'all are aware that Georgia is known as the peach state

And as long as I can remember, all the pretty young women were referred to as Georgia peaches

Well, I'll tell you one thing. This old Georgia peach right here is always glad to see peach season come in

In Georgia it lasts from maybe May to June. So it's not here for very long, so we really have to get in there and make hay while the

sun shines because before we know it, they're gone. But later on, I'm going to be telling you how to preserve some of those peaches so that

you can enjoy them all year long. Earlier this morning, I picked up the perfect peaches, but I also need the perfect peach preserve

So I stopped by to see my friend Beth, who always has a huge pot brewing

Beth Linsky! Hi Paula! Hi Donna! It's good to see you! Good to see you

Are you having a peach of a day today? Oh we sure are! Great! Well I'm ready for my jam, Beth, so why don't we get started

There's some peaches in here. Alright, now you've had these in here what

Just a few moments. 30 seconds? 45 seconds? Maybe 45 seconds? few moments, you know, they were putting..

30 seconds, 45 seconds? Maybe 45. Sometimes some peaches take a little bit longer

Wow, that's a huge one I just got out. And then we just tip it into the cold water

and that stops the cooking on it, doesn't it? It stops the cooking, and hopefully we'll be able

to just pull these skins off. And sure enough, we can just pull the skin right off. Yay

Perfect. We just cut them, and they should come right off. That's it

we just take this and we just dump it right into the pot

and we can just carry it right over to the stove and put them on, and then this part

comes to a boil, just starts to simmer a little bit. And then once it's come to a boil, then we just take the sugar

and we add it in. So that sits for a while and just makes jam. That's it

And then, this is the finished product. It's ready to go now

Beautiful color. It's really, it's ready to do it. I mean, it's yummy looking

Doesn't it look good? But that's what peaches are like when they're just perfectly ripe

And then it's got these nice big chunks in it too. See, I love the chunks

Yeah, I do too. All right, who's going to taste it? Who wanted to taste this

I think you want to taste it. Here we go. I do want to taste it. It's still pretty hot here

Oh, that's all right. That's all right. I'm used to hot stuff

It's going to be good. I couldn't be a perfectly neat piece

So wonderful. So wonderful. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for showing me how you do this

and let me taste that wonderful jam. It was out of this world. I've got everything I need now to head back to the house

and just have a peach of a day. I think we've got everything we need now

so we're fixed to make our peach cheesecake. We're going to start with our crust

We're going to start with one cup of graham cracker crumbs, and you can buy them either already done up for you

you can throw them in the blender and do them yourself. A fourth of a cup of sugar

and four tablespoons of melted butter. Oh, yum, it looks good already

We're just gonna swish that around until all of those crumbs are moistened

I've got two or three cheesecake recipes that I actually make, but I like this one because

it's so basic and I can kind of have fun with it and just play with it

We're just gonna pour this into the bottom of an 8-inch springform pan and mash that around

There's no need to try to fuss and bring them up to the sides. The bottom will make it plenty yummy enough Set that aside and we ready to make our filling We going to start with 12 ounces of cream cheese Naturally a southern girl is using full full cream cheese

No light for this sister. All right, we're going to mix that up

We're going to add our sugar. Now we're going to add our two eggs

And if the recipe calls for eggs, always use large, unless it specifies different

We're just gonna beat that until it's smooth, and we're gonna add a half a teaspoon of pure vanilla extract

And if you're like me, sometimes I don't always pull out the measuring spoons

I just kind of guess at some things. And now for my favorite part, we're gonna add a fourth of a cup of that wonderful peach jam from Beth's Farm

Oh, look, it's just so delicious. And we're going to beat that in

And look at that. Oh, those beautiful, beautiful chunks of peaches down in there

And let's see what we got. Let's raise it up and see what we got

All right, we're ready to go into our crust. Just pour that directly on top

And you see those nice pieces of peach in there? You can substitute different jams if you like

If you like blueberry, by all means use blueberry. or if you like blackberry

So, you know, just take this recipe and tweak it and make it your own

That's half the fun of cooking. Now, this is ready to go into the oven, and in about 35 to 45 minutes

we're going to have a wonderful peach jam cheesecake. And you need to be careful

because probably one of the biggest mistakes that people make when baking cheesecake

is overcooking it. So you want to take it out of the oven when it's still just a little, little jiggly in the center

and sit it on the counter and let it cool to room temperature before you refrigerate

I decided since I had so many fresh peaches, I'd make two peach cheesecakes

And this one's ready for some topping. And you'll want to take a knife and just run around the edges

just to make sure it won't give you any problems. Unsnap your pan

Gently lift your ring out. Voila. and we're almost there. Oh, isn't it a beauty

Now we're going to top it with our peach jam, and we refrigerated this so it can firm up

because we don't want it running everywhere. And we're just going to spread it

See that nice little rim to hold our jam on there? Isn't that beautiful

And I'm going to need just a little bit more because I don't know about y'all, but I like mine nice and heavy

I like to know I've got jam on mine. Beth, you did us proud, girl

All right, to garnish our little prize here, I'm just going to take some thin slices of peach

and then I'm going to take one of those, and I'm going to just put a little notch so that one slice can sit inside the other

And I'm going to do that all the way around so that when each person gets a slice of cheesecake

they're going to have a little fresh peach with it too. Isn't she beautiful

and we're almost through with this. This will be ready to go back into the fridge

and I wouldn't do this part until the last minute. If you're going to serve this at a dinner party

and say it's 2 o'clock in the afternoon, you're going to serve it at 7. Wait right before you serve it to do this

because sometimes your peaches can turn on you. As soon as we get through with this

we're moving on to peach shortcake. So go fix your cup of coffee and come right back

because those two just go together. All right, as I promised, we're fixing to make a wonderful, easy, fresh peach shortcake

And you're not going to believe how easy this is. All right, we've got our peaches ready

We're going to toss these with a cup and a half of sugar. All right, and we're going to put a little fruit preservative

This will just keep them from browning. It won't affect their taste at all, but since we're serving these raw

I'm going to use a little bit of that on them because I'm not going to be serving this right away

so I don't want those peaches to be damaged or darkened in any way

by the time I get them on the shortcake. Look at those. And as that sugar dissolves, they're going to make their own syrup

And if they don't make enough syrup to suit you, I really love my shortcake just kind of sopping wet

So what I'll probably do is add a little warm water to this. And like I said, before too long, they'll be sitting in a nice syrup

All right, now we're fixing to get our pan ready for our shortcakes. And we're going to spray our muffin tins real well with a nonstick spray

strictly because it's easier than taking a napkin or anything and swishing around in there

So our pan ready to go and we got a biscuit mix and sugar one of a Southern girl very favorite ingredients melted butter Can have too much melted butter And we

going to give a squirt because I just simply love the flavor of almond flavoring and peaches

And we're going to do about a teaspoon. No, let's do, since I like it so much, let's do

by teaspoon and a half. And we're gonna just stir that up a little bit

and we're gonna add our milk in our beautiful measuring cup. And I'll give you a little hint

The less you work this biscuit dough, the better off you are

So we're just gonna stir this just until it's moistened. And if it has lumps in it, that's quite all right

Don't worry about it. Ooh, and I can smell that almond already

It smells. Oh, gosh, it smells wonderful, and it just kicks up a fresh peach

We're going to use a simple ice cream scoop. We're never going to have to dirty our hands, girls

We're going to come over here and just drop a scoop into each hole

We want it about three quarters full because we don't want no skimpy shortcakes

but that's just perfect. And these are going to go into our preheated oven, shut the door

before we can say Jack Spratt, we're gonna be having peach shortcake

Now we're gonna move over to the finishing touch on our peach shortcake, and that's our fresh whipped cream

And we're gonna start by pouring our wonderful heavy cream that I went and got from the dairy farm myself

We're gonna add a half a cup of sugar, and that looks to be about a half a cup

And then we're gonna start this off on about a medium speed

and we're gonna let it beat right there just for a second, actually about 30 seconds

And then we're gonna turn that bad boy up all the way. There

That looks right. Sweet, fresh whipped cream. My favorite. Our shortbreads are out of the oven

and we're gonna set them there to cool. There's a nice little breeze coming in the door, so that'll chill them for a minute

and our peaches have been sitting here soaking in their sugar and just soaking up every bit of that sweetness

And let's see if I got enough sugar. Yeah, I did. We're going to take our shortcakes

We're going to slice them in two. When you serve this dessert, you have to have everybody sitting there with their coffee

or whatever they're going to have, have them right there ready because the ice cream will melt fairly quickly on you

So we're going to put a scoop of ice cream, your sugared peaches

How yummy is that? And then we're going to topping and topping one more time

with some more wonderful peaches and peach syrup. And then for the finale, fresh whipped cream and a sprig of mint

And we're ready to eat. Y'all don't go away because coming up next, hot peach cobbler

As promised, our hot peach cobbler. The first thing we're going to do is start by melting our butter and we're going to melt

it right in the pan that we're going to cook it in. We're going to put this into our oven

It's already preheated and ready for our cobbler. By the time we finish our cobbler, the butter will be melted and we'll be ready to go

All right, we're going to start with our fresh peaches. We're gonna put maybe a cup, cup and a half of sugar

That looks about right. Let's see, we'll add maybe a cup of water

We don't want them too, too liquidy. And we're just gonna let those dissolve

and that sugar and that peach juice is gonna make a nice syrup

We're just gonna let that go like that. And we're gonna move on over here to our crust

You're not going to believe how simple this recipe is, and there's no way you can mess

up except by using the wrong kind of flour. You must use a self-rising flour

So we've got our flour, our sugar, and at this point I like to stir that together and

mix them together good because when I add my milk, it won't lump nearly as bad as if

I just dump the milk on top of it. So we've got those mixed together real good

We're gonna add our milk, and we're gonna just stir this up

We not gonna overwork this We just gonna blend it until all your flour is moistened And if you like some of us are spoon girls and some of us are whip girls So if you like a whip by all means

pull out your whip and use that. All right, look at our peaches over here

They're going to town, and I'm gonna pull those off, and we're gonna see if our butter's melted, and it has

And when I say butter on this one, please use butter, because it's so much better than the margarine

I think maybe I should have pulled out my whip too, y'all

Yeah, baby! Remember, y'all, the key to this dish is self-rising flour

If you've got flour in your pantry and you're not sure what it is

go ahead and add a teaspoon of baking powder to it. It won't hurt it. If it's self-rising, it'll just puff just a little bit more, but it won't hurt it

All right, we've got our stick of butter melted, melted, and we've got this wonderful batter that we're just gonna pour right on top of that butter

Get every speck of that wonderful crust out of there. And now we're gonna ladle our peaches

Now I've told you the most important part of making your crust. Now I'm fixing to tell you

the most important step in seeing that your cobbler turns out perfect. We're gonna just lay

our peaches on top of our batter, along with that wonderful juice. Look at those peaches

are they just not beautiful. I'm going to tilt this up some so that we can get that wonderful

syrup. Now the most important thing is to not stir this. In about 45 minutes, we're going

to pull this out of the oven, you're going to have the most unbelievable, thick, wonderful

buttery layer of crust on top of those peaches that you've ever seen. So do not stir. And

this pretty baby is ready to go into the oven. And if you like, sprinkle a light topping of

ground cinnamon on top. I have another cobbler in the other oven that I started earlier, and

and it should be ready now. Oh, I believe we have another perfect peach cobbler

See that beautiful thick crust I promised you? This recipe is magic

I'm going to dig into this while it's good and hot. Look at that beautiful, hot, steamy peach cobbler

The weight of the peaches went to the bottom of the pan, and the lightness and the additives

in your flour brought it to the top. Now, you can serve this wonderful cobbler with either

fresh whipped cream or ice cream. And next, I want to show you how to have fresh peaches

for your fresh peach pies year round. And in the meantime, I'm going to sample this

to make sure it's good enough for you. And it is. I've been cooking peaches all day long

and I still got a lot left. So I'm going to show you very quickly how to take these peaches

and put them in your freezer so that you can have fresh peach pies all year round

You take your peaches that have been tossed in tapioca, quick-cooking tapioca, sugar, lemon juice, and salt

You take your pie pan, line it with your foil, line your foil with a plastic wrap

dump your peaches in, seal it up, pop it into the freezer

and when you're ready to bake your pie, here's one that's already ready

You just simply take it out, take the plastic off, pop it into a pie crust, top it with a pie crust, and you've

got a wonderful fresh peach pie in January. I've had a long hot day in the

kitchen today, so I'm gonna finish my day with a nice glass of lemonade, and I have

prepared myself an extra treat. I have peach ice cubes, and I'm gonna top it

with one of my favorite things, fresh mint. And that's gonna be a wonderful finale for Peach Day

To go with my creamy peach cheesecake, my sweet peach shortcakes, and don't forget the scrumptious peach cobbler

I hope y'all have had a good time with me today. Remember, sometimes life can be hard

so try to make your cooking easy and fun. And until next time, America, best dishes

Thank you