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Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Apple/Peach Cobbler/Cake

I love Peapod. For any of you who don't know what that is, it's a grocery delivery service. It has been a lifesaver, especially since I am one of those people who loves to wait until I have almost nothing in the house before I go grocery shopping. Don't get me wrong, DS is awesome in the store for me. He's never had a single meltdown, and loves to look around at stuff while sitting in the cart. I am the one with the problem, getting all stressed out if I have to make a big trip to the store with him. I don't know why. I am so irrational sometimes. 
Anyway, I got some peaches, because I've been craving peach-flavored stuff lately. I had my groceries delivered on Saturday while I was down in Indy doing Run for Your Lives, and I realized yesterday that I really needed to use them up before they went bad. So, I started scouring my Pinterest for recipes that I had all of the ingredients to. There was one for peach cobbler bars that looked delicious, but I didn't have any cream cheese, and another for a peach upside down cake, but I didn't have enough peaches. I couldn't seem find one that really struck me and that I was prepared for, so I started looking at my apple recipes, thinking I could easily switch the apples for peaches. 
I came across this Apple Filled Coffee Cake and figured it was a start. I knew I wanted to make the cake from scratch, and then I was afraid that I didn't have enough peaches on hand for something like this, so I decided to make it an apple/peach cake. THEN I was concerned that there would be too much topping for the cake to cover, so I wanted to put a streusel topping on it. I know, I'm crazy. I wonder if there is a recipe out there that I will ever follow exactly... "But, who doesn't love a streusel topping???" I thought to myself, laughing maniacally. It is for sure my favorite way to top a pie, as I'm not really a pie crust kinda gal. Decision made, I set out to make the cake.
So, here we go.
I give this (doctored) recipe 4 out of 5 stars.

 For the cake, I used this recipe (the 9x13 baking version), and added a teaspoon and a half of cinnamon. I preheated my oven to 350 and greased and floured my pan. (Does anyone else suck at flouring a greased pan? Maybe one day I'll get it right.) I had 3 decent sized peaches, so I peeled and chopped those. During this time, I realized that I suck at peeling peaches. Like, really. Thankfully no one else was around to see me butcher those poor peaches. 

I put a teaspoon or 2 of sugar and cinnamon in with the peaches and gave them a stir. I had a can of apple pie filling on hand (I used the Duncan Heinz), so I opened that. Once I poured the cake batter into the pan, I plopped the peaches on top, followed by the apples, trying to get it as evenly spread as possible. 


I think I could have eaten the entire can of apple pie filling just with a spoon.

For the streusel topping, I put 2/3 C of brown sugar, packed, with 1 C of flour and 1 stick of softened butter. I used my hands to mix it all up until it was the consistency of wet sand. You could use a fork or pastry cutter, I just think your clean hands are the best tools in the kitchen sometimes. I then plopped (don't you love my technical terms??) the streusel topping as evenly as possible over the peaches and apples, and put it in the oven. The original recipe says 35 min, but I put it in for a few minutes less because my oven is wonkey.

When the timer went off, I pulled it out of the oven and it was perfect. I mixed roughly a cup of powdered sugar and a tablespoon or so of milk together to make a glaze. I never measure for frostings and glazes. You really need to keep tasting it as you go to find what is best for you, as some people have a sweeter tooth than others. I poured the glaze over the top with a spoon and then let it cool completely before cutting it. 
Seriously, how good does this look??

Haha, just kidding. I cut that baby open and took a bite immediately. It was divine. The only thing I'll say is that the streusel was not necessary. In fact, it probably needed to be cooked for a little longer, but the rest of the cake was done, so it just didn't really work out like I wanted it to. I think next time I might just hold back some of the cake batter, or press the peaches/apples down into it.
Totally yummy!