Summer Days Dissipate

Like the tiny bubbles in a mimosa drink, summer disperses into ether persistently yet slyly.

After missing most of berry season, I managed to get my wits about me and make the most of peach season. I now have a small fortune of frozen breakfast bars made with peaches. What started as just another breakfast bar crafted around a seasonable fruit – as I’ve been trying to do year-round –turned into an instantaneous new favorite, with a spontaneous new name: The India Peach Breakfast Bar. Let me introduce you:

India Peach Breakfast Bar
(Based upon Farmgirl’s Blueberry Breakfast Bar)

BOTTOM LAYER INGREDIENTS:
2 cups old-fashioned oats
¾ cup organic white whole wheat flour
¾ cup organic evaporated cane sugar
¼ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
8 Tbsp (1 stick) organic butter, melted
1 tsp pure vanilla extract

TOP LAYER INGREDIENTS:
1 cup organic white whole wheat flour
½ cup organic evaporated cane sugar
3 Tbsp organic butter
several handfuls of shredded coconut

MIDDLE LAYER INGREDIENTS:
3 medium-sized organic peaches
¾ cup organic evaporated cane sugar
3 Tbsp organic white whole wheat flour
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 heaping tsp organic dried ginger
½ tsp organic ground nutmeg

BAKING INSTRUCTIONS:
Grease a 9” x 13” pan. In a large bowl, combine all of the dry bottom layer ingredients. Meanwhile, melt the butter. While you are waiting for the butter to melt, add the top layer flour and sugar together and then blend in the butter, preferably with a pastry blender. Once your butter is melted, remove it from the heat and add the vanilla before mixing it in with the bottom layer ingredients. Spread this mixture evenly into the bottom of your pan, and set the bowl aside for combining the middle layer ingredients. Next pre-heat your oven to 425° F. Skin and slice your peaches into wedges about ½ inch thick, at their widest. In the large bowl, combine peaches with sugar, flour, vanilla, ginger and nutmeg. Toss to mix well. Evenly spread peaches onto bottom layer and pour remaining juices evenly in spaces not filled with fruit slices. Dust top layer evenly on top. Bake for 15 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 350° F and continue baking for 10 minutes. Sprinkle several handfuls of shredded coconut evenly across the top. Continue cooking for about another 10 minutes, or until edges and top begin to brown.

STORING INSTRUCTIONS:
Remove from oven and let cool at least 10 minutes. Slice into bars. Transfer any bars not to be eaten immediately to a cooling rack or a cookie sheet and allow to cool completely. Place in air-tight freezer bags and transfer to the freezer as soon as possible.

These shorter days of summer seem to be slipping away twice as quickly as the days around the summer solstice. I walked around the corner to our barn just a few days ago to hear a very familiar and pleasant sound – the sound of new arrivals. I was convinced my duck had been sitting on her nest for two weeks, but a little bird told me it had, indeed, been four.