It's possibly the most wonderful week of the year:

The perfect week to bite a peach!

Late Summer peaches are like stumbling upon a Rubens' nude in a room full of Picasso canvasses.

Plump, fleshy and gorgeous.

Fragrant, blushing globes.

Who could resist biting into those furry little cheeks?

I made this pie three times this week. (and selflessly stacked on 5 pounds in the process)

Do you think any of them had a chance to get stale?

Heck, they didn't even have time to cool down!

I fought the urge to use frozen puff pastry and attempted a 'rough puff'.

Rough Puff pastry takes about a 10th of the time needed to make true Puff Pastry.

I settled for my 'Puff Enuff' pastry. The recipe is below. You can certainly use a packet of frozen Puff or Shortcrust pastry if you can't be bothered. The perfectly ripe peaches are the true heroes in this story.

Buy medium sized peaches, leave them in a paper bag for a couple of days if they aren't ripe enough. They should feel heavy for their size and the flesh should be dense.

Roll your pastry out to about 40cm / 15 inches.

Wash 3 peaches and rub them gently with a towel to take some of the fuzz off the skin. Now slice them in half, remove the stone and then slice into 1cm / 1/4 inch wedges.

Sprinkle the barest pinch of salt over the sliced peaches. This will draw some of the excess juice and amp up the peachy flavour. Now take about 6 amaretti cookies and crumble them in your hands. Sprinkle these crumbs over the peaches. Add about 2 handfuls of firm, ripe blueberries and a tablespoon of Amaretto and another of Grand Marnier or Triple Sec.

Arrange the fruit in a clumsy tumble in the centre of the pastry. Going clockwise, fold the sides up over the fruit. Brush with beaten egg. Crumble a few more amaretto cookies over the fruit. These will sweeten the pie slightly and soak up some of the juice.

Bake the pie in an oven which has been pre-heated to 425f / 220c for about 45 minutes. If the pastry threatens to burn, lower the heat and cook a little longer.

This pie waits for no man. Serve it hot. Serve it with cream, ice-cream or both!

Struggling with the idea of spending the whole day rolling pastry, I looked up recipes for Rough Puff Pastry.

I was cooking and doing chores, so this worked perfectly...this pastry took about 30 minutes all up; 3 sets of 10 minute tasks. And it is definitely the best pastry that I've ever made.

Here's what I came up with. Give it a try:

Clear your workbench and pile 1 1/2 cups of plain flour in the centre. Add 1 tablespoon of icing / confectioners sugar and a 1/4 teaspoon of salt.

Slice 6oz (1 1/2 sticks) / 170g of unsalted butter into 1cm / 1/4 inch strips. Toss these into the flour to get them lightly dusted then pick up each butter slice and squeeze it between your thumb and forefinger. The butter will break into coin sized pieces.

Mound the butter and flour into a pile again and, using the heels of your palms, run your hands away from your body through the flour. You will feel the butter smearing into the flour. Repeat this about 6 times then mound the mix again.

Pour 7-8 tablespoons of ice water into the flour. Stem any leaks by tossing flour onto the water and re-incorporate it. Squeeze the dough into a solid mass (it will be flaky). Pat it into a rectangle and wrap it in clingfilm. Put it in the fridge for 20 minutes.

Unwrap the pastry and dust your bench in flour. Place the pastry longways and roll it out to about 30cm / 12 inches. Fold the top third in towards you, over the centre. Now fold the bottom third over the top. It's like folding a letter.

Turn the pastry around a 1/4 turn and repeat this roll & fold. Then re-wrap it and chill it for another 20 minutes.

Repeat this roll-fold-roll-fold-wrap-chill rigamarole twice. (that's three total)

If you get side-tracked and leave the pastry in the fridge more than an hour, you'll have to let it get back to room temperature (10 minutes or so), or it won't roll out easily.

You can also make this pastry ahead and freeze it...

It works for me if I'm doing chores and can go from the laundry (roll the pastry), put the clothes in the dryer (roll the pastry), climb Everest, (roll the pastry) and so forth...

Otherwise, there's always the frozen stuff...

Simple to make.

Simply delicious.

There is that tiny overlap between the apricot and the peach seasons. The nectarines and blood plums are more fickle in taking sides. It seems they're going with the peaches this year.

Whatever, it doesn't really matter with this cake. Buy 2 of each. If one or two are a little under-ripe, the cooking will soften and sweeten them.

Everyone has second helping of this cake because one slice might have a peach on top, another might have an apricot and plum bumping cheeks. A third will be all about a juicy nectarine. Who knows what a fourth might bring?

Start with a food processor: combine 8 oz / 225g of softened butter; 1 1/2 cups of sugar; 2 cups self raising flour; 4 eggs; 1 teaspoon of vanilla; 1/2 cup buttermilk or yoghurt. Pulse 30 seconds, scrape the sides and then pulse again.

Pour the batter into a large, greased baking dish. Slice the fruit in half and remove the stones. Place the halves cut side up in the batter...in a random order...then bake @ 375f / 190c for about 50 minutes.

Mix 1/2 cup dark brown sugar with a good tablespoon of cinnamon and a good 2 teaspoons of nutmeg. Sprinkle this mix over the cake as soon as you take it from the oven. Pour extra sugar into the centre of each piece of fruit to soak up the juice.

Serve warm, serve cold...

Or, for another peach cake, try my Peach and Blueberry Struesel Cake. This brought my good friend Bea into my life. I had baked it for a bake sale and she was working the stand. The cake was still oven warm and she had every slice sold before it had time to cool!

Click the link below

Whilst I admit to having a heightened sense of taste when I stumbled across this combination of flavours, I can vouch that they are truly harmonious!

Just-shy-of-ripe peaches, sliced into slivers...

Shavings of that semi-aged gouda known as Parrano...

Salty, smoky curls and wisps of prosciutto...

Sweet, fragrant basil leaves.

Bake a pizza dough with just some butter and salt on top, tumble all the other goodies onto it straight from the oven.

Or butter a super gutsy baguette and load it full.

Or toss them all into a salad bowl and drizzle the best olive oil on top. A few grinds of pepper...

And why not wash it all down with a Peach and Prosecco Bellini?

If you cook blueberry pancakes for someone, you may as well be wearing a stamp on your forehead saying 'Stop looking: I'm the one!'.

So, when it comes time for the deal breaker, here's a little trick that is going to have your partner screaming 'I DO!' and dragging you up the aisle with their fork still mid-air.

Trust me; no one is going to say no to these pancakes.

(And if they do, they weren't worth marrying anyway!)

Basically you just keep stacking the blueberry pancakes with layers of butter, jam and fresh peach slices until it reaches a giddy gateau height.

Smother it all in lashings of hot golden syrup and slice it like a cake.

Mmm!

I was too wrapped up in pastry to put together a cobbler topping.

But there is a Spiced Peach Shortcake recipe on the website if you care to browse...

Otherwise, I'm putting the finishing touches to my Swedish Affair.

Some very exciting news there.

Stay tuned.

Stay peachy.

And share the love!

cheers, Mannix

mannix@thelovebite.com