Baked Peaches with an Almond Crust

Um, hi, happy solstice! Apparently while I’ve been off running half marathons, going to bridal showers in Boston, pride parading, and sun basking by my apartment’s pool, it’s turned into summer over here. I guess this means we can start going peach crazy, right? Ok, good. But really though, I got some ripe white nectarines at the store the other day and all it took was eating the first one cold and over the sink for some sort of switch to flip in my brain and signal this unending need to eat as many peaches/nectarines as possible.

When these kinds of fruit cravings hit I turn, of course, to Nigel Slater’s Ripe. With each chapter devoted to one singular fruit, the book is filled with more variations of fruit-filled cakes, crumbles, trifles, and custards than I can even dream of making in my lifetime. But at least this makes for plenty of options when I get a bit farmers market happy. Originally wanting to make grilled peaches, it was actually the recipe on the page next to it that caught my eye the most. Baked peaches with an almond crust. I know, hard to resist right, because even though crust is inherently not the loveliest sounding of words, there is nothing in the history of food that has not been improved by a crust. So there.

It’s also nice that Nigel usually opts for super easy recipes where the fruit takes the main stage and the add-ons are only a few staple ingredients. Here, peaches are sliced in half and tucked into a square casserole dish. They then get a generous coating of almonds, sugar, butter, and oats that have been quickly blitzed into a gravel with a food processor. I added a splash of amaretto atop the peaches before adding the crumble for good measure. I’m sure Nigel would approve. As the peaches bake they become intense, soft and sticky while the topping creates a toffee-like shell. And as with anything crumble-like, vanilla ice cream on the side is an obvious choice.

Baked Peaches with an Almond Crust
Serves 4
Adapted from Nigel Slater’s Ripe

Ingredients
4 peaches or nectarines
1/3 cup raw skin-on almonds
¼ cup sugar, cubed
3 Tbs. butter
¼ cup rolled oats
pinch of salt
amaretto liqueur (optional)
vanilla ice cream

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Cut your peaches or nectarines in half and pull out the pit. Nestle the 8 halves into a baking dish, cut side up.

In the bowl of a food processor add the almonds, butter, sugar, oats, and the salt. Pulse the mixture until it takes on a gravel-like appearance and no big pieces of almond remain.

If using the amaretto, glaze the tops of the fruit with a drizzle of that. Spoon a mound of the crumble mixture onto the top of each peach or nectarine. Bake for 45 minutes until the fruit is soft and the topping is crispy and golden. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream.