August is the perfect month for fruity quick breads. The season is still offering beautiful produce, but the weather’s cooling down a bit so it’s almost tolerable to turn on the oven and we’re starting to crave a comforting slice of bread. Most of the bread recipes I’ve seen lately feature zucchinis, but since I now live in an urban jungle and no longer have a bountiful garden, I’m not dealing with an excess of vegetables at the moment to hide in my desserts. So I’m turning to one of my favorite fruits to “healthify” this week’s dessert instead – yayy peaches!!
I tried to incorporate a distinct swirl of cream cheese throughout the bread to make it more of a peaches and cream bread, but I got overzealous with my mixing so even though the name says cream, it’s hard to decipher from the photos. Instead of a nice, thick layer like I imagined, you get little bits of cream cheese throughout instead. Not the worst case scenario, but not quite as beautiful as Averie’s cream cheese bread that I was hoping to emulate. I debated just calling it Peach Streusel Bread, but I didn’t want to totally discredit the swirls of cream cheese here. It really helps keep the bread extra moist and adds just a little bit of creaminess to make it special. I opted to chop my peaches up finely so they’re well distributed and also because of my well-known aversion to large chunks of baked fruit. But if you like big pieces of beautiful peaches in your desserts, keep em’ larger and it’ll still be great!
Our clinic is infamous for filling our break room with candy, treats, and cookies on a weekly basis. We celebrate birthdays on Wednesdays and you’re pretty much guaranteed cake at least every other week if you stop by the resident room. Very hypocritical for a bunch of dentists, but I’ve noticed this trend in almost every dental clinic I’ve been in so far! Something about talking about cutting back on sugar all days makes us crave it. Anyway, we’ve instituted “Healthy Wednesdays” recently where we bring in healthy snacks to help balance out all the junk. Of course when I was assigned to bring in a snack though, I couldn’t not bake something. Everyone’s always nagging me to bring in baked goods, so how could I resist! This peaches and cream cake made the cut, and I tried to justify its wholesomeness with the peaches, whole wheat flour, and oats. Probably could have done without the cream cheese and added sugar, but nobody’s perfect :)
Please take advantage of the last summer peaches (or use frozen if you’re in a pinch slash it’s winter by the time you read this post) and make this bread! Quick breads are infamously easy to throw together, feed a lot of people, and always make you feel like you may be doing something not totally horrible for your body by indulging in a slice. I mean, compared to last week’s ice cream cake this bread can practically be considered a salad…
Peaches and Cream Quick Bread
Recipe adapted from Girl Versus Dough
Ingredients:
for the streusel topping:*
1/4 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
3 tbsp brown sugar
1/4 tsp cinnamon
2 tbsp cold unsalted butter, diced
for the bread:
2/3 cup sour cream
6 tbsp brown sugar
3 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 large egg
1-1/2 cups white whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1 cup peeled and diced fresh peaches
12 thin slices of fresh peaches
for the cream cheese swirl:
1 large egg
4 oz cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup granulated sugar
3 tbsp all-purpose flour
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and spray an 8x4" loaf pan with non-stick cooking spray.
To make the streusel, whisk together the oats, brown sugar, and cinnamon in a small bowl. Use a pastry cutter, two forks, or your fingers to cut in the cold butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Place the bowl in the fridge as your prepare the bread.
For the bread, in a large bowl whisk together the sour cream, brown sugar, oil, vanilla, and eggs. In the bowl of an electric mixer, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. With the mixer on low, slowly add the sour cream mixture to the flour mixture and stir until just combined. Use a rubber spatula to gently fold in the diced peaches.
For the cream cheese swirl combine the egg, cream cheese, sugar, and flour in a small bowl and whisk together until smooth. Pour 2/3 of the prepared peach bread batter into the pan, and cover with the cream cheese mixture. You can use a knife or offset spatula to fold int he cream cheese, or leave it be if you want a distinct layer. Cover the cream cheese with the remaining batter and smooth the top with an offset spatula. Sprinkle on the streusel, and arrange the peach slices so they're randomly scattered across the top of the bread.
Bake for 50 minutes to one hour, or until a cake tester comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Eat immediately or wrap tightly in plastic wrap and store airtight at room temp for 2-3 days.
*I forgot to actually make the streusel and ended up just sprinkling on some plain oats on top. This made it pretty, but obviously didn't taste as good. Try the streusel if you have the time/brains not to forget!
Yum! This looks so homey and delicious.
I’ve been on the biggest peach kick all week! I thought I was finally done and then bam… this appears! So buying a few more tomorrow to whip this up.
So glad I stumbled upon your blog! Everything is so beautiful and I’m already salivating!