Peach Puzzle

My sister Sarah is visiting us for a few days in Amarillo.  She got me this cookbook, America’s Best Lost Recipes, for my birthday.  One of the recipes that caught her eye when she looked through it was this peach puzzle.  We had no choice but to try it out when she was here.

It’s basically like an upside down peach cobbler, but with a few twists.  The peaches are left whole…pits and all.  The crust ends up on the bottom instead of the top.  And a sweet brown sugar sauce is cooked with the dessert in the oven.  The twisted part about the sauce is that its cooked upside down and is sucked into the upside down ramekin during cooling.  Don’t ask me exactly how that works…it’s a mystery…or a puzzle.

While the sauce did magically end up in the ramekin, we had some trouble with the crust sticking too much to the sides.  So, grease the sides of the pie plate.  I also recommend making this when you are fairly confident it will be consumed in one sitting…but not by yourself!  Sarah and I each had a helping, then we put the left overs in the fridge.  It wasn’t nearly as good on day two.  The crust got pretty soggy from the peach juice, and wasn’t quite as tasty.

This is a yummy dessert.  The peaches end up perfectly soft.  The crust is not too sweet, and is nice and buttery.  If you’re looking for something a bit out of the ordinary, this is a perfect dessert to use up some of those juicy summer peaches.

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