Since I started this week with a spectacular recipe that included bourbon—Honey Bourbon Steak Tips—I thought I would keep the theme going. Choosing what to do that with was a challenge since I have pinned quite a few recipes that involve bourbon. I am pretty fond of the stuff! But once I found this Bourbon Pecan Peach Crisp I didn’t look any further. I haven’t made a peach recipe in a long time or ever made or tried a crisp. It reminds me of the Pecan Cobbler recipe I made a few years ago. Let’s find out if it tastes as good as it looks and sounds!
In my humble opinion, the only thing better than peach crisp is BOURBON PECAN PEACH CRISP! Made with brown sugar, fresh peaches, bourbon, and a touch of cinnamon, this is Summer in a baking dish! Serve warm while the fruit is bubbling, with a big scoop of vanilla ice cream on top!
The Ingredients
So my pre-shopping check revealed I was out of bourbon but I did have a few other ingredients. Cinnamon, cardamom, cornstarch, and old-fashioned oats were all in my pantry.
I normally have a few other ingredients, but I was either running low on them or was completely out. That meant I had to not only buy the peaches and an orange for zest and juice but a few other pantry staples. Flour, brown sugar, granulated sugar, butter, and vanilla extract were all on my shopping list.
I decided to do my shopping at Fresh Market since they were having a sale for 20% off all produce. A few things didn’t look so great, but the peaches looked nice on the outside. I’m apparently a bad judge of peaches, though, because they were a bit brown when I cut into them as you can see below.
They turned even browner once they were baked, and I’m hoping that was due to the brown sugar caramelizing. The peaches in the recipe photo were a much brighter orange color, though.
The Process
This Bourbon Pecan Peach Crisp may have reminded me of cobbler, but making it was a little more involved. Not too much, though.
Making the Peach Filling
I began by slicing the peaches. This is something I have done before, but it didn’t go as expected this time. I immediately noticed the fruit didn’t release from the pit so I ran to google how to slice peaches.
I found there are two types of peaches: freestone and clingstone. Freestone peaches have fruit that easily releases from the pit. Clingstones are the opposite and the fruit has to be sliced away with a knife.
Apparently, I bought clingstone peaches, but the same article I found that told me about the different types of peaches also told me How to Slice Peaches (both types). I grabbed my paring knife and got to work following the instructions and had the peaches sliced up in 13 minutes.
The rest of the filling prep work was done in a mere 4 minutes. All I had to do was a bit of measuring, zesting, and juicing. Then I added the remaining ingredients to the pan with the peaches and toss them to coat.
Making the Crisp Topping
The morning I decided to make my Bourbon Pecan Peach Crisp, I set out a stick of butter to let it come to room temperature. It was ready and waiting to be cut into cubes and added to the crisp’s topping.
I added the cubed butter to a large bowl with the other topping ingredients and mixed them with a pastry blender. It took about 8 minutes to blend everything thoroughly, then I added it to the 12-inch cast-iron skillet with the peach filling.
The oven had been preheating while I prepped the Bourbon Pecan Peach Crisp, so I popped the assembled crisp in as soon as it was ready. As usual, I began with the lowest baking time of 40 minutes. The topping wasn’t quite as golden brown as I wanted, so I let it bake for an additional 5 minutes.
As you can see in the photo below, the baked crisp didn’t look much different when it was finished baking. I had to give it a good stir in order to show off the peach slices for the photos. I also added some extra pecan halves and a few scoops of vanilla ice cream.
Timing
This recipe lists 15 minutes to prep, 45 minutes to cook, 15 minutes of inactive time, and a total time of 1 hour and 15 minutes. Here’s how my time was spent:
- 25 minutes to prep
- 45 minutes to cook
- 15 minutes to settle
- 1 hour 25 minutes total
My prep time took a little longer than what was listed, but I have a feeling that was because the clingstone peaches were a little more work to slice.
