Recipe of the Week: Fill your freezer with local fruit

Local blueberries, peaches, raspberries, blackberries and apricots and more are a reminder that it’s time to take advantage of the cornucopia of fresh fruit available and fill the freezer with summertime baking.

A brief break in the recent series of heat waves provided an opportunity to bake and not heat up the kitchen to unbearable temperatures. Pies, muffins, cakes, cobblers, crisps, buckles and grunts all were tempting options.

When the hot weather is too daunting, local fruit can go into the freezer for later use. Packaged in freezer bags or containers, they can be measured in the amounts needed when it is once again time to bake. Another option is to freeze pie fillings. Pam Mount, who, with her husband, Gary, owns Terhune Orchards outside of Princeton, N.J., likes to freeze her peach fillings in a pie shape so that when she is ready to use one, she can pop it between two crusts and bake the pie in the oven. She mixes the fruit with sugar, tapioca and lemon juice (cinnamon optional), and freezes it in a pie plate. When the filling is frozen, she lifts it out of the dish (you may need to set it briefly in warm water to loosen it), wraps it and puts it back in the freezer. I have done this and can testify it makes a very good peach pie long after peaches are done for the season.

When the weather is suitable to bake again, this muffin recipe is from kingarthurbaking.com:

Just Peachy Peach Muffins

4 ½ cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1 ¼ teaspoon table salt

4 ½ teaspoons baking powder 2 cups dark brown sugar, packed

1 ½ to 2 teaspoons Vietnamese cinnamon*

¾ teaspoon allspice

½ teaspoon nutmeg 2 large eggs

¾ cup vegetable oil

1 ¼ cups milk 4 teaspoons pure vanilla extract 2 peaches diced, but not peeled

¼ cup coarse sparkling sugar or ¼ cup granulated sugar, for topping

*Use the lesser amount for stronger cinnamons, like Vietnamese (Saigon); the larger amount for milder cinnamons, like Indonesian/Ceylon.

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Lightly grease two standard muffin pans or line with baking cups then grease the cups.

2. In a large bowl, combine the flour, salt, baking powder, brown sugar, cinnamon, allspice, and nutmeg.

3. Whisk together eggs, vegetable oil, milk and vanilla. Stir into the dry ingredients; the batter will be thick.

4. Using a flexible spatula, gently fold in the fruit.

5. Divide the batter evenly between the 24 wells of the muffin pans; a generous scone and muffin scoop is the right amount here. (The cups will be very full.) Sprinkle the coarse or granulated sugar on top of each muffin. If you only have one muffin pan, let the remaining batter rest in the bowl at room temperature while the first batch bakes.

6. Bake the peach muffins for 24 to 26 minutes, or until they’re golden brown and spring back when touched in the center. (Note that peach muffins baked without baking cups will bake and brown more quickly than those baked with baking cups.)

7. Remove the peach muffins from the oven and cool them on a rack. Store, well wrapped, on the counter for 3 days or freeze for up to 3 months.

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