Peaches work well in desserts, sauces

Peaches are perfect unadorned.

The fragrance of the sweet, juicy orbs is enough to tempt you to take a bite before you get them home. Right now, they’re overflowing at farmers’ markets, and the Green Bluff peach festival is in full swing.

The tree fruits are also delicious in desserts and sauces.

Jeanette Herman, who owns Cliffside Orchards with her husband, Jeff, shared a favorite recipe for Colorado Peach Sour Cream Pie. They sell their organic fruit at the Spokane Farmers’ Market each week.

The second recipe is from Anna Ethington, manager of the Humble Earth and South Perry Street farmers’ markets. The sauce can be used for ice cream or eaten alone. Ethington tried it as a glaze on roasted stuffed Cornish game hens. “It was delicious,” she wrote in an e-mail. It can be made with peaches or nectarines.

I know this is cheating a bit, but I’m also including a recipe Herman shared for apricot clafouti. Apricots are relatives of peaches, and I couldn’t resist including this recipe after seeing the boxes filled with the fruits at the farmers’ market last week.

Colorado Peach Sour Cream Pie

From Jeanette Herman, Cliffside Orchards

For the crust:

1/2 cup butter

1 1/2 cups unbleached flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

For the filling:

3 cups fresh peaches, peeled and sliced

1 egg beaten

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup sour cream

3/4 cup sugar

2 tablespoons unbleached flour

For the topping:

1/2 cup butter

1/3 cup sugar

1/3 cup unbleached flour

1 teaspoon cinnamon

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

To make the crust, cut butter into the flour and salt or use food processor to do the job. Press the dough into a 9-inch pie pan.

Mix peaches with the other filling ingredients and pour into the unbaked pie shell that you prepared. Bake the pie for about 30 minutes or until the pie is slightly brown. While pie is baking, you can prepare topping.

Blend butter, sugar, flour, and cinnamon in the food processor or use a pastry cutter until crumbly. Sprinkle the topping on the pie and bake for an additional 15 minutes.

Cool and thoroughly chill pie before serving.

Yield: 1 (9-inch) pie, 8 servings

Approximate nutrition per serving: 526 calories, 30 grams fat, (18 grams saturated, 51 percent fat calories), 6 grams protein, 60 grams carbohydrate, 101 milligrams cholesterol, 1 gram dietary fiber, 403 milligrams sodium.

Nectarines À la Anna

From Anna Ethington, manager of Humble Earth and South Perry Street farmers’ markets

1 quart of freshly sliced nectarines or peaches

1/2 cup to 1 cup of sugar, depending on how sweet the fruit is

1 tablespoon of Fruit-Fresh Produce Protector or 1 tablespoon of ground up vitamin C (ascorbic acid), or 1 or 2 tablespoons of fresh squeezed lemon juice

Toss sugar and Fruit-Fresh (or vitamin C or lemon juice) with the fruit. Let sit for 15 minutes to allow juice to form. Pack into containers. Refrigerate for immediate use, or freeze.

Delicious served over vanilla ice cream or alone. Lasts up to a year in the freezer.

Yield: About 4 1/2 cups

Approximate nutrition per serving: Unable to calculate due to recipe variables.

Apricot Clafouti

From Jeanette Herman, Cliffside Orchards. She wrote: “This recipe was given to me by a fruit customer many years back and is always a hit. I have modified the recipe a bit so the filling has a more solid consistency.”

4 eggs

1/2 cup sugar or 1/3 cup honey

1 1/2 teaspoons of pure vanilla extract

2 tablespoons melted butter

1 tablespoon brandy

1 cup unbleached flour

1 1/2 cups whole milk

1 1/2 pounds fresh apricots, sliced

1/2 cup sugar

Confectioners’ sugar, if desired

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 12- to 13-inch oval baking dish with butter and coat well.

In a mixing bowl, whisk eggs with the sugar or use honey, if you prefer. Add the vanilla to the egg mixture. Stir in melted butter, brandy and flour. Whisk in the milk to form a smooth batter. In a mixing bowl toss the apricots and sugar together. Place the coated apricots in the oval baking dish and pour the batter over the fruit. Bake in the oven for 45 minutes or until the cake is spongelike and puffs up. Serve the clafouti warm and sprinkle with confectioners’ sugar or top with crème fraîche or ice cream.

Yield: 8-10 servings

Approximate nutrition per serving (based on 10): 234 calories, 6 grams fat (2.8 grams saturated, 22 percent fat calories, 6 grams protein, 39 grams carbohydrate, 96 milligrams cholesterol, 1.6 grams dietary fiber, 67 milligrams sodium.