Brown Sugar & Butter Peach Dumplings With Vanilla Gelato

Summer is practically summarized by the peach.  Sticky, sweet and blushing with the color of wild sunsets boasting orange-pink swirls. The warm, languid days of Summer simply beg for a ripe, juicy peach to send streams of juice running down the chin.

This year, much to my dismay, peach season got a late start.  Typically by the middle of May, there are abundant piles of this fragrant, ripe, stone fruit in markets far and wide.  

Well, needless to say, they've finally arrived and better late than never.  Upon venturing out to my local farmer's market today, I found troves of this golden fruit at just about every stall.  I could practically smell their sweet perfume wafting on the gentle breeze.  I stopped frequently to intimately fondle one here, or inhale the aroma of one there.  My kids were positively stumped, until finally my oldest rolled his eyes and said, "Mom, come on!  You have touched every single peach at the market already!"  Perhaps he was right... I may have gotten carried away looking for the optimal peach.  But unlike inspecting a car, when you might kick the tires, peach vetting is a whole different ball game.

I made my rounds, once, twice, and finally had a vendor slice open a specimen right in front of me.  The juices ran down his arm.  I nodded approvingly.  The peach was a yellow variety called "Flavorcrest".  It's aroma was intoxicating and its flesh was almost a rosy salmon color.  It was the quintessential summer peach.  Eating such a peach out of hand is unrivaled, but nearly as delicious, is wrapping it and baking it in a buttery pastry crust with a little nob of butter and brown sugar tucked in the center.  A scoop of vanilla ice cream might also enhance the experience, wink-wink, nudge-nudge.     

Brown Sugar Peach Dumplings

For the Pastry
2 cups all purpose flour
4 tablespoons ice cold shortening - in small portions marble sized poritons
4 tablespoons ice cold butter - cut in to small cubes
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
4-6 tablespoons ice water
1 egg beaten

For the Peaches
4 large, ripe, freestone peaches - blanched, peeled, cut in half with pit removed
4 tablespoons brown sugar
4 tablespoons cold, unsalted butter cut in to four cubes

Directions
In the bowl of a food processor, pulse the dry ingredients for the pastry.  Add the butter and shortening and pulse a few times until the pieces are the size of peas.  Pulse a few more times adding ice enough water until the mixture comes together.  Gather the dough, press it in to a thin disc, wrap it in plastic wrap and refrigerate for about an hour.

Preheat the oven to 400.  On a lightly floured surface roll out the dough in to a square.  Portion the square in to four smaller squares.  Place a piece of butter and a tablespoon of brown sugar in between the peach halves and sandwich the halves together.  Place on the center of the dough squares and bring up the sided to meet at the top.  Crimp the edges tightly and brush with the beaten egg.  Bake in a dish on on a pan lined with parchment paper for approximately 25-30 minutes until golden brown.  Serve with vanilla ice cream. 

Serves 4