We wait all year for peach season, and invariably buy more peaches than we can eat. So what's a peach lover to do? Bake with them!

We found a summer peach cake recipe in our Cook's Illustrated Baking book and had to try it. The recipe uses a combination of roasted peaches and fresh for the best flavor and texture. This cake is tender and moist, with the peaches as the absolute star of the dish. We simplified some of the steps, and our version of their recipe is below.

This recipe serves 8-12 people and is great with some whipped cream or vanilla ice cream on the side. Refrigerate on the second day if you have any leftovers.

Roasting peaches

1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 425F degrees.
2. Line rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil and spray with vegetable oil spray.
3. Place 18 large or 24 smaller peach wedges in a medium sized bowl and gently toss with 2 teaspoons lemon juice and 1 tablespoon granulated sugar; set aside for topping the cake.
4. Cut remaining peach wedges crosswise into thirds and place in a large bowl. Gently toss with 2 teaspoons lemon juice and 2 tablespoons granulated sugar. Spread the peach chunks in single layer on prepared sheet and bake until juices begin to thicken and caramelize, 20 to 25 minutes. Transfer sheet to wire rack and let peaches cool to room temperature, about 30 minutes.

Cake

1. While peaches are roasting, melt butter in a microwave safe bowl and set aside to cool to room temperature.
2. Reduce oven temperature to 350F degrees and spray a 9-inch springform pan with vegetable oil spray.
3. In a small bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, and salt together in bowl and set aside.
4. In your stand mixer fitted with SideSwipe, cream together brown sugar, 1/3 cup granulated sugar, and eggs until well combined, about 30 seconds.
5. With the mixer running on its slowest speed, drizzle in cooled butter.
6. Add sour cream and vanilla. Mix until incorporated.
7. Add flour mixture and mix on low until just combined. Do not overmix the batter. It's fine if a couple of streaks of flour are visible.
8. Transfer half of batter to prepared pan. Use an offset spatula to spread batter evenly in the pan.
9. Sprinkle crushed bread crumbs over the cooled peach chunks and gently toss to coat. Arrange peach chunks on batter in even layer, gently pressing peaches into batter.
10. Gently spread remaining batter over peach chunks and smooth the top. Arrange reserved peach wedges, slightly overlapped, in ring over surface of cake.
11. Sprinkle remaining 3 Tablespoons of sugar evenly over top of cake.
12. Bake until center of cake is set and toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, 50 to 60 minutes. Transfer pan to wire rack; cool 5 minutes. Run paring knife around sides of cake to loosen. Remove cake from pan and let cool completely, 2 to 3 hours. Cut into wedges and serve.

This traditional French county dessert can be made in your mixer or with a blender. We, of course, made it in our mixer with a SideSwipe! It's not very photogenic, but, boy is it delicious! If you're not familiar with this dessert, it's a sort of baked custard studded with seasonal fruit. A clafoutis (also clafouti) is traditionally made with cherries, but  peaches and even blueberries, or a combination, can be used.

What we like best about clafoutis is that it tastes fabulous and it's super simple to make. Just be sure not to overbake it. For the best consistency, about 35 minutes is best; just watch for the edges to begin to turn golden brown. The center will still be a little jiggly (but not sloshing around). Don't worry, though, even if you bake it a little too long, it's still delicious.

We made this recipe without a trip to the store, so we used 2 percent milk for the milk and cream portions. It yielded a slightly less decadent clafoutis, but was still delicious. And a little less rich for those counting calories.

This recipe, from chezbonnefemme, uses a spiked whipped cream. We used plain.

This recipe serves about 6. The leftovers make a delicious breakfast, but it's not likely you'll find out. Our pan was scraped clean!

• 12  pitted fresh sweet cherries
• 3 large eggs
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar (or sugar substitute)
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon kirsch (cherry brandy) or 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
• Pinch of salt
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour (or gluten-free)
• 1 cup whole milk (can sub with 2%)
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• 1/4 cup confectioners’ sugar for dusting

Sweetened Spiked Whipped Cream: Place 3/4 cup cold heavy cream into a chilled mixing bowl. Add 2 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar and 2 teaspoons kirsch (cherry brandy) or other cherry-flavored liqueur. Beat on medium speed with an electric mixer until soft peaks form.
​

Happy National Chocolate Chip Day!

Everyone loves a good homemade chocolate chip cookie. They’re simple, sweet, and iconically American. And they pair perfectly with a cold glass of milk or a cup of coffee. But did you ever wonder where the idea came from? We did and decided to share the story with you.

The original Nestle Tollhouse chocolate chip cookie recipe - the one that appears on their semi-sweet morsels bag - was created by accident by Ruth Wakefield in 1938 for her popular Massachusetts restaurant , the Toll House Inn.

Trained home economist and dietician Ruth, with her restaurant cooking assistant Sue Brides, was experimenting with pecan drop cookie dough. Ruth felt there could be more interesting variations. She planned to melt baker’s chocolate and add it to the dough. When she discovered she was out of baker’s chocolate, she looked around her pantry and found semi-sweet chocolate bars. She chopped the bar into small bits and sprinkled them into the blond dough. When the cookies were baked, she discovered the chocolate had not melted or been absorbed. She named the cookies "Toll House Chocolate Crunch Cookies," and her diners loved them.

As customers began to request the cookies, word spread. The Toll House Inn featured the cookie recipe in some of their ads then in their cookbook. Marjorie Husted, who was publicized as Betty Crocker, featured the cookies on a popular radio program. As Nestlé’s sales went up, the company began coming up with product changes to encourage more sales. The first effort was to pre-score the bars to make it easier for home cooks to use the ingredient. 

Stories differ as who approached whom, but one way or another, Wakefield and Nestlé entered a partnership. Nestlé gained permission to print Wakefield’s recipe on the back of their packaging. In return, it was said that Wakefield received a $1 payment for rights to the recipe, all the chocolate she would need for a lifetime of baking,  and a consulting deal to work with Nestlé on other recipes.  (Perhaps more money changed hands later.)

The chocolate chip/morsel we know today wasn’t actually invented until 1941, four years after Ruth Graves Wakefield decided to add cut-up pieces of a chocolate into cookie dough. Because of the popularity of Wakefield's recipe, Nestlé developed and began to sell their famous chocolate morsel drops under the Nestlé Tollhouse name.

Who doesn't love an oatmeal cookie? It's a classic in every grandma's kitchen. But is your grandma's recipe chewy? Does it have great texture? This one does!

We've slightly adapted a recipe by Rebecca Firth for National Oatmeal Cookie Day, April 30. She has tons of great and reliable recipes in her book The Cookie Book  and on her baking blog, displacedhousewife.

These oatmeal cookies - made with bread flour for a better chew - are the ultimate in comfort food. We made our cookies with golden raisins and toasted, chopped pecans. Feel free to substitute the raisins for your favorite dried fruit (or leave them out all together). You can also add nuts and/or chocolate. Consider this a wonderful, oat-y base for whatever flavors strike your fancy - or whatever is in your pantry right now.

The recipe makes about 24, 3-inch cookies. They should keep around 3-4 days at room temperature in a sealed container. You can also freeze for up to 3 months.