I was pretty excited to finally try peaches for my little peach. Peaches ARE on the 'dirty dozen' list, so I purchased organic. If you've been following this blog, you may have noticed that I mention the 'dirty dozen' a fair amount, but I don't want to come off as too negative so, check out the '
clean fifteen' (fruits and veggies that are NOT chock full of contaminants).
Picking out peaches: I know this is probably redundant, but if you did not grow up picking fruit, it might be helpful. When choosing peaches at the store, pick ones that are a rosy and evenly colored. Since peaches may be hidden from sunlight by leaves, pick ones that have had good sun exposure. Lastly, the peach should not be mushy soft to the touch, but also not too firm.
After looking at various recipes, I chose to bake the peaches instead of steaming them. I tasted one and it was a bit tart, so I figured that baking would help lock in the sweeter flavor. Steaming is definitely faster.
1). Clean your cooking area and wash your fruit. The photo below summarizes why I'm so crazy about washing my fruits and veggies...I feel like fruit skins might as well be covered in edible glue. So annoying! (Just run it under warm/hot water and it will come off.) Obviously I'm worried about pesticides....but those aren't as visible as these neon stickers, haha.
2). Preheat oven to 400°.
3). Cut peaches in half. Just follow the seam along the fruit and pry open, I mean, separate the halves by twisting. Have you ever had a knot in your yo-yo and were forced to try to get it out from between the halves? Well, to me, separating peaches is exactly like trying to separate a yo-yo by twisting it...while also being super sticky, and did I mention %$#&&*ing impossible?
4). Pit the peach (even more difficult than yo-yo-ing it)...I would skip this step until the peaches are baked.
NOTE: Seriously, wait until it's done baking...unless you enjoy muttering swear words under your breath for 15 minutes. Once baked, the stone just falls right out! However, if you know of a great method to remove the stone, please share in comments.
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Can you tell which halves got 'Lennie Small-ed?'
Yes, that was tots Of Mice and Men reference. |
5). Place the halves stone half down in a baking dish and add 3 cups of water.
6). Bake peaches for about 40 minutes. The skin will prune a bit.
7). Remove the skins and stones, if you haven't already. NOTE: You can leave the skins on and blend, but it won't puree as well as the 'meat' of the fruit. If I was cooking for a baby under 6 months, I would remove the skins. I did half and half...I got lazy peeling the skins off, haha. I'm not as meticulous now as I was at first.
8). Blend, add very little to no liquid. I added just a splash of the liquid the peaches baked in.
9). Enjoy!
Baby-Led Weaning (BLW) Update:
For those trying BLW or using peaches as finger food, this would theoretically be a great food to try.
I took off the skin and cut up a peach half in little pieces. Max had no difficulty grasping it and throwing it at the WALL, but very little to none ended up in his mouth. He's so coordinated, that he just chose to impress the dog with his 'feeding' abilities and now the dog basically lives next to the high chair. Oh, well! We'll try again later!
Oh yea, peaches stick to walls WAY better than decals.
