Whole Wheat Peach Kuchen

We have this friend named JJ Kuchan. He's a pretty cool kid who plays trumpet, is from Arizona, and thrives on being completely inappropriate at all the right times, while being a total gentlemen as his alter ego. Needless to say, he's one of our dear friends from undergrad and when a silly joke comes up, we think of him fondly.

So when we saw a recipe for Whole Wheat Peach Kuchen in our Simply in Season cookbook, we jumped on the opportunity to make what we nicknamed the "JJ dessert." We're not sure how JJ would like it (he's more of a meat and potatoes type of guy-he did something once called the Chipotle Mile where he managed to eat 4 Chipotle burritos over the course of running a mile...), but because the name "kuchen" was so close to his last name, "Kuchan" we couldn't resist. And what a little slice of heaven this Kuchen was. It's a beautiful way to use fresh Georgia peaches in a more creative way than heating them in brown sugar and pouring them over ice cream (not that there's anything wrong with that). This little recipe sounds daunting (Will doubted its success just from reading it) but I knew it would be a big hit in this house. Which it was...all week as we continually reheated it every night and served it with French vanilla ice cream. So if you come across some fresh peaches and don't know what to do with them, give this a go!

Whole Wheat Peach Kuchen (adapted from Simply in Season; serves 8)
3/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour (I just used regular unbleached flour)
1/2 cup flour
2 tbsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 cup butter
4 cups peach halves (peeled)
3 tbsp sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 cup plain yogurt or sour cream (we used sour cream)
1 egg (beaten)
2 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla

Combine the first 5 ingredients (flours, sugar, salt and baking powder) into a large bowl. Cut the butter in until crumbly. Pat the mixture over the bottom and sides of a pie pan to make the crust. Arrange the peach halves in the pastry, cut side down.

Mix the 3 tbsp sugar and 1 tsp ground cinnamon together before sprinkling on top of the pastry. Bake in preheated oven at 400 for 15 minutes.

Combine the sour cream, egg, 2 tbsp sugar and vanilla, and pour over peaches. Bake for 30 minutes longer, until set. Serve warm and with vanilla ice cream!