Brown Sugar and Cinnamon Peach Short Cakes with Cinnamon Mascarpone Whipped Cream

Is there anything better than fresh, ripe, juicy peaches? Perhaps only one thing is better: fresh, ripe, juicy peaches stuffed between warm brown sugar and cinnamon biscuits with clouds of cinnamon mascarpone whipped cream. I found some glorious peaches for 50 cents a pound and I just could not resist buying tons of them. I had to restrain myself from eating them all peach after peach.

The creation of this recipe has my once clean kitchen to thank. I have figured out that my mood each day is greatly affected by the state of my kitchen. Sometimes I go to bed with the counter covered in crumbs and dishes in the sink and I always regret it. It weighs me down the next morning and I feel immobilized with no energy or desire to do anything. But when I wake up to a spotless kitchen I feel light and happy and the day feels full of possibilities. On the day this recipe was born, my kitchen was super clean. And the wheels started turning and I could not stop making up recipes. I popped out four awesome recipes, did photo shoots for them all, ate way too much, and then was so tired I went to bed at eight and left a huge mess in the kitchen. Its this endless cycle of clean kitchen, crazy cooking spree, messy kitchen, mope around the house, finally clean the house, and then it all starts over again.

A few tips about this light, summery dessert. The biscuits are delicious the day they are made, so try to make them right before you serve the dish. You can make the cream and slice the peaches the day before if you would like, though. And if you have left overs, just reheat the biscuits in the microwave for 20 seconds before assembling.

The mascarpone cream is amazing, but I know that mascarpone cheese can be a little on the spendy side and sometimes hard to find. It is a soft Italian cheese and it is so good mixed with whipped cream and sugar. I can usually find it by the ricotta cheese or in the specialty cheese cooler near the deli. If you don’t want to spend that much, its actually very easy to make homemade.CLICK HERE to see a tutorial for homemade mascarpone from The View From Great Island. You could also leave it out and just double the amount of whipping cream. Still amazing.

I use self-rising flour in this recipe because I like that it has a lower protein content and produces softer biscuits. It also keeps the ingredient list smaller. If you can, use self rising flour. If you don’t have it on hand, you can make it easily at home. CLICK HERE for a tutorial by Gimme Some Oven on how to easily make it at home with all purpose flour, salt, and baking powder. You might need to add more liquid if using homemade self-rising flour verses pre-made self rising flour. Adjust accordingly.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Makes 6-8 Short Cakes

Ingredients:

• 2 C. self-rising flour
• 2 tsp. cinnamon
• 5 TBSP. cold butter, cut into small cubes
• 3 TBSP. brown sugar
• 3/4 C. very cold butter milk (or milk with a splash of lemon juice)
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla
• all purpose flour for dusting
• 1 TBSP. melted butter
• brown sugar for topping
• 3-4 fresh, ripe peaches, sliced

Mascarpone Whipped Cream

• 8 oz. mascarpone cheese
• 1/2 pint whipping cream
• 1/3 C. vanilla
• 1/4 tsp. cinnamon

Directions:

1. Start making the biscuits by mixing together the self-rising flour and cinnamon in a medium bowl. Chop the butter into small cubes and cut it into the flour with a pastry cutter. Or use your hands to combine the butter and flour, breaking the butter into smaller pieces. Don’t handle the dough too much, because you want to keep the butter cold.

2. Mix in the brown sugar. Make a well in the middle of the flour and pour in 1/2 cup of the butter milk and the vanilla. Use a wooden spoon or some kind of sturdy spoon to mix everything together, adding the remaining butter milk as needed until everything holds together. Once it gets too hard to mix with a spoon, use your hands to combine everything. You want to still see tiny chunks of butter in the dough, so don’t over mix. Once it holds together, place in the freezer for a few minutes while you work on the peaches. Don’t freeze for more than five minutes. If you will be longer, move it to the fridge. The idea is just to get it cold so the butter stays in pieces instead of melting into the dough.

3. Wash and slice the peaches. Make sure they are sweet and ripe. If your peaches aren’t sweet, sprinkle some sugar on them. Go ahead and leave the skins on. Place them in a container and set aside.

4. Preheat the oven to 400 F. Pull the dough out of the freezer and place on a generously floured surface, using all purpose flour not self-rising flour. Roll into a ball and then use the rolling pin to flatten it into a rectangle. Fold the dough into thirds like you would a letter. Then roll it out again into another rectangle. Once more, fold the dough into thirds like a letter. Roll out in a rectangle about 1/3 inch thick. Use a round cookie cutter or biscuit cutter to cut circles of dough. Be sure not to twist the biscuit cutter. Just press it straight down and lift it straight up.Twisting it seals the edges make them harder to become layered and flaky. Re-roll the scraps and continue to cut until all the dough is gone. Place the rounds onto a baking sheet.

5. Bake for 12 minutes. While the biscuits are baking, make the whipped cream. Place the mascarpone into a medium bowl and whip with an electric hand mixer until fluffy. Add in the whipping cream, powdered sugar, vanilla, and cinnamon and whip for 2-3 minutes until light and fluffy with a soft peak. Set in the fridge until ready to use.

6. When the timer for the biscuits goes off, remove them from the oven and brush them with melted butter and give them a sprinkle of brown sugar. Switch the oven to a low broil and bake for one or two more minutes, watching them the entire time. As soon as the tops are lightly golden, remove them from the oven. Don’t burn them!!!

7. To assemble the peach short cakes, take a warm biscuit and slice it in half. Place the bottom half on a plate, top with a generous amount of the mascarpone cream. Place four peach slices on top of the cream and top with the remaining biscuit half. Top with a big dollop of the cream and peach slice. Sprinkle the whole thing with brown sugar.

Serve when the biscuits are fresh and warm. If you have left overs, store biscuits in a ziploc bag and reheat for 10-20 seconds in the microwave before assembling.

By Edible Experiments