Peach breakfast bread (aka quick bread)

Peach quick bread? Peach breakfast bread? Whatever you decide to call this recipe, you’ll love it. Made with fresh peaches, buttermilk, white whole wheat flour, and almond flour, it’s wholesome and delicious!

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We’re nearly out of fresh homegrown peaches now, but we’re going to do our best to come up with another peach recipe or three before the season officially ends. 

This peach breakfast bread is one of those recipes. We call this type of bread a “breakfast bread” but they’re also called “quick breads.” Since it is both quick to make and ideal for breakfast, you might also call it quick peach breakfast bread.   

We’ll leave that decision to you. 

Peach breakfast bread recipe tips

Regardless of what you decide to call it, there are some important tips you’ll need to follow to make this peach bread recipe just right. As we’ll discuss, you may also want to adjust the ingredients a bit to accommodate your taste preferences.

1. Leave skins on (don’t peel) if using organic peaches.

The first thing you might wonder is “do I leave the skins on the peaches or peel them?”

We left our skins on because we used homegrown organic peaches AND because we cut our peaches into small pieces wherein the skins wouldn’t create any eating challenges (see next tip).  

If you’re using conventionally grown peaches, we’d recommend peeling them prior to use in order to remove some of the synthetic pesticides. 

(Related read: How to grow organic peaches in the Southeast United States – interview with Clemson University scientists.) 

2. Cut peaches into small 1/2″ pieces + more tips to keep your peaches from sinking to the bottom…

We recommend cutting your peaches into small 1/2″ pieces rather than using whole slices. Why? 

• Smaller pieces won’t sink in the uncooked dough as easily.
• They’ll distribute more evenly throughout the bread, meaning you’ll get a piece in each bite. 
• They’ll cook faster and not release as much moisture, meaning you won’t end up with wet uncooked dough around larger pieces of peaches.  

If you’re using un-peeled peaches like we do, smaller pieces also mean you won’t even notice the peels on the fruit while eating them. 

Once your peaches are diced, put them in a bowl, then mix a large spoonful of the dry ingredient mix in to the diced peaches to coat their surface. This step will also help prevent them from sinking to the bottom of the bread pan while baking. 

Another tip to keep your peaches from sinking to the bottom of your bread? Put half your batter (with no peaches mixed in) into the bread pan, then mix the peaches into the remaining half of batter before pouring it into the bread pan atop the un-peached batter. 

3. Measuring dry ingredients 

Baking well and consistently making the same recipe the same way requires a good bit of precision. Thus, we’d highly advise you to use a kitchen scale if you bake regularly. (You can get highly rated ones for about $10.)

If you don’t use a kitchen scale, be sure you’re using the “spoon and sweep” method when measuring ingredients such as flour. That means use a spoon to fluff up the flour in the flour bag, then spoon it into a measuring cup. From there, use a flat knife or bread scraper to scrape off the excess flour while leveling the measuring cup. 

The way most people new to baking measure flour is to scoop the measuring cup straight into the bag of compacted flour then shake the measuring cup to level, which further compacts the flour. This means they end up with significantly more flour than the recipe actually calls for. 

One sure way to avoid this problem? Use a kitchen scale to measure flour or similar ingredients down to the exact ounce (assuming the weight is included in the recipe).  

For instance, in this recipe we used the spoon and sweep method to measure out 1.5 cups of certified organic King Arthur white whole wheat flour (our favorite whole wheat flour for baking). We then used a kitchen scale to weight the flour at 6.9 ounces. 

Got it? Now, we’ll complicate things a bit: different types of flour have different densities/weights, so refined flour (like all purpose) weighs less than whole wheat. Almond flour (which we also use) weighs less than wheat flour, etc. 

So you can deviate from the flour types we use (for instance using all purpose instead of whole wheat flour), but you might get different bread consistencies and have to tweak your recipe a bit to get it just right. 

4. Sugar and sweetness levels

We don’t eat a lot of sugar or sweets, so we tend to like things less sweet than most people. Our first batch of peach bread was made with 1/2 cup of light brown sugar. 

The result was a mildly sweet breakfast bread that we realized most people probably wouldn’t find sweet enough, which is why the final recipe at the bottom of the article calls for 3/4 cup light brown sugar. 

Want a less sweet breakfast bread? Reduce the sugar quantity.

Someone at your table who wants a sweeter bread can always pour on a bit of maple syrup — or you can make a sweet glaze to go on top of your peach bread if you’d like. 

5. White whole wheat or all-purpose flour? Pros and cons… 

As previously mentioned, we use King Arthur’s certified organic white whole wheat flour. Unlike typical whole wheat flours made from darker, heavier red wheat, it’s made from white winter wheat.

This means it’s lighter in color, texture, and flavor than typical whole wheat flours. However, it’s still not as light and flavorless as refined flours like all-purpose flour.   

We prefer to eat whole vs refined grains whenever possible, even if it means the flavor of the whole grain covers up some of the flavors in recipes (like peaches and almond flour in this recipe). Don’t let our preference stop you from using whatever flour you want or have on hand, just be mindful that flour deviations might affect the quantity of flour you use. (See tip 3 above.)

6. Butter your 9″ x 5″ loaf pan

We generously buttered our 9″ x 5″ glass loaf pan before pouring in the batter. This means our peach breakfast bread turned right out of the pan once it cooled. 

We used unsalted butter for coating; salted butter will add more salt flavor to the bread than you may want. Use organic grass-fed butter if you can.  

For clarity, you don’t have to remove the entire bread from the pan. You can simply cut individual slices in the pan, but you still want those slices to come out clean rather than sticking.

7. Bake time – and factors that may affect it

Recommended bake times are always tricky because there are numerous factors that can impact it. Our peach bread was done right at 60 minutes, but yours might be done sooner or later. 

Why? 

The type of bakeware you use (aluminum, glass, cast iron, etc) will each have slightly different bake times. Or your oven may cook hotter or cooler than ours. 

Another factor that might affect bake times in this recipe: the temperature of your peaches. We sliced and refrigerated ours the night before which meant they were cold when added to the batter.

Room temp peaches might mean a few minutes less bake time. If you’re using frozen peaches, that will mean a longer bake time. 

Long story short: this means start paying careful attention to your peach bread at around 50 minutes. You’ll know it’s done when it’s nice and golden on top and a toothpick or chopstick pulls out clean.   

8. Let bread cool before turning out of pan

If you try to turn a hot or warm breakfast bread out of the pan, you’ll likely end up with a mess of broken bread. Instead, put the whole bread pan on an elevated cooling rack until it’s close to room temperature. 

Then, run a butter knife around the outside edges of the bread before turning it out of the pan. It’s now ready to cut and serve immediately. 

Store whatever you don’t eat in the fridge covered in its baking pan. When ready to eat, we like to reheat slices of peach bread in our cast iron pans with a bit of butter, but reheating in the microwave works fine too. 

Serve with a side of yogurt or milk kefir for a perfect breakfast!  

Recipe: Peach breakfast bread (aka quick bread)

We hope you love this wholesome peach bread recipe!

KIGI,

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