Recipe: Peaches and cookies chill in a cool treat
Cool and creamy, this peach icebox cake features ginger snaps as the "cake" base. But other cookies can be used -- other fruit, too. Kathy Morrison
Today we're going to channel the Sacramentans who had to live through the heat of summer before air conditioning or modern refrigerators were invented. They didn't want to turn on their ovens, either.
One of their solutions to dessert was the icebox cake, named for the literal icebox that kept the most perishable foods cool, at least as long as the ice lasted. According to the Smithsonian, "By the end of the 1800s, many American households stored their perishable food in an insulated 'icebox' that was usually made of wood and lined with tin or zinc." Electric refrigerators started replacing iceboxes in the 1930s.
But an icebox cake sounded so refreshing on this stifling weekend. Cream, cookies and fruit when chilled together make an easy and cool summer dessert.
Freestone peaches finally are plentiful, so that was my choice for fruit, but any juicy fruit such as cherries, strawberries, plums, pluots or nectarines (or a combination) would work in an icebox cake.
Actually, icebox cakes can be made with just the cookies and whipped cream -- anything else is up to the maker. I chose ginger snaps for the cookies, but any flat cookie or wafer works. (Nabisco has discontinued making their famous chocolate wafers, but you might be able find a substitute, if you want to use chocolate with cherries, for example.)
So stack up the ingredients, chill, unmold -- and enjoy! No need to add to our already plentiful heat.
Peachy icebox cake
Serves 8
Ingredients:
2 cups heavy whipping cream
2 tablespoons confectioner’s sugar
6 to 8 ounces of flat cookies: ginger snaps, Biscoff cookies, shortbread or similar wafers
2 large peaches, preferably freestone, plus 1 more for garnish, peeled if too fuzzy
Instructions:
Prepare a 9-by-5-inch loaf pan by lining it with plastic wrap, crossing two pieces of wrap that extend a few inches over each side.
Whip the cream with the confectioner’s sugar until the cream forms firm peaks. (Not too whipped, though -- you'll get something like butter!) Pit two of the peaches and cut into slices about ½-inch thick (or less, depending on the size – keep the slices all about the same thickness).
Carefully spread about one-fourth of the whipped cream across the bottom of the loaf pan. Place a single layer of ginger snaps into the cream without overlapping the cookies. (That took 8 of the cookies I was using.) Note: Broken cookies are just fine to use, especially when filling in holes. No one will see that they’re broken when the cake is served.
Spread a thin layer of the whipped cream over the cookies. Layer half the peach slices over the cream.
Repeat with cream, cookies, cream, peaches and the last of cream. Press one final layer of cookies into that cream, and loosely cover the top with more plastic wrap or a piece of foil.
Refrigerate several hours — overnight is best.
When ready to serve, uncover the loaf pan and invert a serving plate on top. To unmold, flip the pan onto the serving plate and carefully peel the plastic wrap off the icebox cake.
Garnish cake with peach slices and cookie crumbs, then slice and serve.
Note: If desired, skip the plastic wrap lining in the pan. Then rather than unmolding, scoop out the cake into bowls for serving.
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Garden Checklist for week of May 12
Get your gardening chores and irrigation done early in the day before temperatures rise.
* Plant, plant, plant! It’s prime planting season in the Sacramento area. Time to set out those tomato transplants along with peppers and eggplants. Pinch off any flowers on new transplants to make them concentrate on establishing roots instead of setting premature fruit.
* Direct-seed melons, cucumbers, summer squash, corn, radishes, pumpkins and annual herbs such as basil.
* Harvest cabbage, lettuce, peas and green onions. This heat will cause leafy greens and onions to flower; pick them before they bolt.
* In the flower garden, direct-seed sunflowers, cosmos, salvia, zinnias, marigolds, celosia and asters.
* Plant dahlia tubers. Other perennials to set out include verbena, coreopsis, coneflower and astilbe.
* Transplant petunias, marigolds and perennial flowers such as astilbe, columbine, coneflowers, coreopsis, dahlias, rudbeckia and verbena.
* Keep an eye out for slugs, snails, earwigs and aphids that want to dine on tender new growth.
* Feed summer bloomers with a balanced fertilizer.
* For continued bloom, cut off spent flowers on roses as well as other flowering plants.
* Got fruit trees? If you haven't already done so, thin orchard fruit such as apples, peaches, pears, pluots and plums before they grow too heavy, breaking branches or even splitting the tree. Leave the largest fruit on the branch, culling the smaller ones, and allow for 5 to 6 inches (or a hand's worth) between each fruit.
* Thin grape bunches, again leaving about 6 inches between them. For the remaining bunches, prune off the "tail" end, about the bottom third of the bunch, so that the plant's energy is concentrated in the fruit closest to the branch.
* As spring-flowering shrubs finish blooming, give them a little pruning to shape them, removing old and dead wood. Lightly trim azaleas, fuchsias and marguerites for bushier plants.
* Add mulch to the garden to help keep that precious water from evaporating. Mulch also cuts down on weeds. But don’t let it mound around the stems or trunks of trees or shrubs. Leave about a 6-inch to 1-foot circle to avoid crown rot or other problems.
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