Long-lasting baked goods: peach + mint version

May 12, 2017 10:01 AM

My liberal, pun-loving, sweets-loving mother wants Trump impeached. While I don't have that kind of power, sadly, I can bake her im-peach-mint...something. What should that something be? It needs to arrive 3 days later, still delicious. I have no canning skills (I've tried), but am a reasonably good baker. Any ideas?
posted by sugarbomb to Food & Drink (19 answers total)

I'm kinda thinking that peach and mint are two great tastes that don't go great together. I also can't think of anything that would involve peaches, that would hold up in the mail without going off.

But if you're trying to symbolically represent Trump in the form of baked goods, how about banana nut bread? :D
posted by Autumnheart at 10:09 AM on May 12, 2017 [7 favorites]

Peach and mint are good together! But usually in the form of a cocktail or iced tea. Maybe something inspired by that?
posted by stoneandstar at 10:11 AM on May 12, 2017 [9 favorites]

My instinct would be dried peaches in scones or something. Serve with orange curd (mostly for the color, tbh) and garnish with chiffonade of mint leaves.
posted by supercres at 10:16 AM on May 12, 2017 [1 favorite]

The last time this came up with Clinton, my husband made dessert for a party we were attending. It consisted of canned peaches and fresh mint in peach jello. It wasn't bad. Of course this would not travel.

It would be a dream come true for Trump to be impeached. We can only wish!
posted by mermayd at 10:18 AM on May 12, 2017

Oh, nerds. Orange curd is too low-acid to be shelf stable. Maybe lemon with some food coloring? Or whip it into an unnatural combover shape?
posted by supercres at 10:19 AM on May 12, 2017 [1 favorite]

Best answer: I agree with the drink idea. This is a job for shrub!

Take one part peaches and one part white sugar by volume. Mash up thoroughly. Cover with towel and sit at room temp for 1-2 days, stirring 1-2 times a day. Then, add 1/3-1 part vinegar to taste ( white, or apple cider etc, or mix and match, maybe a dash of balsalmic) and a generous handfull or two of crushed mint (can also add this at start for more mintyness). Continue to stir once a day for 1-2 more days. This allows flavors to develop and mingle, also may catch a tiny bit of wild fermentation.

At the end, strain and bottle. Depending on how much vinegar, should be shelf stable for about a year. Even with the lowest amount of vinegar (barely tart) it should be fine for weeks. Straight shrub end product should be slightly thick and pure sweet-tart im-peach-mint. Serve over ice with a dash of seltzer or soda, perhaps with rum or whiskey.
posted by SaltySalticid at 10:22 AM on May 12, 2017 [19 favorites]

Presuming this needs to be mailed, I'd go with muffins. Flavor Bible re mint with peaches gives the combo a thumbs up, "especially cooked peaches," and noting the mint should be spearmint rather than peppermint. Given that, I'd take fresh spearmint and make a simple syrup with it, then steep cut-up peaches in it, and then use that as filling for a muffin recipe that calls for jam.
posted by Pandora Kouti at 10:46 AM on May 12, 2017 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Make some peach mint tea (dry). Or send some cute peach and mint tea bags. Not a baked good but won't go bad, and can be cleverly or craftily presented.
posted by Sassyfras at 10:56 AM on May 12, 2017 [6 favorites]

Wellll... hmmm... I found a recipe for "Juicy Peach Cake" since I had a hunch that searching for a firmer peach cake, that can be mailed, would be easier done if I looked for German recipes. Sure enough, I found something like a pound cake with peaches in it, complete with what looks like a sprig of mint on top. Translation below (though if you don't use metric you'll have to do that conversion yourself.)

http://www.lecker.de/saftiger-pfirsichkuchen-1414.html

Saftiger Pfirsichkuchen, Juicy Peach Cake

Translated:

Ingredients

Makes sixteen servings

1 can (425 ml) peaches
125 g Butter or Margarine
100 g sugar
2 medium eggs
zest from one lemon
250 g flour
1/2 packet baking powder
5 EL milk
1 EL confectioner's sugar
sliced peaches and lemon glaze
Butter for greasing and loose semolina flour

Preparation

90 Minutes

1. drain peaches. Cut into small pieces. Blend butter and sugar. Blend in eggs one at a time. Blend in lemon zest.

2. Mix flour and baking powder. Alternate the flour mixture and the milk when combining with the creamed butter and sugar. Fold in peach pieces. Put batter into a greased and floured baking pan, 1 1/2 liters in size, fill it and smooth it.
3. Put into pre-heated oven (E-Herd: 175 °C/ Umluft: 150 °C/ Gas: Stufe 2) I think this means 175 degrees C for electric ovens, bake 55-56 minutes. Let if cool ten minutes in the pan. Upend cake onto a wire rack and let it fully cool.
4. Sprinkle cake with powdered sugar and decorate with sliced peaches and lemon glaze. Whipped topping goes well with this dish.

And mint sprigs, presumably.
posted by Crystal Fox at 11:02 AM on May 12, 2017 [5 favorites]

If she has the appropriate growing conditions, you could send her a peach tree and mint plants...
posted by amtho at 11:19 AM on May 12, 2017

Best answer: Shortbread cookies hold up really well and don't go stale, and this peach shortbread recipe seems like a good place to start. You could make candied mint leaves, then arrange them in the cookie icing before it sets.

You could also make a peach + mint simple syrup (here's a commercial version). Here's a recipe for peach simple syrup; you could just drop some fresh mint leaves in there along with the peaches when you're cooking it up.
posted by ourobouros at 12:25 PM on May 12, 2017 [5 favorites]

What if you made peach and mint sugar cookies -- not in terms of flavor, necessarily, but just in shape or decoration?

There are some super-cute peach cookies here and you could either make plain round sugar cookies decorated with green frosting mint sprigs or maybe these peppermint candy cookies?

And here's a peach-shaped cookie cutter, or if you don't have time for it to arrive, you could cut the cookies by hand using a cardboard template.
posted by kate blank at 12:26 PM on May 12, 2017 [1 favorite]

If you're feeling extremely ambitious, you could make marzipan peaches and use for the foliage white chocolate leaves lightly flavored with peppermint oil and colored with green color.
posted by jocelmeow at 2:00 PM on May 12, 2017 [1 favorite]

Tea hard candy is pretty good. You can use this recipe with any type of tea so you could do a peach tea flavored with a few drops of mint. Or try to blend mint and peach teas to see how that turns out.

More candy ideas: gummy bears or pate de fruits.

I know you said you can't preserve, but I like your "im-peach-mint" pun and was planning to do this recipe for peaches canned in sweet tea this summer. You can drop in a few sprigs of mint without changing the pH of the recipe.

Peach and mint macarons?
posted by topophilia at 2:44 PM on May 12, 2017 [2 favorites]

Bake peach whatever and send a package of nice after dinner mints with it.
posted by BoscosMom at 8:38 PM on May 12, 2017

Going off track here, but, soapmaking-etc supply companies sell a huge range of scents to add, and often melt-and-pour soap bases, lotion bases, etc. You could make a peach-mint set of bath products if nothing edible that's to her taste will hold up well in the post?
posted by kmennie at 10:35 AM on May 13, 2017

I know you want to make it baked goods but would you consider doing something like a perfume or body product that has notes of peach and mint? Maybe a peach body wash and a mint lotion?

If you prefer edible things, how about a bag of mint candies with peach gummy rings? I would also suggest making a simple peach syrup and sending it along with a nice mint tea. That way she can enjoy the peach and mint separately.
posted by SassHat at 12:16 PM on May 13, 2017

Response by poster: I love all of these--I marked as "best answer" the ones she'll be getting, but want to try them all! Thank you (feel free to keep going, if you are so moved)!
posted by sugarbomb at 5:33 PM on May 13, 2017

Cool, let me you how you/she like the shrub!
posted by SaltySalticid at 8:39 AM on May 14, 2017