“One must ask children and birds how cherries and strawberries taste.”
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
There’s something about this season, and it’s certainly not the heat & dust which spells the North Indian summer. It’s the cherries, plums, peaches and apricots that make life oh-so-worthwhile! Stone fruit in season spells INSPIRATION! Peaches are beginning to appear but are yet to reach their blushing best. The cherries on the other hand are juicy enough to paint the town red, pleasantly more sweeter than expected.
I had 3 not so sweet peaches and a box of fabulous cherries on hand, and I headed for the bookmarked folder with Smitten Kitchen in mind. SK is a great place for fuss free and delicious comfort food; bars, cookies, cakes all celebrated at Deb’s beautiful place.
These Granola Bars from her blog are a favourite. This time I had peach shortbread in mind as the recipe sounded quite flexible. I contemplated sneaking in some more colour into them, and thus were born Cherry & Peach Oat Crumb Bars. 3 cups of flour sounded a bit more refined than what my comfort zone allows. I took a chance and substituted a cup of plain flour with rolled oats, both basic kitchen pantry cabinet items, and always found in my larder. Didn’t get a smooth, very crisp shortbread look like Debs, but the oats fitted in quite well. 
Do you like to bake with stone fruit? Whats your favourite? I love doing the crumbles, crisps and buckles, but often it isn’t enough to feed the blog, if you know what I mean. These bars are wonderful to make if you are on limited time. You can easily halve the recipe too. Do remember though that if you have a light porous stone in the kitchen, cherries will mark your space forever! Use vinyl tablecloths that are easy to wipe clean as pitting cherries is one of the messiest jobs, yet the rewards are the sweetest!
I wasn’t too sure what I would do with such a large number of crumb bars as I got carried away and made the whole recipe. Would they freeze well? Hmmm … with these thoughts I ran the squares past the kids when they came in from school, hungry as ever. If kids sitting on the kitchen chair cushions hungrily devouring four squares at a go was anything to go by, I needn’t have worried.
Plain flour might have made these firmer; oats made them slightly chewy soft. The bars were loved … and are all gone! I think this is a great way to use stone fruit in a bake. Fruit and oats offer a great make ahead snack for summer, served chilled out of the fridge! These also make an indulgent dessert served with a scoop of vanilla ice cream/whipped cream and a stone fruit compote. YUM!!
BTW, here’s an update on the kittens. They’re growing, are almost 2 weeks old and are getting quite adventurous! They’ve been gone since yesterday. Man Friday says that the mother will take them to seven different places before they learn to fend for themselves. Mumcat picks all three in her mouth, jumps over the wall and disappears! Then in a few days they are back again!!
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Total Time: 45 minutes
Ingredients:
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 cup vanilla sugar
- 1 cup rolled oats
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 vanilla bean scraped
- 200gms chilled butter, cubed
- 1 large egg
- 3-4 peaches, pitted and sliced
- 100gms cherries, pitted and halved
- 1 sachet vanilla sugar
Method:
- Preheat oven to 190C. Line a 9 X 13″ baking tin with baking parchment.
- Whisk the flour, sugar, oats, baking powder, baking soda and salt in the bowl of the blender to mix. {Thermomix Speed 5, 6 seconds}
- Add chilled butter, vanilla bean and egg and process until you have a breadcrumb like mix. {Thermomix Speed 10, 6 seconds, repeat}
- Turn out 2/3 of the crumb mix into the prepared tin and pat gently into place. Top with sliced peaches and pitted cherries. Sprinkle with vanilla sugar if using.
- Scatter the remaining 1/3 crumb mix over the fruit and bake for 30 minutes, until the top is light brown.
- Cool completely before cutting into squares. Store in an airtight box in the fridge.
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Oooh these look so good! I can’t wait for the summer fruit season to begin! Maybe I’ll try this recipe with rhubarb… Think that would work?
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I’m sure it would Jan. I’m envious that you get rhubarb coz we don’t! I’ve been seeing loads of rhubarb posts around blogs recently!
These looks yummy!
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Time sure flies! it feels as if it were just yesterday and Cherries are back again! The crumb bars look crumbilicious! And i’m loving all my trips to the farmers market
Anu´s last [type] ..A savoury Vegetable infused Parmesan Pasta cake
time sure flies… It feels like yesterday and cherries are back already! Your crumb bars look crumbilicious…
I’m luving trips to the farmers market thatsk to all that red colour
Anu´s last [type] ..A savoury Vegetable infused Parmesan Pasta cake
That ginger cat is irresistibly cute and yours bars are extremely tempting!
Cheers and have a lovely weekend,
Rosa
Love that you used fresh cherries–these are gorgeous and I bet they taste pretty darn good too
I love cherry season. I haven’t seen them in our supermarkets yet, but they should be here soon. What a delicious way of using them
Hope you have a fantastic weekend!
*kisses* HH
this looks sooooooo good…new to your space…sure you have a gorgeous space..
happy to follow u..:)
visit mine when time permits..
Tasty Appetite
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Deeba I always love and love your photos and your food stile!
Today is not different!
Congrats!
Such gorgeous cherries. Our local cherries are still weeks away from being ripe. I don’t bake with fresh cherries often because they are eaten so fast. If I get a chance though your bars sound wonderful. Sounds like a great mama cat.
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Sounds delicious! I can’t wait until we have fresh peaches & cherries available here.
What an amazing flavor combination. Thanks for the recipe – will be trying them very soon (as soon as I can get fresh peaches!). Cherries arrived in the market today – peaches will be very soon!
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This look delicious! I live in Raj, and I’d love to know how you found cherries and peaches. Such things are unheard of here. I have a hard enough time finding good strawberries, and even those only about two weeks a year. I so miss berries and fruit like this! Any suggestions on getting it here?
For baking with stone fruit – apricots are my favourite. I can’t wait for cherry season here – but they never make it into a recipe (well maybe a claufoutis). Gorgeous pics as always.
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*groan* And here we are contemplating winter…sigh. I adore cherries, and these biscuity bars sound delicious. Glad you added the oats, I do like to feel as if I’m being a bit healthy. Must try this, they sound like a great snack for the kids.
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We are only just coming in to the season where we can start eating locally and seasonally; such a late Spring. I know that fruit will be coming soon!!!!
Lucky you! We’ve just started to see our first batch of litchis but cherries and peaches yet to make an appearance.
Love fresh cherries and love these bars! The crumbs look perfect! Also the kittens are adorable =D
Xiaolu @ 6 Bittersweets´s last [type] ..Silpat Giveaway Winner!
Deeba, gorgeous! My jaw is hanging at the gorgeousness of your photos and styling! Something so simple as these luscious bars becomes a work of art! How is it you get better and better every post? Is it possible to improve on perfection? Yes! You do it! And I want these bars: I’m a cherry fanatic and we won’t have cherries here for another month of two.
xoxo Miss you!
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They look absolutely delectable! Cherries are such a gorgeous ingredient to work with and this sounds like the perfect way to enjoy them!
PS. Your kittens are so so cute!
Maria @ Scandifoodie´s last [type] ..Kale with mushroom and kale pesto
Mmmm, this looks delicious. Two of my favorite fruits in one dessert!
I liked the content of your website very much. It was a great experience. Yogita Khurana (http://recipes.qrange.com)
hey deeba,
I mailed you couple of days back, not sure whether you got my mail. can you acknowledge my mail?
thanks,
sheetal
Love baking with stone fruits, Deeba. Peaches are a favorite, as are cherries. These bars look lovely and crumbly.
Fun to see the cute kitties. Momma certainly is protective!
These bars look gorgeous D. Love the stoned to comfort
I wish cherries were here, maybe they’ll arrive soon?
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Hi Deeba,
I am a regular reader of your blog and few of your recipes are a staple in my cooking regime. today I have a query about baking alcohol cakes. My sister is turning 30 and wanted to bake an adult only cake. I am thinking on the lines of baking basic sponges and wetting them with irish cream and frosting the cake with a mix of fresh cream and cream cheese with alcohol. what do you thnk? Looking forward to your advice and ideas. Thanks.
Thanks for the recipe.
Awesome recipe. And believes me its uncommon.
Thank You for the sharing.
http://www.qrange.com
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Dear Deeba,
lovely colours and i just baked a batch:) you forgot the sugar!! i checked Deb’s link and added the cup of sugar:)
My apologies Latha, and thanks for letting me know. Now updated.
I just finished making to bring a container with me for camping this weekend. But, of course I tested one…SO DELICIOUS! Thank you for the excellent recipe.
PG´s last [type] ..Blueberry Pie with Ginger Crust
I made this last night and it is delicious. I added some coconut to the base, and didn’t have any cherries, so used chunks of chocolate. The chocolate was probably a tad too much, dried fruit would have been way nicer. Lovely recipe, definitely a keeper.