Peach Caramel Sesame Crumble
Last summer I traveled to NYC for a fun day of baking in my friend Rachel’s kitchen. As she is the woman behind my favorite all-things-sesame brand, Seed + Mill*, you can bet we had fun combining our two products. Let me tell you, caramel & tahini are magical together.
One thing we made that I have been dreaming about as summer heats up is the Peach Sesame Crumble. We adapted Basically’s recipe, beginning by subbing Cara-Sel for the sugar in the filling. As the peaches were perfectly ripe (picked from my tree that morning!), we didn’t need much, just a little drizzle to get the juices flowing.
We were fortunate enough to have the incredibly talented Hallie Sharpless with us that day, taking photos (all pics in this post are hers) and sharing in the fun. I kid you not when I say I can still taste the warm peach crumble with slooooowly melting vanilla ice cream. Perfection.
Please, do yourself a favor and make this as soon as your local peaches are ripe.
*you can buy Seed + Mill products here - I highly recommend EVERYTHING
Peach Caramel Sesame Crumble
ingredients
2 ½ lbs ripe peaches (~6-7 medium, resulting in approximately 8 cups when sliced)
1 lemon
¼ cup (2oz) Cara-Sel caramel
1 ½ tsp Kosher salt, divided
⅓ cup sesame seeds
1 ½ cups AP flour
¾ cup sugar
½ tsp cinnamon or ginger (optional)
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
¼ cup tahini (I always use Seed + Mill)
1+ tsp cornstarch (optional)
instructions
Preheat oven to 375º.
Zest lemon into a medium bowl and set aside.
Juice lemon into a separate medium bowl.
Leaving skins on, slice peaches (4 slices per quarter or so) and place in bowl with lemon juice. Stir in caramel and ½ tsp Kosher salt. Let sit while you work on the crumble topping.
If your sesame seeds are toasted skip to the next step. If they are raw place them on a rimmed baking sheet or in an ovenproof skillet and toast in the oven until light brown and fragrant. I suggest peeking after just 2 minutes, checking & stirring every two mins after for ~10 minutes — it may seem fussy, but you do not want them to burn. As soon as they are toasted pour them into the bowl with the lemon zest.
Add flour, sugar, spice (if using), and 1 tsp salt to bowl with seeds. Stir to combine.
Cube butter and add it to dry mixture. Using your hands or a pastry cutter, work the butter in until the lumps are no bigger than peas. Add tahini and mix until everything holds together when squeezed.
Stir peaches and check to see how juicy they are. If there are lots of lovely juices, add the cornstarch (you may even want to add up to 2 tsp). However, if your peaches weren’t super ripe you may not need to do this. Go with your gut!
Now you get to decide what size pan you want to use. You can go with just about anything that will hold the peaches. We used a few small cast iron skillets, but to make one crumble I would use a 10”. You could also opt for a large deep dish pie plate, a casserole dish, or a cake pan. This is truly a choose-your-own-adventure deal.
Pour peach mixture into your chosen vessel and top with scattered blobs of the crumble mixture, covering completely.
Place in oven and bake until topping is well browned & firm and peaches are tender & bubbling. Start checking at 45 minutes, although it may take as long as 60-70.
As with all things crumble, I love serving this warm with good quality vanilla ice cream. If there are leftovers (one can only hope), hide them and enjoy for breakfast the next day when no one is around. Oh wait, did I just say that out loud? ;-)
