Baked Crispy Peaches (c.1939-1945) ★★★★★

3:24 AM 1940s , 20th century , 5 stars , dessert , fruit , Wartime Recipes From Canned Foods , WWII 6 Comments

Back around November, a friend contacted me about a recipe book she had recently acquired. It was an undated WWII cookbook, focused on using canned foods. Although we don't know the publication date of the cookbook, it was obviously sometime during WWII. It was published by the American Can Company, possibly in Iowa. She asked me if I was interested in the recipes, and of course I replied that I was. She was very generous in photographing the entire cookbook and sending it to me. You can see the cookbook in its entirety here. There isn't a huge selection of canned foods in my little Japanese town, so I settled on this fairly simple recipe for baked peach halves.

(By the way, Kitchen Historic's 4th birthday was on February 6th! I can't believe it's been this long. Many thanks to you, my lovely readers!)

Original Recipe:

BAKED CRISPY PEACHES

1/2  No. 21/2 can Peach Halves     3  tablespoons Brown Sugar
3/4   cup Cornflakes                       1  tablespoon Butter or Margarine

Drain peach halves. Crush cornflakes. Roll peach halves in cornflakes.
Place peaches, hollow side up, in baking dish. Fill centers with sugar;
dot with butter or margarine. Pour 1/4 cup juice around peaches. Bake
in moderately hot oven at 375 F. for about 25 minutes until browned.
Serve hot with cream or evaporated milk.                             4 servings.

The Verdict:

Well, at first I didn't think much of this dessert. But then I was surprised to find myself wanting more, even after eating two. However, there is no mistaking - this is a cheap recipe. It's certainly not surprising to find this in a wartime cookbook. But, it's a tasty and simple recipe to make, and I can see it being a fun treat during wartime.

Some notes:
The majority of the cornflakes were kind of soggy.
The syrup from the peaches mostly just burned to the bottom of the pan. Not sure what the point of that was, other than to just prevent the peaches from burning to the bottom, I guess.
After 25 minutes, the peaches were still very firm; not inedible at all, but definitely firm.
I drizzled my peaches with some sweetened condensed milk sauce I already had on hand. I couldn't really taste it, and the peaches would be just as good without it.

Modernized Recipe:

(Adapted from Wartime Recipes From Canned Foods)

The original recipe is easy to follow.