Wait.

Didn’t yesterday’s recipe include fruit + cream cheese? Well, so does today’s.

I often forget about the deliciousness that is cream cheese until I find it lurking in the back of the fridge behind 3 jars of salsa, 4 jars of nut butter, pickles, ketchup, and the like. Those little tubs are so good at hiding!

When I do come across cream cheese it’s in 1 of 3 states:

opened—most likely months ago—and moldy
unopened, expired, and moldy
unopened, expired, but miraculously not moldy

I grew up adoring the combination of rye toast, cream cheese, and black raspberry jam. Just thinking about the partially melted but super creamy texture when spread on a piece of crispy toast makes me weak.

As soon as you taste this you will understand why I couldn’t wait even one day longer to share.

Now don’t jump to conclusions thinking all I did was spread cream cheese on toast then throw a grilled peach on top. While that would be excellent in itself, you know there had to be something else involved.

Like a marinade for the peaches.

And a crunchy, toasted topping.

It can serve as a fancy but simple breakfast, a fun appetizer, or even dessert.

This recipe has no rules.

Except that you should most definitely make extra.

Print this!

Sweet Grilled Peaches n’ Cream Cheese Toast

gluten-free // yields 6-8 slices of toast

6 pieces of gluten-free bread*
2-3 large peaches, slightly soft to the touch
3 tablespoons raw honey
1.5 tablespoons extra virgin unrefined coconut oil, melted
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
pinch of salt
1/4 cup chopped pecans
3 tablespoons unsweetened shredded coconut
cream cheese
oil to grease the bread

Preheat your grill to about 400 degrees, med-high.
Whisk together the honey, melted oil, vinegar, and salt until well combined.
Slice the peaches into rounds that are about 1/4” thick. I like to cut a thin “heel” piece off first then cut the slices.
Coat the slices in the wet mixture on both sides and place on a plate.
Very lightly grease your bread with oil.
Heat a dry pan over med-low and toast your pecans stirring every minute until lightly toasted then empty into a bowl.
Toast the coconut the same way then remove from the pan. It will burn quickly.
Grease your grill grates then place the peaches and bread on the grill leaving enough room to flip.
Grill the bread for about 1-2 minutes per side until lightly toasted, and grill peaches for about 2-4 minutes per side until nicely charred.
Whip/mash your cream cheese with a fork to soften then spread a thick layer on each slice of toast.
Place a peach round on top and sprinkle with toasted pecans + coconut.
Or, let the toast cool and chill the peaches. Once cooled, you can assemble in the same way and serve cold.

notes: If using gluten free bread go for a thick bread like millet or brown rice bread. If using gluten bread I recommend using a very sturdy bread, not a soft sandwich bread. If your peaches are too ripe, they will have a hard time being flipped on the grill. You want to use a firm peach that has just a little give to it.

Ashley

The week of the iPhone continues with a birthday treat. And what could represent a birthday better than sprinkles?

Nothing comes to mind! Balloons are cool, but you can’t eat a balloon.

Sprinkles were absolutely meant for birthdays no matter what your age. I just entered the last year of my 20’s and am finding it a bit surreal. Not necessarily in a bad way, but like…really?? How have I experienced 29 years?? I’m having a hard time wrapping my head around it…is this weird?

Maybe the only thing more spectacular than sprinkles on your birthday is funfetti birthday cake. It was my cake of choice year after year growing up. Vanilla on vanilla, please!!!

I typically top my doughnuts with a simple glaze, but I decided to pull out all the stops and make my favorite buttercream frosting.

The only butter cream I actually enjoy eating and that doesn’t send me into sugar shock.

I wanted to try making it gluten free by using oat flour instead of white flour. Flour in frosting?? Yup! Keep reading!

This is quite different than your typical powdered sugar buttercream that calls for around ONE POUND of sugar.

It’s luxurious.

Now a little bit about the photos I took for this post. I was of course using my iPhone and editing with the Snapseed app. The surface I shoot on [a sample of our concrete counters] is fairly narrow which makes it a little tricky shooting with the wide-angle iPhone lens. It took me at least 15 minutes of playing around with the positioning of the doughnuts before I liked any of the photos.

I couldn’t figure out a position for the knife that I was happy with and the frosting was catching the light and becoming completely blown out [overexposed]. The photo above was my favorite with the knife, but I still think it looks a bit awkward. The photos improved when I switched to the spoon.

The shadows in the photo above are a bit more dramatic than the photo below. I prefer the top photo by as it seems to have more life + movement and better coloring.

I’m loving all of the options in the “center focus” tab in Snapseed. It’s great being able to create bokeh [blur] after the fact, since you can’t change your depth of field when snapping the photo.

I have a hard time getting super sharp photos with the iPhone. I don’t have the steadiest hands, as you can see in the photo below. The main doughnut is just slightly out of focus.

But this next photo is much more sharp.

And now I want a doughnut.

Below I applied one of the vintage filters. I changed the texture of the filter and also brightened the photo under “tune image.” In “tune image” you can change the brightness, contrast, saturation, white balance, and ambiance. Pretty amazing!

Print this!

Funfetti Cake Doughnuts

gluten-free // serves 12 – 16

1 cup GF oat flour
1 cup sweet rice flour
6 tablespoons almond meal
2/3 cup sucanat or pure cane sugar
4 large eggs, whisked
1 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk
1/3 cup sprinkles
6 tablespoons sunflower oil
6 tablespoons unsweetened applesauce
1.5 tablespoons vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
2 teaspoon baking powder [1.5 tablespoons for high altitude]
1 teaspoon salt

Preheat your oven to 350* [370* for high altitude]. Grease your doughnut pan [or a muffin pan] thoroughly with coconut oil or butter. [I’ve found coconut oil + butter to work the best.]
In large bowl combine all of the dry ingredients and mix well.
In a medium bowl whisk together the eggs, milk, oil, applesauce, vanilla extract, and almond extract until well combined.
Add the wet ingredients to the dry and stir the mixture [with a large spoon] until the dry ingredients are just combined. The batter will be thick. Avoid over-stirring.
Fold in the sprinkles.
Spoon into your doughnut pan leaving about 1/8-1/4” room from the top.
Bake for 18-24min, until golden brown and a toothpick comes out moist, but not gooey. *Depending on the size of your pan, cook time will vary. My pan makes 6 doughnuts, so if your pan makes more than 6 baking time will slightly decrease.
Let sit for 5min and slide a knife or small spatula along the edge to help release.
Turn out onto a cooling rack and let fully cool before frosting.

notes: You can make your own almond meal by grinding almonds into a flour-like texture, in a blender or food processor. It will feel slightly mealy from the skins, but should not have large pieces. You can also grind oat flour from gluten free [if needed] rolled oats, oat groats, or steel cut oats. Grind until very soft, like typical flour. Do not sub brown rice or white rice flour instead of sweet rice as the texture is quite different.

Creamy Buttercream Frosting adapted from best buttercream frosting and one of my older posts

*will frost at least 30 doughnuts or [2] 8-9” cakes

1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup sucanat or pure cane sugar
1/2 cup raw honey
4 Tbsp GF oat flour
1 tsp arrowroot starch or tapioca starch
1 cup milk
1.5 tsp vanilla extract

Over medium-low heat in a small saucepan cook the milk, flour, and arrowroot, stirring frequently with a whisk. Watch carefully so this does not burn!
Cook until a very thick paste-like consistency is reached. It takes about 8-15min depending on your stove and type of pot.
Place in a bowl and let cool completely in the fridge.
In a large bowl, beat the sucanat, honey, + butter until the sugar has almost completely dissolved and the mixture is fluffy. About 5min.
Add in the chilled milk mixture and beat again until fluffy and the sugar is completely dissolved. About 5-8min.
Beat in the vanilla and refrigerate at least 30min to help stiffen the frosting.
Remove from the fridge and beat for 30sec – 1min until smooth.
Frost.

notes: Sucanat is a bit harder to dissolve, since the crystals are quite large. I didn’t detect any crunchiness in my frosting, but if you want to play it safe use pure cane sugar. White flour can be used in place of oat flour if you don’t need the recipe to be gluten free.

I’m ready for year 29.

I have no clue what’s in store.

But am eager + excited to find out.

And of course share it with you!

Ashley