Baltimore Peach Cake: My Recipe

“Probably in no other State in the Union is the peach more perfectly at home than in Maryland, it having held undisputed supremacy among fruits in that State for over a Century and a half.” – The Peaches of New York, by U.P. Hedrick 1917

Maryland had at least 29 distinct peach cultivars in 1917. U.P. Hendrick listed them in his book, “The Peaches of New York.” Among them: “Maryland Early”; “Bessie Kerr”; “Druid Hill”; “Orange Smock”; “Lydon Cling”; “Edgemont”; “Sherman October.”

Having already covered plums and cherries in previous books, he turned his attention to their relative the peach, conducting a thorough study of the fruit and the many varieties to be considered for propagation in his own state.

In doing so, he provided a history of the peach industry in the “Chesapeake peach-belt.” Said region included parts of Delaware and Virginia, but when it came to peach cultivation, nowhere seemed more enviable than Maryland, where growers had once returned “fabulous amounts for their investments.”

A chart showed Maryland at the number one spot for quantity of peach trees in 1890. In 1910, it was not even in the top ten, but the growing and canning industries were still going strong.

Many of the Maryland peach varieties were attributed to the orchards of J.W. Kerr of Denton, who had made a study of agriculture that may have helped usher in the glory days of the late 1800s. In June in the 1890s, the Denton Journal ran announcements of the date of first ripening of Kerr’s Musser peaches.

As the Eastern Shore experienced a heyday of peach growing, Baltimore reached its peak influx of German immigrants. Among the very many baked goods embedded in the hearts and minds of these new citizens was Pflaumenkuchen, or plum cake: a sweet yeasted dough topped generously with plum slices or halves.

In Hedrick’s 1911 book on plums, he referred to Kerr as “one of the best informed and most enthusiastic cultivators” of plums. Nonetheless, plums remained an insignificant commercial crop in Maryland.

The 1890 census showed a little under a quarter of Baltimore’s population was of German heritage. 101,112 Germanic citizens. The same year, Maryland had 6,113,287 fruit-bearing peach trees. There were five peach trees to every resident of the state. German bakers may have had visions of plum cakes, but they’d be bombarded by peaches. A Baltimore classic was born.

I don’t know how many of Hedricks’ listed Maryland peach varieties still exist today. I do know that of the old-school Maryland-German bakeries, the remaining number can be counted on one hand.

The anxiety over the dwindling number of classic sources of Baltimore Peach Cake is compounded by the fact that a lot of circulating recipes simply aren’t very good. The old Evening Sun recipe is lackluster. Even good recipes, like Mrs. Snapp’s Peach Cake, can come out with uneven results if you aren’t careful.

A lot of elements in a peach cake are at war with one-another. The way the fats and sugars interact with gluten, and the variability of protein in flour all mean that you can follow the same recipe over and over and get slightly different results.

For years now, I’d been working on this dilemma. I had my spreadsheet of peach cake recipes, which I compared with traditional plum cakes and also to similar enriched doughs like brioche. I stared down ratios of flour, eggs, butter, and different oven temperatures.

The results served as a reminder that a recipe is so much more than a list of ingredients. It turned out that the ratios didn’t matter all that much. What matters is technique.

I decided to stop trying to out-bake the bakeries, and instead focus on a recipe that may not replicate the bakery peach cake of memory, but instead will compensate with the love and care that a home kitchen can offer.

I incorporated a roux as used in Japanese Milk Bread. This roux, known as a Tangzhong, enables the incorporation of more moisture into the dough, making the end result softer. Don’t ask me about the science because I don’t get it.

I also got finicky about the order of operations. By adding the butter after the dough has been worked, we dont have as much interference with the gluten. To up the moisture even more, I swap out a little butter for vegetable oil.

Lastly, I do away with any raspberry jam glaze nonsense. Instead, I opted to macerate an extra peach and distill its essence into a penetrating glaze to be applied to the fresh hot cake, imparting a final boost of moisture.

I wouldn’t say this recipe is difficult, but it is a little involved. Some of the most important steps involve simply walking away and letting the dough rest. This is a peach cake you make for people you love. It is perfect for making the dough on a Friday night and then rolling it out on Saturday morning with some farmers market peaches.

Again, I am not aiming to produce an exact copy of a Baltimore Peach Cake from a beloved bakery. Most of Kerr’s varieties of Maryland peaches may not exist, but they didn’t all disappear. There are surely peaches growing today that bear DNA with characteristics honed in Maryland orchards a century ago. And this recipe contains the DNA of a Baltimore Peach Cake, itself a descendant of Pflaumenkuchen. I’ve spliced in some traits to help it thrive in my home kitchen.

Recipe:

• Roux:
  • 6 Tablespoons Milk
  • 2 Tablespoons flour
• Dough
  • 3.5 Cups flour
  • 1/2 Cup sugar
  • 1/2 Tablespoon instant yeast
  • 1/2 Teaspoon of salt
  • 2 eggs + 1 egg yolk
  • 1.2 Cups milk
  • 4 Tablespoons butter, very soft
  • 2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
• Glaze
  • 1/2 Tablespoons vinegar or lemon juice
  • 1/3 Cups sugar
  • Pinch of salt
  • 1 Tablespoon of butter
• 5-8 peaches, depending on size, plus one extra peach
• cinnamon
• about 1 Tablespoon sugar

Roux:

Over low heat, whisk 2 Tablespoons of flour with 6 Tablespoons of milk. Continue stirring as it thickens to resemble a thick pancake batter.
(This can also be done by alternately microwaving in 15-second intervals and stirring 2-3 times until thickened)

Dough:

In a large mixing bowl, combine 3.5 Cups of flour, 1/2 Cup of sugar, instant yeast, 1/2 Teaspoon of salt.

Whisk the 1/2 cup of milk into the roux to help cool it to room temperature, then beat in eggs. Combine this with the dry ingredients. Using regular mixer attachment or a spatula, stir these ingredients until everything is just combined and moistened. Cover and let rest for 15 to 20 minutes to allow it dough to hydrate.

Using dough hook or by hand, begin kneading the dough until it looks smooth and is beginning to get rubbery. Add the 4 Tablespoons of butter, one tablespoon at a time until incorporated into dough, and then add the oil. If you’re using a mixer, you may have to stop and fold the dough so it doesn’t just spin around in a greasy bowl like a blob of dough on a carnival ride.

Cover and allow to rest again for another 15-20 minutes. Or put it in the fridge for several hours up to overnight. Just remember that if you refrigerate, that the dough will take longer to rise in the pan later.

Roll out dough or press into a greased thin metal pan, about 9×13. I prefer to roll it outside of the pan and then press it in but you can also use your hands in the pan or even something like a can or a glass to roll it in the pan itself.

Cover the pan with a towel, plastic wrap, or tightly with foil* and let the dough rise for 45 minutes to an hour.

Glaze:

Slice or chop up an extra peach and toss it with vinegar, 1/3 cup sugar, and a pinch of salt in a small saucepan. Let sit for ten minutes or so to macerate (I start this during one of the above resting phases.) Simmer over medium-low heat for about five minutes, so the sugar melts and you have a light syrup. Remove the peaches and save for some other use (or eat them…) You should have about 1/2 cup of liquid or so.

Top and bake: Preheat oven to 325°.

Slice your fresh peaches. I like to use quarters but you can use halves or smaller slices to your preference. Top the cake with peaches and sprinkle with cinnamon and about 1 Tablespoon of sugar. Lightly sugaring the peaches will help keep them from getting too dry. Over-doing it will make the top of your cake gummy.

Bake for 30-40 minutes. After 20 minutes, check to make sure top isn’t browning. If it is, cover the pan loosely with foil. * If you used foil earlier to cover the dough, you can conveniently reuse that now. I check the cake for done-ness by gently lifting one of the middle peaches and making sure the dough underneath it is not starting to dry out and turn matte and is not completely raw.

As the cake finishes baking, warm the syrup if it has cooled down, and stir in 1 Tablespoon of butter. As soon as you remove the cake from the oven, slowly and carefully drizzle the syrup over-top, getting as much coverage as possible of the cake surface and peaches.

Allow to cool completely before slicing or serving. Store at room temperature. If you’re not going to consume it within 24 hours it can go in the fridge but the texture will be changed – I like to make any extra peach cake in to bread pudding with a bourbon sauce. There are recipes online, just reduce the sugar since our peach cake has sugar in it.

Notes:

• I made this in a glass pan once and it came out really dry. A thin pan is better if possible
• I tried Gold Medal All Purpose flour and King Arthur. The King Arthur version came out better but also taller. You could divide the dough into two smaller 10×10 pans if you dont want a super thick cake.
• Traditional peach cake videos show bakers using cling peaches, which are often smaller and sweeter. I am lazy so I use freestone peaches. I also like the way the red interior of the freestone peaches makes the glaze kind of pink. Follow your heart.