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Peach season is here. Peaches are my favorite fruit. Period. End of story. Strawberries, bananas, grapes, and blackberries fall into my top five. But there is a large delta between number one and the rest. Peaches, and especially Chilton County Alabama peaches, rule the fruit world at my house.

Chilton County peaches are coming in right now. We get a weekly shipment and my wife peels all of them and puts them in a bowl in the refrigerator where they will last a couple of days. It’s not that they wouldn’t last longer than a couple of days, it’s that I eat all of them in just a couple of days.

We place them in the bowl and sprinkle a little sugar on them. Not too much. I don’t want to macerate them, and if they’ve been purchased correctly there will be enough natural sweetness straight off the tree.

Fresh peaches are the food that inspires poets. They almost make our brutally hot summers worth living through. If anyone ever asks me about why I love the south, fresh peaches are listed early in the conversation.

I love fresh peaches so much I thought we would take a departure from my normal focus in this column, and do something I haven’t done in the 24 years I have been writing this weekly dispatch— use less essay and more recipes. Peaches are so special to me; I don’t want to just leave you with one recipe to cover the entire summer. Instead, here are several that you can use over the next several weeks during the height of peach season.

Hattiesburg native Robert St. John is a restaurateur, chef and author. He has written a syndicated weekly newspaper column for more than 20 years.

•  8 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature

•  1/2 pound frozen peaches, thawed, or 1 cups fresh peaches, small diced

•   1/4 cup peach jam or preserves

•   Pinch of ground cayenne pepper

•   Vegetable oil for deep frying

1.  To prepare the pie dough, beat together the butter, sugar, and salt for three minutes on medium speed in the bowl of an electric mixer. Add egg and beat for 30 seconds. Add flour and water and beat for 15 seconds. Turn off the machine, scrape down the sides of the bowl, and beat again for 10 seconds.

2.  Scoop up dough with your hands and form into a one-inch thick disk. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for at least one hour.

3.  Melt butter over medium-high heat in a sauté pan. Sauté peaches and sugar until sugar is dissolved, approximately two minutes. Add the preserves, cayenne, and cinnamon; cook, stirring frequently, for 3 minutes.

4.  Dissolve cornstarch in the schnapps and stir into hot peach mixture. Remove from heat and cool.

5.  On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough into a 16 x 11-inch rectangle about 1/8-inch thick. Cut out 3 1/2-inch circles and place two teaspoons of filling in the center of each dough circle. Fold the circles in half and pinch the edges together. Refrigerate pies for 30 minutes before frying.

6.  Heat 2 1/2 inches of vegetable oil to 350-degrees in a heavy four-quart saucepan. Fry pies 4 or 6 at a time until golden brown, 1 1/2 -2 minutes per batch. Drain on paper towels.

7.  Keep warm in a 200-degree oven until all pies are fried. Serve immediately.

•  2 cups peaches, fresh, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch pieces

•  1 tablespoon lemon juice, freshly squeezed

1. In a bowl, combine peaches, 1/4 cup sugar, lemon juice, and peach schnapps. Cover and refrigerate 2- 3 hours, stirring occasionally.

2. Remove peach mixture from refrigerator, drain, and reserve the juice. Return peaches to refrigerator.

3. Split the vanilla bean lengthwise, and— in a medium-sized saucepan— combine remaining sugar, heavy cream, and milk. Heat just until just boiling.

4. In a separate bowl, vigorously whisk egg yolks. While whisking, slowly add 1/3 of the boiled cream mixture. Stir well. Add remaining egg mixture to cream mixture. Return to low-medium heat and continue stirring for 5-7 minutes. Just as it begins to simmer, remove from heat and strain into a bowl set over ice. Add the reserved peach juice. Stir well until completely chilled.

5. Transfer the mixture to an ice cream maker and freeze according to manufacturer's instructions. After the ice cream begins to stiffen, add the peaches and continue to freeze until done. Remove the ice cream from the ice cream maker and store in an airtight container in the freezer until ready to serve.

•   2 tablespoon sugar, plus extra for sprinkling

•   3/4 cup cold unsalted butter (1 1/2 sticks, diced)

•    Egg wash (1 egg beaten with 2 tablespoons water or milk)

•    6 large, Fresh, Ripe Peaches, peeled and halved

2. Sift the flour, 2 tablespoon sugar, the baking powder, and salt into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Blend in butter at the lowest speed and mix until the butter is the size of peas. Combine eggs, heavy cream, sour cream and vanilla extract and quickly add to the flour and butter mixture. Mix until just blended. The dough will be sticky.

3. Dump the dough out onto a well-floured surface. Flour your hands and pat the dough out to 3/4-inch thick. You should see lumps of butter in the dough.

4. Cut biscuits with a 3-4-inch cutter and place on a baking sheet lined with parchment.

5. Brush the tops with the egg wash. Sprinkle with sugar and bake 18-20 minutes, until the outsides are crisp and the insides are fully baked. Let cool on a wire rack.

6. Prepare the grill. Brush the peaches with melted butter. Cook peaches, flat side down, over direct medium heat, for 10 minutes. Rotate the peaches a quarter turn after three minutes, then turn them over once after 6 minutes of cooking. Remove the peaches from the grill and toss the in a bowl with the sugar, lemon juice and vanilla (the excess liquid will be used as a syrup topping). Cover and keep warm until needed.

7.  Split shortcakes in half, top each with a scoop of peach ice cream. Place a warm peach half on the ice cream and top with the remaining shortcakes half. Drizzle the syrup from the bowl with the peaches over each shortcake and serve immediately.

•   2 teaspoon bacon fat (or canola oil)

•   2 teaspoon jalapeño, small dice

•   1 1/2 cup fresh peach, peeled diced (frozen may be substituted)

•   1/3 cup chicken stock or broth

•    1/4 teaspoon black pepper, freshly ground

•    1/4 teaspoon dry thyme, or 1 teaspoon fresh chopped thyme

2.  In a 2-quart oven-proof sauce pot, heat the bacon fat over low heat. Cook onions 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the garlic, ginger, jalapeño and peaches. Increase the heat to medium and cook 10 minutes, stirring often. Add the tomato paste and cook for 5 minutes more. Stir in the remaining ingredients. Cover the sauce and place in the preheated oven.

3.  Bake for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove the cover and bake for 30 more minutes.

4.  The sauce may be made days in advance, and best when a day or two old.

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