Stone Fruit

A fruity flavor and mellow heat make ancho chile — poblano chile in its dried form — a delicious and unusual addition to the sweetness of ripe peaches and raspberries.

This cake bakes for a long time at a moderate temperature, which helps keep the ripe fruit from bursting and releasing its juices. The easy-to-make pastry bakes up moist and crumbly, with a texture that's like a cross between a biscuit and a cake. A note from our cooks: We've received some letters from readers complaining about a burned crust when making the peach blueberry cake (August 2005 cover), so we ran through the recipe two more times. Baked in a standard light-colored metal pan, the cake was perfect; baked in a dark metal pan, however, it burned — be aware that the cake's high sugar content makes it more susceptible to burning at high heat. As you'll see in "Tips: A Guide to Using Gourmet's Recipes" (located on the recipe index page) we recommend always using light-colored metal pans for baking. Dark metal pans, including nonstick, will cause your baked goods to brown more quickly. Manufacturers suggest reducing the oven temperature by 25 degrees when using dark pans.

These sweet-and-sour peaches perk up the flavor of ham and fried chicken; they are also very good with vanilla ice cream.

Both the peach relish and the pork benefit from an overnight rest in the refrigerator; the relish mellows in flavor, and the pork becomes even more tender in the fiery marinade.

You'll have some leftover creamy ginger soy dressing for salad later in the week.

Healthy bonus: Vitamin C from mangoes; iron from raisins

Look for fresh sour cherries at farmers' markets. Or use Bing cherries instead and add 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice to the filling.

The fruit is tossed with a peach caramel sauce (juices from the peaches combined with homemade caramel) that adds depth of flavor to the filling. Keep an eye on this pie as it bakes; it browns quickly and so needs to be tented with foil.

Jan Esterly of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, writes: "Even though it gets cold where I live, I love grilling outside year-round. I make this amazing recipe only during summer, when I can buy perfect peaches from the roadside stands — like now." Jan also likes to serve these sweet-tart peaches with ice cream and waffles.

Serve this jam with scones and tea, spread over pancakes, alongside grilled pork, or swirled into yogurt.

Though you could certainly use regular red cherries in this recipe, we prefer yellow cherries such as Royal Ann or Rainier, available in supermarkets, for their lovely yellow color, as well as their bright flavor and mild sweetness. We use Greek yogurt because it has a much thicker texture than other yogurts and holds its shape nicely.

If you don't have peach brandy on hand, use additional white wine instead.

Simple but elegant, this dessert makes a refreshing finale to dinner on a hot summer evening.