If you're not stocking up on fresh peaches all Summer [1] long, you're doing it wrong. And if you are but you're just not sure what to do with them beyond snacking (and this upside down cake [2] from How Sweet It Is), you're in the right place. We've turned to some of our favorite Food Network [3] hosts and celebrity chefs [4] for inspiration to take our peach desserts [5] (or not dessert, in Chrissy Teigen's case) to the next level. Impress your guests — and yourself — with one of these expert-approved ways to cook with peaches before Summer's end.
Giada De Laurentiis: Pie With a Twist
Giada adds Italian flair to her peach pie by grilling the fruit with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Her grilled peach and caramel crostata [6] is an easy and crowd-pleasing pie — the open-faced dessert means you don't have to worry about a perfect crust and can let the peaches shine.
Alton Brown: Individual Upside Down Cakes
If you're only making dessert for yourself or a few people, Alton Brown's individual peach upside down cakes [7] are the way to go. All you have to do is divvy up peaches and pantry ingredients into four ramekins, and you're 25 minutes away from a freshly baked solo dessert.
Chrissy Teigen: With Brie in Grilled Cheese
Chrissy Teigen [8] is all about recipes you'll actually crave [9], so she's definitely not interested in using peaches in a salad. For her sweet and spicy brie grilled cheese sandwich [10] on her blog, So Delushious, she wrote, "You bought those ripe juicy peaches to just eat plain and be healthy, but that's just boring-bordering-on-sad. So this sandwich. It's as simple as buttering up some white bread, piling on the good stuff, and smashing it into a hot pan until it's toasty meltey perfection." If a sweet and savory sandwich isn't your thing, try the cookbook author's other peach favorite: baked oatmeal with peaches and raspberries [11].
Ree Drummond: Classic Peach Crisp
Comforting and classic is the name of the game in The Pioneer Woman's popular peach crisp recipe [12]. Essentially everything that makes a good dessert (flour, sugar, butter, cinnamon, whipping cream, and more) comes together for a traditional peach crisp topped with crumbly browned bits and a luscious maple cream drizzle.
Ina Garten: Baked in a Cake
Ina Garten's fresh peach cake [13] has a five-star rating for a reason. As with most Ina Garten recipes [14], this one is both sophisticated and easy to follow. The secret ingredient to creating a moist cake that's the perfect bed for the peaches is . . . sour cream.
Gordon Ramsay: Roasted With Rum
Leave it to Gordon Ramsay [15] to have a completely badass cooking method for peaches: roasted peaches in rum [16]. Imagine peaches swimming in a bath of caramelized sugar and then topped with rum and butter . . . and whipped cream. It's the definition of indulgence, and you definitely deserve it.