The summer’s best nectarines are cooked with vanilla bean and bourbon then folded into a delicious cake batter. Of course the vanilla bean caramel sauce doesn’t hurt!
Ingredients
For the nectarines:
60 milliliters (¼ cup) bourbon
1 whole vanilla bean (Madagascar bourbon if you have them!)
14g (1 tablespoon) unsalted butter at room temperature
14g (1 tablespoon) granulated sugar
680g (~5) ripe but still firm nectarines (567g (4 cups) chopped; peeling optional)
For the cake:
395g (~3 cups) all-purpose flour
3g (1/2 tablespoon) ground cinnamon
2g (1 teaspoon) nutmeg
5g (1 teaspoon) baking soda
5g (1 teaspoon) salt
227g (1 cup) unsalted butter melted and cooled
80 milliliters (1/3 cup) vegetable oil
235g (~1 cup tightly packed light brown sugar)
105g (~1/2 cup) granulated sugar
150g (~3 large) whole eggs at room temperature
15 milliliters (1 tablespoon) vanilla extract
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Grease and flour a 12 or 14 cup bundt pan; set aside
Pour the bourbon into a large skillet and cook over medium-high heat; bring to a boil for one minute; reduce the heat to medium; add the inside of vanilla bean (do not discard pod), butter and sugar; cook and stir until butter is melted and sugar is dissolved
Add pod from vanilla bean and nectarine; let cook for 5-6 minutes, stirring occasionally until nectarines are softened and most of liquid has evaporated
Remove from heat and set aside; discard vanilla bean pod
In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the flour, cinnamon, baking soda and salt; set aside
In the large mixing bowl of an electric mixer beat together the butter, oil, sugars and eggs for 3 minutes on low to medium speed; add vanilla extract and mix until combined
Scrape sides of the bowl with a spatula and carefully add the dry ingredients while mixer is on low speed just until combined
Remove bowl from mixer and fold in the cooked nectarines; do not overmix
Pour batter into prepared bundt pan and bake for 44-48 minutes, or until cake is lightly browned and a knife inserted into the cake comes out clean
Allow to cool for 15 minutes before inverting onto a cooling rack; set aside to cool while preparing caramel