Peaches and cream: What more do you need?

By Jim Bailey
theyankeechef.blogspot.com

Nonstick cooking spray
1 cup (2 sticks) butter or margarine, softened
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 teaspoon almond extract
2 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 large peaches, peeled, pitted and diced small
Cheesecake Middle:
1 cup cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup sugar
3 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg
Glaze:
1 teaspoon almond extract
1 1/4 cups powdered sugar
2 tablespoons milk

Preheat oven to 350-degrees F.

Grease a 9×13-inch pan with nonstick cooking spray; set aside.

Using an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar until fluffy and smooth. Add eggs and extract, continuing to beat until well combined.

In a separate bowl combine flour and salt. Add to the creamed mixture; mix until combined and set aside.

In a medium-sized bowl beat together cream cheese, sugar, milk and vanilla until smooth. Add the egg and beat until combined.

Spread half the bar batter on the bottom of the prepared pan evenly, making sure it gets to the corners. Add the cheesecake mixture evenly over the batter.

Sprinkle diced peaches on top and add remainder of bar batter over the peaches. This time, you don’t need to cover the entire surface.

Bake 35-40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted toward the center comes out fairly clean. Some of the cheesecake filling will stick to the toothpick though.

Remove from oven to cool while making glaze.

Simply whisk glaze ingredients together until smooth and drizzle over bars that have been cut to your desired sizes.