If you’re looking for a tasty way to use this season’s sweet peaches, this delicious Tennessee Peach Pudding recipe is it. It has a sweet caramel sauce on top of a peach-filled cake that is so good, there won’t be any left over.
For more sweets to make, check out all of our dessert recipes.
Last year, my mom went on a road trip to western South Carolina and stopped at a roadside peach stand because peaches were in season. We didn’t know, until we were back on the road, how incredible those peaches were. They were absolutely the best peaches we’ve ever had in our lives.
So, when we got more of those tasty, ripe peaches, I had to make Tennessee Peach Pudding.
I know. It says pudding. But, it’s more of an old-fashion pudding cake. Which is a cake mix that has a very wet topping poured on top. As it cooks, the wet topping turns into a caramel and gives the pudding cake a very distinct flavor of two separate layers: cake on top and warm thick sauce on the bottom.
If this is your first time making Tennessee Peach Pudding, you’re not going to believe that it will set. I promise it will.
This cake is best served warm, just after coming out of the oven. I’ve heard it isn’t as good the next day, but I’ve never had any last that long anyway.
If you bought too many fresh peaches for this and now you’re wondering what to do with them, try the other ideas on our list of Tasty Fresh Peach Recipes.
Tennessee Peach Pudding Recipe
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Tennessee Peach Pudding Ingredients:
For the cake:
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 1/2 cup white sugar
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2 cup whole milk
- 1.5 fresh peaches (about 3 cups)
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
For the topping:
- 1.5 cups water
- 1/2 cup white sugar
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
How To Make Tennessee Peach Pudding:
Pre-heat the oven to 400 F.
In a stand mixer or another large bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon, about two minutes.
Pour in the milk and mix until the ingredients are combined, about three minutes. Remove the stand mixer bowl from the stand mixer base.
Chop the peaches into chunks. Gently pour them into the flour mixture.
Add the vanilla and fold everything together.
Quick side note: The peaches will make the cake batter really sticky. That’s fine. Don’t add more flour and don’t think you did anything wrong.
Pour the peach mixture into a prepared 8- x 8-inch square baking dish.
Now it’s time to make the topping.
In a large saucepan, combine water, white sugar, brown sugar, and butter. Bring the mixture to a boil.
Lower the temperature to a medium heat and stir constantly until the sugars are dissolved and you’re left with a caramel-colored mixture. This should take about ten minutes.
Pour the topping mixture over the peach mixture in the pan.
Quick note: Yes, this looks wild. Yes, it looks like you’re drowning your cake with the pool of liquid on top. It’s fine.
Carefully put your pan in the oven so that the topping doesn’t splash over the side.
Quick note: I haven’t had any trouble with this boiling over the top, but you could put a drip pan on the rack under it to catch anything that bubbles over, if you’re worried.
Bake about 50 minutes until the liquid topping is mostly all caramel and dissolved. The topping will still be bubbling when you pull it out of the oven.
Let the Tennessee Peach Pudding sit for about 10 minutes before serving, giving the top time to harden and form a crunchy, almost crème brûlée-like crust.
Tennessee Peach Pudding: Frequently Asked Questions
If it’s not peach season, you can make this using frozen peaches. I haven’t done that, but I would suggest defrosting the peaches, then patting them dry, before adding them to the recipe. This pudding cake already has a lot of moisture, so you don’t want to add more from the frozen peaches defrosting.
If you can’t find fresh or frozen peaches, you could use canned peaches in this recipe.
You’ll want the peaches from two 15 oz. cans. Make sure to only add the peaches. You can add the juice from the can to the topping mixture, but be sure to count it towards the water mixture.
The topping is very much like water being poured on top of wet cake ingredients. The sugar mixture does bake in while the cake bakes, but it’s really wet at the start. So, with that much liquid, you might be worried about moving the cake pan to the oven.
An easy way to do this is to put the cake pan on top of a baking sheet. Hold onto the baking sheet and put it into the oven. You’ll have more stability and less chance of the cake spilling.
Because the dessert is baking on the sheet pan and not directly on the oven rack, it may change the baking time slightly. So keep that in mind and check the cake a little early, but also be prepared to let it cook a little longer as well.
We always serve this dessert plain, as is. It’s really delicious and doesn’t need anything else.
But, if you want, you could serve it with a scoop of cool whip or vanilla ice cream on top.
Wait until the dessert has cooled to room temperature. Then, store any leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge. You can eat leftovers cold, right out of the fridge. Don’t worry about warming them up.
Tennessee Peach Pudding
If you’re looking for a tasty way to use this season’s sweet peaches, this delicious Tennessee Peach Pudding recipe is it. It has a sweet caramel sauce on top of a peach-filled cake that is so good, there won’t be any left over.
Ingredients
For the cake:
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 1/2 cup white sugar
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2 cup whole milk
- 1.5 fresh peaches (about 3 cups)
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
For the topping:
- 1.5 cups water
- 1/2 cup white sugar
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
Instructions
- Pre-heat the oven to 400 F.
- In a stand mixer or another large bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon, about two minutes.
- Pour in the milk and mix until the ingredients are combined, about three minutes. Remove the stand mixer bowl from the stand mixer base.
- Chop the peaches into chunks. Gently pour them into the flour mixture.
- Add the vanilla and fold everything together.
- Pour the peach mixture into a prepared 8- x 8-inch square baking dish.
- Now it’s time to make the topping. In a large saucepan, combine water, white sugar, brown sugar, and butter. Bring the mixture to a boil.
- Lower the temperature to a medium heat and stir constantly until the sugars are dissolved and you’re left with a caramel-colored mixture. This should take about ten minutes.
- Pour the topping mixture over the peach mixture in the pan.
- Carefully put your pan in the oven so that the topping doesn’t splash over the side. Bake about 50 minutes until the filling is mostly all caramel and dissolved. The topping will still be bubbling when you pull it out of the oven.
- Let the Tennessee Peach Pudding sit for about 10 minutes before serving, giving the top time to harden and form a crunchy, almost crème brûlée-like crust.
Notes
If you're worried about the cake bubbling over, you can put a pan beneath it in the oven to catch the drippings.
Nutrition Information
Yield
16Serving Size
1Amount Per Serving Calories 117Total Fat 1gSaturated Fat 1gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 0gCholesterol 3mgSodium 133mgCarbohydrates 26gFiber 1gSugar 20gProtein 1g
Have you tried this Tennessee Peach Pudding? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
Laurie
Wednesday 4th of September 2024
I’m using frozen peaches that I sliced, bagged and froze! Upon thawing, the peaches got really juicy! Do i use the peaches and liquid? Or should i drain the liquid before adding to flour mixture?
Lisa
Wednesday 4th of September 2024
Definitely drain the liquid and pat the peaches dry before adding them to the flour mixture.
What you could do, though, so you don't waste the juice is add that to the water for the topping. So if you have a half cup of juice, replace a half cup of the water with the juice (so 1 cup water, 0.5 cup juice).