Brown Butter Peach Cornmeal Cake
with Thyme Sugar
A tender brown-butter cornmeal cake with ripe peaches and a scattering of thyme sugar. Crisp at the edges, soft in the middle, and just right for leaving on the counter all afternoon.
- Prep
- 25 minutes
- Cook
- 45–50 minutes
- Total
- 1 hour 15 minutes, plus cooling
- Serves
- 8–10
What You'll Need
For the Cake
- 10 tablespoons unsalted butter, plus more for the pan
- 1¼ cups all-purpose flour
- ½ cup fine yellow cornmeal
- 1½ teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
- ½ cup whole-milk Greek yogurt or sour cream
- ¼ cup whole milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 to 3 ripe but firm yellow peaches, thinly sliced
For the Thyme Sugar
- 2 tablespoons turbinado sugar
- 1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves
- Tiny pinch flaky sea salt
Equipment
- 9-inch springform or round cake pan
- Small saucepan
- Mixing bowls
- Whisk
- Rubber spatula
- Parchment paper
The Simple Method
Brown the Butter
Melt the butter in a small, light-colored saucepan over medium heat.
Continue cooking, swirling occasionally, as it foams and then begins to smell nutty.
When the milk solids at the bottom turn deeply golden, immediately pour the butter into a heatproof bowl.
Let cool for 10 to 15 minutes.
Prepare the Pan
Heat the oven to 350°F.
Butter a 9-inch pan and line the bottom with parchment.
Make the Thyme Sugar
Rub the turbinado sugar and thyme leaves together between your fingertips until fragrant.
Add a tiny pinch of flaky sea salt and set aside.
Mix the Dry Ingredients
Whisk together the flour, cornmeal, baking powder and kosher salt.
Mix the Wet Ingredients
In another bowl, whisk the granulated sugar and eggs until smooth and slightly lighter.
Whisk in the yogurt, milk and vanilla.
Slowly whisk in the cooled brown butter.
Make the Batter
Fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients just until no dry streaks remain.
Do not overmix.
Spread the batter into the prepared pan.
Add the Peaches
Arrange the peach slices over the surface, letting some overlap and some sink slightly into the batter.
Do not worry about making them perfectly symmetrical. It should look generous rather than precise.
Scatter the thyme sugar over the peaches and batter.
Bake
Bake for 45 to 50 minutes, beginning to check around 42 minutes.
The cake should be deeply golden around the edges.
A tester inserted into the cake portion near the center should come out with a few moist crumbs but no wet batter.
Cool in the pan for 15 minutes before releasing it.
Let It Be a Cake
Let it cool until just warm before slicing.
Serve as it is, or with barely sweetened whipped cream if serving it for dessert.
A Few Things That Make This Easier
Use yellow peaches.
They give the cake the warm golden-orange color shown in the H|S photograph.
Fine cornmeal is important.
Coarse cornmeal can make a delicate cake noticeably gritty.
Watch the brown butter.
Once the milk solids become amber and smell nutty, remove the butter from the hot saucepan so it doesn’t continue cooking.
Choose firm-ripe peaches.
Very soft peaches can release too much liquid into the center of the cake.
Keep the thyme quiet.
The thyme should be something you notice after the peach and brown butter, not before them.
This cake doesn’t need frosting.
That’s part of its charm.
The edges.
The cornmeal makes them a little crisp, the brown butter makes them taste almost toasted, and then you reach one of the peaches and everything softens again.
It’s exactly the sort of cake that makes you cut a very small second piece because apparently that doesn’t count as two.
Leave it on the cake stand.
Put a knife beside it.
Some things are better when nobody has to ask.
More from the Kitchen
Hidden & Seen
Brown Butter Peach Cornmeal Cake with Thyme Sugar
A tender brown-butter cornmeal cake with ripe peaches and a scattering of thyme sugar. Crisp at the edges, soft in the middle, and just right for leaving on the counter all afternoon.
- Prep
- 25 minutes
- Cook
- 45–50 minutes
- Total
- 1 hour 15 minutes, plus cooling
- Servings
- 8–10
What You'll Need
For the Cake
- 10 tablespoons unsalted butter, plus more for the pan
- 1¼ cups all-purpose flour
- ½ cup fine yellow cornmeal
- 1½ teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
- ½ cup whole-milk Greek yogurt or sour cream
- ¼ cup whole milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 to 3 ripe but firm yellow peaches, thinly sliced
For the Thyme Sugar
- 2 tablespoons turbinado sugar
- 1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves
- Tiny pinch flaky sea salt
Equipment
- 9-inch springform or round cake pan
- Small saucepan
- Mixing bowls
- Whisk
- Rubber spatula
- Parchment paper
The Simple Method
01 · Brown the Butter
Melt the butter in a small, light-colored saucepan over medium heat.
Continue cooking, swirling occasionally, as it foams and then begins to smell nutty.
When the milk solids at the bottom turn deeply golden, immediately pour the butter into a heatproof bowl.
Let cool for 10 to 15 minutes.
02 · Prepare the Pan
Heat the oven to 350°F.
Butter a 9-inch pan and line the bottom with parchment.
03 · Make the Thyme Sugar
Rub the turbinado sugar and thyme leaves together between your fingertips until fragrant.
Add a tiny pinch of flaky sea salt and set aside.
04 · Mix the Dry Ingredients
Whisk together the flour, cornmeal, baking powder and kosher salt.
05 · Mix the Wet Ingredients
In another bowl, whisk the granulated sugar and eggs until smooth and slightly lighter.
Whisk in the yogurt, milk and vanilla.
Slowly whisk in the cooled brown butter.
06 · Make the Batter
Fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients just until no dry streaks remain.
Do not overmix.
Spread the batter into the prepared pan.
07 · Add the Peaches
Arrange the peach slices over the surface, letting some overlap and some sink slightly into the batter.
Do not worry about making them perfectly symmetrical. It should look generous rather than precise.
Scatter the thyme sugar over the peaches and batter.
08 · Bake
Bake for 45 to 50 minutes, beginning to check around 42 minutes.
The cake should be deeply golden around the edges.
A tester inserted into the cake portion near the center should come out with a few moist crumbs but no wet batter.
Cool in the pan for 15 minutes before releasing it.
09 · Let It Be a Cake
Let it cool until just warm before slicing.
Serve as it is, or with barely sweetened whipped cream if serving it for dessert.
A Few Things That Make This Easier
Use yellow peaches.
They give the cake the warm golden-orange color shown in the H|S photograph.
Fine cornmeal is important.
Coarse cornmeal can make a delicate cake noticeably gritty.
Watch the brown butter.
Once the milk solids become amber and smell nutty, remove the butter from the hot saucepan so it doesn’t continue cooking.
Choose firm-ripe peaches.
Very soft peaches can release too much liquid into the center of the cake.
Keep the thyme quiet.
The thyme should be something you notice after the peach and brown butter, not before them.
This cake doesn’t need frosting.
That’s part of its charm.
Christina's Note
This is the kind of cake I like best.
Nothing needs piping or decorating, and it doesn’t wait for a birthday.
You can put it on the counter in the afternoon and somehow people keep finding reasons to walk through the kitchen.