9 lush peach recipes: Savor the summer season

What says summer like a lush, ripe peach? We’re right smack in peach season -- you know that by the piles of peaches spilling over at the entrance to markets, and priced to jump right into your cart.

What to do with them when you get them home?

We plucked nine recipes from the Los Angeles Times’ Test Kitchen archives that will help you show off this peachy perfection.

PHOTOS: 9 lush peach recipes to savor the season

Take a look through the photo gallery above and you’ll find recipes for peach and blackberry crisp, peaches and cream cake, a peach and buttermilk bread pudding, a peach and almond crisp, peach and orange blossom honey pops, and a berries jubilee with peach sorbet and salted candied almonds. We also have a recipe for homemade peach-pineapple ketchup.

But peaches are not just for dessert and condiments.

You’ll also find recipes for white hot peach sangria and the mysteriously named Sangria No. 27.

When choosing your peaches, keep a keen eye on the color, said L.A. Times Food editor Russ Parsons. Most peaches and nectarines are creamy yellow; look for ones that glow an orange-ish gold, they’ll be the sweetest and best-flavored.

Don’t make the mistake of refrigerating peaches. That will make them mealy. “Peaches continue to ripen after they’ve been harvested if you leave them at room temperature,” Parsons said.

ALSO:

PHOTOS: 25 crazy cool ice cream flavors

PHOTOS: 89 recipes that scream ‘Summer!’

PHOTOS: 29 irresistible summer fruit desserts