Making Won Kim Proud (sort of)

Won Kim's Peach Pudding is a popular dessert served at Hyde Park Bar and Grill in Austin. It's basically a sweet spongey cake with fresh peaches baked over its top. The pudding is served warm, in a shallow bowl, and partially submerged in sweet cream. A good friend and I have long considered the Won Kim to be the best dessert we've ever tasted, so I thought it would be a fun (and slightly daring) cooking challenge.

The procedure is actually quite simple, and my friend and I had no trouble, even though we had never made anything remotely pudding-like before. Here are the ingredients:



Nonstick vegetable oil spray
1 3/4 cups and 2 tablespoons all purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon coarse kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 cups (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 3/4 cups sugar
2 tablespoons vanilla extract
2 large eggs
3/4 cups buttermilk

4 cups peeled sliced peaches (from about 3-3 1/2 pounds)

Whipping cream (sweetened as you like)

In reality this pudding is really just a cake with peaches on top, and the baking procedures are very much like baking a cake. Fresh, ripe peaches are essential if you want to achieve a taste on par with the restaurant's incarnation. 

Procedure

While the oven is pre-heating to 350 degrees, whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together. Beat the butter with a mixer until smooth, then beat in the sugar gradually. Repeat with vanilla and the eggs (one at a time) in that order, remembering to mix well in between each addition. Next, beat in the buttermilk and the flour alternately, in 3 additions each, incorporating well.


Transfer mixture to a baking dish that is 13x9x2, and sprayed with vegetable oil. Arrange peaches evenly across the entire mixture, covering all batter.


 

Place a sheet of tinfoil, sprayed with oil, oil-side down across the baking dish and bake for 45 minutes. Remove the tinfoil and bake an additional 40-45 minutes, or until peaches are golden brown and awesome looking. Allow 1 hour for cooling, and serve warm with cream!


Ours turned out great! Unfortunately not as good as Hyde Park's, but definitely a dessert I'll be trying out again sometime soon!