Southern Peach Bread with Fresh Peaches

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My easy, homemade, Southern Peach Bread is an old-fashioned, quick bread recipe loaded with chunks of fresh juicy peaches and buttery pecans. This simple-to-make bread stays moist for days and is packed with sweet peachy goodness!

A surprise ingredient, sour cream, keeps this easy peach bread moist, and it’s delicious right out of the oven or toasted for breakfast, brunch, or even a snack.

Like all quick bread recipes, this peach bread doesn’t require any yeast. Although it’s made from scratch, it is quick and easy to make and only takes one bowl. You don’t even have to pull out your electric mixer because everything can be mixed by hand.

Ingredients – Here’s what you will need to make this recipe:

Ingredients to make peach bread including peaches, flour and sugar.

Fresh peaches – are the star of this show. Elberta freestone peaches from South Georgia are my favorite, but you can use whatever type you can find in your area.
Granulated sugar – although this is called bread, sugar gives it a sweet taste, and I think it is closer to a coffee cake consistency.
All-purpose flour – is the base of most bread recipes and provides structure.
Vegetable oil – helps to keep this bread moist. I always use peanut oil, but any neutral-flavored vegetable oil will work.
Eggs – combine with the flour to provide structure and hold everything together.
Sour cream – provides a slight tang and helps keep the bread moist.
Vanilla extract – enhances all of the other flavors and is an essential ingredient.
Baking soda – with its leavening properties, provides lift and helps this bread rise.
Kosher salt – enhances the flavor of the bread and balances the sweetness of the other ingredients.
Pecans – add crunch and their familiar buttery flavor.

You will also need a no-stick baking spray with flour, a 9×5 inch loaf pan, and a wire cooling rack.

Directions – here’s how to make this recipe:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Peel and finely chop the peaches. I like to use a potato masher to mash them up a bit too. However, don’t mash too much because you still want the mixture to be chunky.

Mashing pieces of peaches on a wooden cutting board.

Use a non-stick baking spray with flour to grease the bottom and sides of a 9×5 inch loaf pan.
Add the sugar and oil to a large bowl and mix well.

Add the eggs, sour cream, chopped peaches, and vanilla, and mix well. Next, add the dry ingredients, flour, baking soda, and salt to the wet ingredients and mix well. Finally, add the pecans and mix to combine.

Batter in a clear glass bowl to make quick bread.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 50-55 minutes or until the sides of the cake start to pull away from the pan. Start checking when you begin to smell your bread. Try 5 minutes before you think it will be done. If not, check again in 5-10 minutes, depending on how underdone it is.
A wooden skewer or toothpick inserted into the center should come out clean with no streaks of batter when done.
Let the bread cool in the pan for about 10 minutes on a wire baking rack. Then turn the bread out onto the wire rack to cool completely.

A loaf of peach bread on a wooden cutting board.

Slice and serve!

A loaf of quick bread on a cutting board with peaches.

Frequently asked questions:

How to tell when a peach is ripe?

There are three ways to tell if a peach is ripe:
1. Smell – as peaches ripen, their aroma becomes more potent, and a ripe peach will have a heavenly scent. No smell means they are not ripe and will be tasteless.
2. Feel – ripe peaches should feel heavy for their size. You should be able to feel them give just a little when you gently squeeze them, but not so much that they feel mushy. If the fruit is firm, it probably needs a day to ripen. Avoid fruit that is rock hard.
3. Color – a ripe peach is a beautiful thing with a lovely vibrant reddish blush and soft velvety skin. Avoid peaches that are green around the stem; they were probably picked too soon and will never ripen properly.

What to do with overripe peaches?

This recipe calls for ripe or slightly overripe peaches. If they ripen before you are ready to use them, you can store the fruit in the fridge for a few days.

Remember, peaches are highly perishable, so handle them carefully and plan to use them within a day or so of purchasing. If they are bruised, you can still salvage part of them and cut away the damaged part.

What to do if my peaches aren’t ripe enough?

If your peaches aren’t quite ripe enough, let them sit at room temperature, on their side, not touching, in a single layer, on your counter for a day or so.

You can also hurry the ripening process by placing them in a brown paper bag with a banana or apple for a day or so.

What’s the difference between Clingstone and Freestone peaches?

As the names suggest, the difference between freestone peaches and clingstone is how easy it is to separate the flesh from the pit. When you slice a freestone peach, the flesh easily pulls away from the pit. On the other hand, you have to cut the flesh away from the pit with a clingstone.

How to store the bread?

Let the bread cool completely and wrap the loaf tightly in plastic wrap or aluminum foil. Place the wrapped bread in a large freezer-friendly, air-tight, plastic storage bag and leave it at room temperature for up to three days, five days in the fridge, or freeze it for up to three months.

If frozen, thaw before serving on the counter or in the fridge overnight.

What’s the easiest way to peel peaches?

If your peaches are firm, it’s easy to peel them with a Y-shaped vegetable peeler or a small paring knife. However, if they are soft, the easiest way to peel them is to blanch them in boiling water first. Here are the steps, and I have also covered this in my video.

1. To blanch them, place a large pot with enough water to cover the peaches on the stove over high heat.
2. While the water is coming to a boil, cut a shallow X in the bottom of each peach.
3. When the water is boiling, gently drop the peaches in and let them boil for 20-30 seconds or until their skin starts to split.
4. Immediately remove them from the water with a slotted spoon and place them into a bowl of water and ice. You should then be able to easily slip the skin off with your fingers.

Sharon’s Tips:

Cover the top loosely with aluminum foil if your bread is browning too quickly before it is cooked in the middle. Then allow it to cook the rest of the way.
Non-stick baking spray is not the same as a non-stick cooking spray like Pam. Baking spray is made to grease pans used in baking bread and cakes and includes flour.
If you don’t have a non-stick baking spray with flour, grease the bottom and sides of the pan with butter, then sprinkle about a tablespoon of flour on top of the butter. Tap the pan on the counter to evenly distribute the flour and cover the butter in a thin layer. Pour out any excess flour.
This recipe works best with fresh peaches. But, if you are in a pinch, you can substitute thawed frozen peaches or canned peaches that have been drained.
For something a little different, try toasting slices of this bread and topping them with melted butter.
You can use a food processor to cut up your peaches, but be careful and don’t over-process them. You want small pieces, not a puree.

Easy Southern Fresh Peach Bread is just one example of quick bread, bread made without yeast.

On my blog, some other examples of quick bread are Easy Southern Style Apple Bread, Easy Southern Cheddar Biscuits, Traditional Southern Style Cornbread, Old Fashioned Southern Cornbread, Ultimate Blueberry Buttermilk Pancakes, and Sweet Potato Biscuits. But, of course, the most famous of all quick bread is banana bread!

If you love peaches as we do, you might also like these peach recipes: Southern Peaches and Cream Pie, Grilled Chicken with Peach Glaze, Peach Salsa, Southern Peach Cobbler, Fresh Peach Pie, and Summer Fruit Salad with Orange Syrup.

★ If you make this recipe, please give it a star rating below and let me know how you liked it.

Thanks for visiting Grits and Pinecones!

*This post was originally published on September 10, 2017. Republished on June 2, 2020, with new photos, a “how-to” video, and expanded directions and tips.