Instructions

1. Choose peaches that give under a thumb at the stem end. A firm peach has acid and very little sugar, and since nothing here is sweetened beyond the applesauce, the fruit is carrying the whole cake.
2. Put the chopped peaches, applesauce and parsley in the blender together and run it to a smooth puree. The parsley looks out of place in a breakfast recipe and is not: it cuts the sweetness and keeps these from tasting like dessert.
3. Pour the puree over the rice and lemon juice in a bowl and press the lot together with a potato masher for about a minute. Keep the blender out of this stage — beaten rice turns gluey and the cake loses its grain.
4. Measure the mixture out in half-cup scoops onto drying sheets. These are larger cakes than most, so give them room on the tray.
5. Flatten each scoop with four or five light taps of the masher until it reaches roughly 8.9 cm across. An even thickness here is worth more than a neat edge.
6. Set the machine to 52 °C and allow something like 12 hours. As soon as the cakes lift off the sheets cleanly, discard the sheets and let them finish on the mesh.
7. A finished cake is hard right through and breaks with a snap. Peach is a wet fruit and these take their time; a cake that bends is not there yet.
8. Store them in canning jars, or vacuum-seal them with an oxygen absorber inside a doubled Mylar bag, where they will keep for five years or more.
9. To serve, dip a cake in boiling water for fifteen seconds and no longer, then fry it in a little oil for thirty seconds on each side.