Thursday 30 July 2009

Roasted peaches with vanilla mascarpone

A good peach is a thing of beauty, sweet smelling, fragrant and juicy, and they're at their best right now. The peach season is short so if you haven't been devouring them with reckless abandon like I have may I suggest you pick up a punnet next time you go shopping, before it's too late.

Some of my favourite ways to use peaches -besides eating them raw- are to add them to cakes, crumbles and pies. These are all delicious and fantastic ways to use this wonderful fruit but my favourite is perhaps the easiest of all, I like to roast halved peaches with butter, brown sugar and a little cinnamon.The peaches come out of the oven golden and caramelised, the juices run and form a delicious syrup which can be spooned over the top, like everything that's roasted the flavour is intensified and becomes intensely sweet and peachy. I served mine with vanilla mascarpone for a bit of luxury, you could of course use cream, ice cream or nothing at all.

How to make roasted peaches with vanilla mascarpone

There isn't really a recipe for this but here is the rough method:

You will need:
  • 1 peach (or nectarine) per person
  • Brown sugar
  • Cinnamon (optional but it works really well)
  • Chopped almonds (again optional but really good with this)
For the mascarpone
  • 125g Mascarpone
  • Icing sugar
  • Vanilla extract
Method
  • First halve your peaches and remove the stones.
  • Put the peaches in an oven-proof tray and put a dab of butter in each of the hollows that the stone came from.
  • Mix some brown sugar and cinnamon together, about one teaspoon of sugar per peach half and as much cinnamon as you like.
  • sprinkle the sugar over the peaches, followed by the chopped almonds.
  • Bake the peaches in a medium oven basting every now and again. The cooking time depends on how ripe your peaches are, mine were still a bit hard and took one hour.
  • To make the mascarpone simply mix the mascarpone, sugar and vanilla together.
serve with the peaches with the mascarpone and pour any juices from the roasted pan over the top.Bulleted List

15 comments:

Unknown said...

My mouth is SO watering!

Katie said...

Thanks for this, its the middle of the night, im at work and looking at this has made my breakfast of low fat yogurt and ceral bar feel so dull and disappointing!

♥peachkins♥ said...

WOW! what a wonderful way to eat peaches

Beth (jamandcream) said...

ad some gorgeous white peaches in my Box. Maybe I'll give this a go - sounds wonderful Sam. BTW Im making Pasta con Sarde this weekend on your recommendation!!!

Hopie said...

"A good peach is a thing of beauty" - I totally agree and roasted with vanilla mascarpone sounds divine!

Alicia Foodycat said...

I had a roasted peach for dessert the other day and thought what a totally underrated thing it is! So simple but so very gorgeous.

Anne said...

Yum - they look so good! I always seem to struggle to get the peach to halve nicely unfortunately! Am sure would still be tasty with the mascarpone though!

pigpigscorner said...

Love the addition of chopped almonds. Wonderful flavours and textures!

hungryandfrozen said...

What gorgeous peaches! The flavours you added make me think of crumble, without the crumble part. Sounds absolutely divine :)

The Caked Crusader said...

what a delicate, beautiful dessert. Wonderful

Pam said...

What a perfectly delicious dessert. I love roasted peaches.

petite nyonya said...

This is a nice idea for a simple, easy to make fruit dessert. I like it & shall try it someday!

Marta said...

Oh these just looks fantastic! So elegant and light! I love fruit desserts but I seldom get around to making them because I love raw fruit SOOOO much, I hardly ever have leftovers :(

Amanda said...

Those are some gorgeous peaches, Sam!

Unfortunately we're not eating many around here. They're grown farther south, and by the time they reach us they are rather mushy--definitely not pleasant for eating in my opinion. But if you can get them fresh & firm they're hard to beat!

Nic said...

I haven't had any yet, shame on me! This looks wonderful.