I used to think that fruit for dessert was a bit boring. But having a baby in the house who loves fruit, I’ve changed my mind. Fruit can be a really delicious dessert as long as you use great quality produce and treat it with a little love and some butter!
Buttered Peaches / Fruit
Ingredients
- 2-3 ripe peaches or other stone fruit sliced into wedges
- 2-3 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1/2 vanilla bean optional
- double (heavy) cream (or whipped cream) to serve
Instructions
- Heat a small frying pan on a medium heat. Add butter and when it melts, add peach wedges.
- If using vanilla, scrape the seeds and add to the pan. Save the stalk for another use.
- Cook peaches, stirring every few minutes until the peaches are warm and just a little bit browned in places. About 5 minutes.
- Serve warm peaches and the pan juices topped with cream.
Variations
pantry – use a drained can of peaches instead. I prefer peaches packed in juice not the extra sweet sugar syrup.
different fruit – lovely with any stone fruit such as nectarines, plums or apricots. Also lovely with pears or apples (add a pinch of cinnamon).
more substantial – serve with roasted almonds or crumbled sweet biscuits (cookies) such as shortbread.
different accompaniments – creamy ricotta, sour cream, double cream, vanilla ice cream are all good.
paleo (grain, legume & dairy-free) – coconut oil instead of butter and coconut yoghurt instead of cream.
keto / ultra low carb – dark chocolate instead of peaches
Shelf Life / Storage
Refrigerate cooked fruit in an airtight container or ziplock bag. Keep cream in a separate container. Fruit will last in the fridge for 2 weeks or so. Can be frozen for up to 12 months.
Usage Suggestions
quick dessert – serve the fruit either warm or cold with your choice of cream or ice cream.
fruit ‘ice cream’ – freeze cooked fruit then when you’re ready to serve whizz it in the food processor with a little cream or coconut milk until you have a lovely icecreamy texture. Eat ASAP.
breakfast – serve cold with natural yoghurt and granola or roasted nuts.
as a side – works as a wonderful dessert accompaniment to things like this french toast (with or without the raspberries) or the Clancy family pavlova or this easy berry mousse.
almost instant crumble – use your buttered peaches in place of the canned apples in this recipe.
Problem Solving Guide
bland – a little sugar, maple syrup or honey can help for less than ripe peaches.
too hard – if the peaches aren’t ripe cooking for longer can help soften.
Waste Avoidance Strategy
peaches – will keep for a few weeks (depending on how ripe they are) in a plastic bag in the fridge. For longer storage just pop them in the freezer to defrost and cook later.
butter – keeps in the fridge for months.
vanilla bean – keep in the pantry.
marscapone or cream – freeze it or use for another meal.
Prepare Ahead?
Absolutely. Cook peaches in butter as per recipe but keep the cream separately. Will keep in the fridge for 1-2 weeks or can be frozen. To serve warm to room temp or higher.
Add to my Old Favourite Recipes
I made this for my son for breakfast topped with powdered. Yum! The peaches were a tad mushy but maybe that’s because I used ghee instead of butter. I used a non-stick pan. Would a regular pan work better?
The ghee and pan type wouldn’t impact the texture Rachel – the mushiness probably means your peaches were on the more ripe side. OR they didn’t need that much cooking. 🙂
Jules, I had another thought about this recipe, in reading some of your comments I think I will try a hybrid of my grilled peaches. Instead of grilling I will do them as in your recipe and then top them with a drizzle of honey and dollop of marscapone and shavings of basil.
ooh yum Patti – love the idea of a touch of basil for added fragrance (and marscapone is always a good idea).
Jules, I have made this three times since the challenge started!! Peaches are in full season in Oregon and absolutely beautiful. Vanilla bean is very expensive, as always, so I used vanilla extract and it was absolutely devine!
Oh lucky you Patti! I can only dream of Summer peaches at the moment.
Yes when I wrote this recipe vanilla prices were a lot more reasonable 🙂
I had one peach today for the second time in this challenge, two days ago but there is only 5 days each week on the challenge..
Yay for peaches Kris!
I made this tonight for dinner as we got a big box of wonderful CA peaches today. Wow is all I can say! I added a bit of rum to the butter for a buttered rum feel.
Oh yum Sandy – I’m looking forward to peach season here 🙂
I made this for dessert last night – so simple and so tasty! We didn’t have double cream or whipped cream but we did have some vanilla yogurt in the fridge, I plopped a dollop of it on the peaches and sprinkled over some walnuts. I wonder how it would taste with plums or cherries? Or a mixture of peaches and cherries? Can’t wait to experiment!
Definitely YES to the plums and cherries Katherine – and love that you added the walnuts!