Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Peachy dessert


Our peach trees are laden at the moment with sweet little white and yellow-skinned peaches. Now we're eating most of them fresh, in rather large quantities, but even though they're small, there are so many of them there's no way we can eat them all fresh. Some of them will of course be bottled for winter; but it's good too to vary the summer dessert menu so that it's not just fresh peaches every single day(I know--hardly something to complain about. Reminds me of my daughter's comment, once, when she was small and we had strawberries galore in the garden: 'Oh dear!--big sigh--'the trouble with living here, Mum, is there are just too many strawberries!'  )
So--when you really have too many peaches and desperately want to find another way of serving them, here's a great, quick, delicious dessert that can be just as good for a family dinner as a dinner party with friends.
Take one peach per person(if regular size, I used two of our littlies). Place each in a greased ramekin. Beat up three egg yolks with sugar over a pan of simmering water until the mixture is frothy and pale yellow(the amount of sugar varies according to taste, it should be sweet but not overly so.) Pour the 'sabayon' mix (which is what the yolk mixture is called) over the peaches to cover completely. Bake in a 180 degree oven for 10 or so minutes, until the top has crusted a little--but the inside is still creamy. The peaches will have softened too. Delicious serve hot or warm with whipped cream or icecream. A nice variation can be done with apricots.

4 comments:

  1. Sounds divine, Sophie. I also have the same problem with our short-lived but abundant Mission fig harvests. I make fig jam and freeze it to enjoy when the tree is bare.

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  2. Hmm, SOME of us live in flats and can't even grow herbs on the balcony due to too much shade! Jealous,jealous! Sounds like a nice dessert - so the egg mixture doesn't come out as sweet omelette?

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  3. PS Speaking of dessert, I made your vanilla ice cream yesterday - yum! Thanks for the recipe. Amazing what even a capful of vanilla essence will do for the flavour. Oh, and I do have a balcony garden, just nothing to eat on it.

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  4. glad the icecream turned out well, Sue! The egg mixture in that peach dessert turns out more like a souffle than an omelette--it puffs up nicely, with a good crust and creamy underneath.
    Yes, fig jam's lovely, isn't it, Deborah? I also love figs in liqueur!

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