Vanilla-Roasted Peaches
After seeing beautiful peaches in the farmers market last week, I wanted to find a simple recipe for a peach dessert that took little preparation time and didn’t hide these summer jewels under a crust or streusel. A quick search through my old summer dessert files revealed this wonderful 2007 recipe from the Martha Stewart website.
The peaches should be just starting to ripen but on the firm side so they maintain their shape during roasting. Don’t skimp on the vanilla bean as it’s fragrance and taste add significantly to the dessert. Two suggested sources are provided following the recipe.
The size of the baking pan is important. It needs to be shallow and just big enough to hold the peaches. Too large and the juices will evaporate during baking. I have used both a white porcelain rectangle and a copper oval successfully. Exact measurements may be found in the notes section below. Use an attractive pan if you want to serve directly from it.
These Vanilla-Roasted Peaches scream for vanilla ice cream. While there are many very good ones available in the stores, it certainly would be good time to pull out your ice cream machine and try our homemade Vanilla Ice Cream.
Raspberries do add nice color to the plate but can be skipped.
With only fifteen minutes of prep time, there is no excuse not to treat yourself to this delicious summer dessert.
Vanilla-Roasted Peaches
| Yield: 1 medium baking dish | # of Servings: 4 |
Ingredients:
4 medium sized peaches, 1 ¼ to 1 ½ pounds total, firm, just starting to ripen
2 tbl (1 oz / 28 g) butter, melted
2 tbl (1 fl oz) fresh lemon juice
2 tbl (.90 oz / 26 g) sugar
1 vanilla bean, split and scraped. (See note below)
1 pint Vanilla Ice Cream
½ pint raspberries
1 bunch fresh mint, optional
Tools and equipment needed:
1 baking dish, size described below
Pre-recipe preparations:
- Squeeze lemons for juice
- Preheat oven to 400 °F
Directions:
- Rinse peaches, set aside to dry.
- Pour melted butter and lemon juice into baking dish. Stir together. Add sugar, vanilla bean and seeds into the dish and stir to combine.
- Halve and pit the peaches. Place in the baking dish and swirl around to cover the peaches in the liquid and vanilla seeds. Then place cut side down for baking.
- Roast for approximately 18 to 22 minutes, until an inserted paring knife indicates they are just cooked through. Brush the tops with the cooking liquid at the halfway point.
- Pour off excess liquid into a small saucepan. Reduce the syrup slightly by bringing to a boil for one minute.
- Serve warm with vanilla ice cream and raspberries.
Baking Note:
- Baking pans – the white porcelain pan I have used is 6 ¾” by 11 ½” by 2″. The copper oval is 12″ by 8″ by 1 ½”.
- Very good, reasonably priced vanilla beans are available from Amazon, the Slofoodgroup premium Grade A brand. I have been using these for almost a year and they have been consistently fragrant and moist. At the next level, premium, plump Madagascar beans are available from Penzey’s Spices. They are very pricey at $25 for three, but a nice indulgence for the homer baker.
