I can remember as kids my sisters loved tinned peaches but I hated the soft texture and stayed away no matter how much evaporated milk they doused it in. It is, however, the hight of stone fruit season at the moment and there are just such lovely ripe peaches around so I thought I’d try something similar, but my way. It turned out pretty fricken delicious. Well whats not to love when you use real vanilla and baked fruit.
These baked peaches make a really light, healthy dessert that will still impress your guests because they look really great but you could even just enjoy them for as deluxe breakfast.
*How to peel `a vif’: This is a French way of cutting citrus fruit: the peel and white pith are removed so just the juicy flesh remains. With an orange, for example, the top and bottom are removed to steady the fruit on the work surface then the peel is cut off from top to bottom in pieces until the flesh is visible. Hold the orange in the palm of your hand and remove the segments from between the membranes, leaving the flesh without pith or pips.
- 3 peaches
- 3 apricots
- 2 oranges
- 1 cup orange juice
- 1 vanilla bean
- 1T honey
- 1 500ml tub greek yogurt
- 1 handful pistachios
- Bring a large pot of water to the boil and preheat the oven to 180C (356F).
- Using a sharp knife, make a shallow cross in the bottom of each peach and carefully drop them, one by one , into the boiling water for 30 seconds then remove and allow to cool.
- In the mean time prepare the oranges by peeling* `a vif'. Catch the juices in a bowl while doing this and when all the segments have been removed, squeeze the orange and combine the remaining juice with the cup of orange juice so that you have roughly 2 cups.
- Bring the orange juice to a slow simmer on medium heat. Cut the vanilla pod lengthways and scrape out the seeds. Add both the pod and the seeds to the orange juice and allow it to infuse.
- When the orange juice has reduced to a thick, syrup consistency, add the honey.
- Peel the skin off the peaches and cut them into pieces along with the apricots then place them on a baking sheet lined with grease proof paper. Using a pastry brush, brush some of the orange syrup over each piece of fruit and pop them in the oven for 20 minutes to bake.
- Remove them from the oven, brush again with the syrup and allow to cool. Keep a little bit of syrup to the side to drizzle at the end.
- Roughly chop the pistachios and roast them in the oven for 10 minutes then remove and sprinkle with a pinch of sugar.
- Divide the peaches, apricots and orange segments between your 6 bowls, add a good dollop of yogurt, sprinkle the pistachios over the yogurt and finally drizzle the remaining syrup over the fruit and yogurt. Serve and Savor.
This looks like a great recipe, but I don’t completely understand the instructions. It says to squeeze the oranges after peeling to obtain 2 cups of juice. How will the segments remain intact for serving then?
Hi Jess thanks for your comment. I can see how it can be confusing. I have a note in there on how to peel “a vif” which is a technique of peeling the orange so that the segments are left without any rind or pith. Once this has been done and you have collected the juices that will flow while doing this, you will be left with an orange minus the flesh of the segments. This can now be squeezed to catch all the remaining juices. This way you don’t waste any juice, but you can also just use 2 cups or bottled orange juice. I hope this makes it clearer. Here is a video on how to peel a vif. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tbf9fGAC10