Sweet Caramelized Peaches and Figs are gently tossed in a sweet browned butter glaze in this easy recipe. Serve with or without whipped cream or ice cream.
I’m incredulous when I hear someone say they don’t like peaches. These must be the people who’ve only ever had mediocre peaches because, really, if they could ever experience the sheer joy of eating a peach right off the tree, they’d change their tune. This recipe for Caramelized Peaches and Figs makes a quick and easy dessert that heightens the flavour of both of these late-summer tree fruits.
Peaches come in two varieties: really good ones and mediocre ones. A really good peach is just ever-so-slightly squeezable and a tiny bit warm. It’s best plucked right from the tree on a warm August day. A really good peach is never cold, because once it’s refrigerated, boom! It becomes mediocre. Something strange happens in the refrigerator that changes a peach from irresistible to unappealing. It’s transformed into something that should be used up quickly, maybe in a smoothie, before it spoils even more.
Just like strawberries, peaches need to be eaten soon after picking. Late summer peaches are the best for cooking. They are usually freestone, which means that their pits or stones slip out easily, unlike cling peaches in which the fruit clings to the pit.
Once you pick a peach, it stops ripening. It may get softer, but it is simply starting to rot and not ripening. Getting your peaches from a farmer’s market will likely increase your chances of getting tree-ripened fruit. It will be worth the search!
The only fruit as fabulous as warm, sun-ripened, juicy peaches are warm, sun-ripened, juicy figs. Soft and delicate, they’re just as slurpy and as sweet as a peach. While eating either of these fruits fresh from the tree is beyond comparison, we’re often faced with an abundance of fruit that ripens all at once, and it’s good to be able to play with the flavours and create something new. These Caramelized Peaches and Figs just ooze “summertime”. This dessert can be whipped up in less than ten minutes. If you don’t have figs, don’t despair. Peaches would be good paired with bananas in this dish too.
Caramelized Peaches and Figs
Ingredients
- 4 tbsp butter
- 6 tbsp coconut palm sugar or Demerara, or brown sugar,
- 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 5 - 6 fresh peaches. peeled and sliced into 1/2 inch wedges
- 4 fresh figs, quartered with stems trimmed. (No need to peel fresh figs.)
Instructions
- Put butter and sugar in a cast-iron frying pan. Stir until well combined. Add the vanilla and stir until the mixture is golden brown and begins to smell like caramel, about 3 - 5 minutes.
- Add the fruit and very gently stir to coat. Continue to cook, watching closely until the fruit is glazed but not mushy, about 2 - 3 minutes. Serve immediately with a dollop of vanilla ice cream.
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