One of my favorite fruits next to cherries, watermelon and pears has to be peaches. I simply adore peaches and will happily gobble them up however I can get them.
Usually its just tinned peaches, but I don't mind. I just love them. In the UK, I didn't often get to enjoy fresh peaches. We did get them on occasion from South Africa and from France. The ones from France were excellent!
Most of the time however, they were not so good. Hard little balls of tasteless blah. There is not a lot you can do with hard peaches. Usually they will go mealy before they actually ripen. Cooking them is the only option.
I spied some peaches at my local farm market yesterday and I picked up a punnet. They are probably from the US or Mexico. I seriously doubt that local peaches are ready and in fact I am pretty sure they don't grow peaches here in Nova Scotia.
Our Summers are just not warm enough!
They were a little bit on the hard side, but I didn't mind because I wanted to cook something with them. I had thought I would make Peach Dumplings. It sounded good at the time.
But like most things, I changed my mind (isn't that a woman's prerogative?) and decided to make Peach Pie Roll Ups instead!
Quite a number of years ago now, I had done a recipe for Apple Pie Roll Ups which was quite popular. So popular in fact that I won an award for the recipe from an online site.
It was a Kenwood stand mixer and I can remember being both thrilled and honored to have won it! I used that stand mixer for a good 9 years before I moved back to Canada and it served me very well.
I even lent it to Ariana on occasion. She loved it too. (Ariana was the Spanish nurse who boarded with us for a year before she got married. She was like a daughter to me. I miss her.)
Anyways, to make a long story short, I decided to use the peaches to make something similar to the apple pie roll ups! Easy and delicious, these are something both you and your family are going to fall in love with!
Flaky rich pastry is brushed with butter, sprinkled with a warm baking spice mixture and then cut into strips.
The peaches are peeled and cut into wedges. Each wedge is placed at one end of the pastry strip and then rolled up.
Once rolled up you place them onto a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Each roll is brushed with melted butter and then sprinkled with more of that spiced sugar.
They are then baked to perfection. They actually don't take too long to bake at all. Fifteen minutes maximum.
I highly recommend that you make your own pastry rather than using a shop bought for these. In the UK we were able to buy very high quality all butter ready rolled pastry and it was nice.
I have never been able to find a similar product here. The few that I have tried have a really nasty after-taste, no names mentioned.
I have an excellent recipe for a fabulous butter and lard pastry, which you can find here. To me this is quite simply the best pastry going. (Aside from puff, lol.)
If you try it you will see, there is no comparison. It is a recipe which is perfect for all of your pastry needs, and works very well here.
In the UK, desserts such as these, or puddings as they were affectionately called, would be served with an option of three tasty accompaniments. You could get custard sauce, ice cream or pouring cream.
Some people would choose at least all or two of them. (Can you imagine!)
When I first moved over there it seemed crazy to me to be ladling warm custard over your desserts and pies, but then again, what is ice cream but frozen custard? I came to love desserts such as this served with a warm custard sauce.
I think you will too!
Proper Custard
Yield: about 3 cups
Prep time: 5 MinCook time: 15 Mininactive time: 10 MinTotal time: 30 Min
This is also known as creme anglaise. Be sure not to let the mixture boil once the eggs are added, or you wil end up with a curdled mess. You only need to heat it up enough to cook the eggs. The custard is ready when it coats the back of a wooden spoon.
Ingredients
- 8 egg yolks
- 1/3 cup (75g) granulated sugar (in the UK use caster sugar)
- 1 1/4 cup (300ml) whole milk
- 1 1/4 cup (300ml) double cream
- 1 vanilla pod, split (alternately use 1 tsp pure vanilla extract or paste)
Instructions
- Beat the egg yolks and sugar together in a bowl until well blended. Place the milk and cream in a saucepan with the vanilla. Scrape the insides of the vanilla pod into the mixture before you add it. Bring the mixture just to the boil.
- Pour a little of this mixture into the eggs to temper them, and beat it together well. Pour this back into the pan and whisk together. Return to the heat and using a whisk, lightly stir until it begins to thicken. DO NOT BOIL.
- As the egg yolks warm, the cream will get thicker and create a custard. Keep stirring until it coats the back of a wooden spoon. Remove from the heat and pass through a fine sieve. Leave to cool a bit before using. Serve warm or allow to cool completely, stirring occasionally.
You will find that the custard sauce above will come in very handy to serve with all sorts. Its lovely like this, or with cakes, steamed puddings, etc.
Its also especially lovely served with sliced raw banana or even stewed rhubarb! I think you are going to like it. Its not that hard to make either. Just follow the instructions.
In any case I do hope you will be inspired to want to try these lovely Peach Pie Roll Ups. Not as complicated as a pie, but every bit as satisfying!
Whether you choose to have them with ice cream, or pouring cream or this lush custard sauce, they are sure to go down a real treat.
Quick, easy, delicious. What more could a person ask for?
Peach Pie Roll Ups
Yield: 4
Prep time: 15 MinCook time: 15 MinTotal time: 30 Min
I may never make a normal peach pie again. These are quick fun to make and quite delicious! They are a great way to use those firm peaches that you buy that you just know are not going to ripen properly. I served them with custard of course!
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup (95g) granulated sugar
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp freshly ground nutmeg
- 1/4 tsp ground cardamom
- 1 (12-inch round) short crust pastry (I like to use my lard and butter pastry)
- 3 TBS melted butter
- 2 medium ripe peaches, peeled and cut into 6 wedges each
To serve: (pick one!)
- warm custard sauce
- vanilla ice cream
- pouring cream
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425*F/230*C/ gas mark 7. Line a large baking sheet with baking parchment. Set aside.
- Whisk together the sugar, cinnamon, ground cardamom and nutmeg in a small bowl. Set aside.
- Roll the pastry out onto a lightly floured surface. Brush with 2 TBS of the melted butter. Sprinkle with all but 1 TBS of the cinnamon sugar. (reserve for a few minutes)
- Cut the pastry into 12 even wedges. Lay a wedge of peach on the wide end of each pastry strip and roll them up, with the sugared side of the pastry against the fruit.
- Place them onto the lined baking sheet.
- Brush with the remaining melted butter and sprinkle the remaining cinnamon sugar evenly over top.
- Bake for 13 to 15 minutes until the pastry is golden brown. Serve warm, with or without custard. Delicious!
Follow my blog with Bloglovin
Good quality stone fruit is something I dearly miss after moving to the North Pole. Back home we had peach, apricot, plum and nectarine trees in every suburban garden and I recall many a summer spent eating that wonderful, sweet juicy fruit, as well as mega sessions of communal jam making, stewing, sun drying, candying and bottling fruit for the winter.
ReplyDeleteThe stone fruit they sell here (too cold to grow it) often comes from Spain and they are hard as rocks. I wonder if they could be used in this - I've only bought peaches once here and vowed never again!
These do sound tempting - I can think that apple would also be nice, as would pineapple. And a big yes to custard! I was brought up with custard to accompany desserts, so it seems normal for me. My husband is bemused and often chooses ice cream, which I think is bizarre. Each to their own :)
Yes, each to their own Marie! Good stone fruit should not be so hard to find, but I agree it often is! Recipes like this are great for using up less than perfect fruit. Cooking often softens and brings out the sweetness in these kinds of fruits! At least that has been my experience! Ohh, I had not thought of pineapple. What a great idea! Thanks! xoxo
DeleteI love the idea of the warm custard over these. Our peaches don't pop until August. Even if you grew them there, I think you'd be talking late! These looks really good and I'm saving this for peach time!
ReplyDelete