If you recall from last summer, I talked about my favorite peaches from Colorado – peaches so good that I can hardly bring myself to buy any other kind of peaches. My husband holds out hope that there are still great peaches to be had outside of Colorado and is willing to stop at many a roadside stand and farmer’s markets in his search. After purchasing pound after pound of disappointing peaches, we finally found a grower at our farmer’s market that we really like. The peaches are a good size, super sweet and juicy. Summer is definitely looking up.
With the abundance of peaches, I got to experiment with a peach version of the classic bananas foster recipe where bananas are sautéed in a caramel sauce and then served over vanilla ice-cream. It took me a couple of tries to work out the recipe with peaches but no one seemed to mind the chore of taste testing. After all, it’s hard to go too wrong when you start with great peaches that are then cooked with brown sugar, butter, and rum.
Once the peaches and caramel sauce are done cooking, be sure to let the mixture cool a little before spooning it over the ice-cream. Otherwise, you end of up with ice-cream “soup”. My oldest daughter actually prefers it this way but I prefer my ice-cream to not be completely melted.
If the thought of igniting the rum for the sauce makes you nervous, you can always skip that step. Just cook the sauce long enough to cook out the alcohol. The first time I ignited rum for a bananas foster recipe, I had a box of baking soda and a fire extinguisher at the ready just in case (yes, I tend to be overly cautious). In the end, I didn’t even come close to needing either of them. I find that the flames are actually pretty tame. However, it’s still a fun way to end a summer meal.
Peaches Foster
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Total Time: 25 minutes
- Yield: 4-5 servings 1x
Ingredients
- 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
- 1/2 cup packed brown sugar (light or dark is fine)
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 2 tablespoons peach schnapps
- 4 large ripe peaches, peeled and cut into thick wedges
- 1/4 cup dark rum
- Vanilla ice-cream, for serving
Instructions
- Melt the butter in a heavy skillet over medium heat. When butter is mostly melted, add the sugar and cinnamon. Cook, stirring, until sugar is dissolved, 4 minutes.
- Carefully add peach schnapps (it will splatter) and peaches. Turn up the heat so mixture is at a low simmer. Cook until peaches are soft and slightly caramelized, 3-5 minutes. Carefully add the rum. Continue to cook the sauce until the rum is hot. Then ignite the rum with a long match. When flames die down, stir the sauce to ensure that all of the alcohol cooks out. Let cool 5 minutes.
- Serve cooked peaches over ice cream and top with the caramel sauce in the pan.
Notes
Recipe adapted from Brennan’s New Orleans.
The peach sauce looks and sounds SO good.. schnapps and rum? YUM.
Thanks, Thalia. I hope you get it to try it when summer returns to Australia.