Recipe: Peaches and Bacon Sundae
Posted by bellastraniera - 31/08/09 at 12:08 pm
This being a thrifty summer, there are a lot of recipes going around for pickling and canning. But what if you read one of those recipes and think, grasshopper-like, I want to eat that right now, not in January? This is what happened with Amanda Hesser’s recipe for brandied peaches.
Greenmarket peaches are so good right now that at first I never even made it to the recipe stage. Raw sliced peaches topped with crisp bacon make a great breakfast dish. The last bit of fat from the bacon oozes into the peaches, creating a wonderful smoky-salty-sweet taste. They were even better with syrup drizzled on top—not the fancy New England maple kind, but the kind of syrup you find in the South, Aunt Jemima. You’re going for Georgia flavor here.
It could have been dessert, especially if the peaches were cooked with brandy as originally planned. So I went back to Amanda Hesser’s recipe but, instead of preserving the peaches, served them warm on top of ice cream, crumbled with bacon, and topped with syrup.
Recipe: Peaches and Bacon Sundae
1 ½ lbs. fresh local peaches, firm and just barely ripe
1 c. sugar
¼ c. kirsch (cherry brandy)
4 oz. bacon, thinly sliced
1 pint vanilla bean ice cream
½ c. Aunt Jemima syrup
Peel the peaches and cut them lengthwise into 1-inch thick wedges, discarding the pits.
In a medium saucepan, bring sugar and 1 c. water to a boil. Add the peaches and return to a boil. Boil until the peaches just begin to soften but before they fall apart, about 2-3 minutes. Pour the mixture into a bowl and stir in the brandy. Cover loosely and refrigerate until serving time, at least 1 hour and up to 6 hours.
Put a frying pan over high heat and wait for it to get hot. Add the bacon and immediately turn down the heat to medium low. Cook over medium low heat, turning frequently, until most of the fat is rendered and the bacon is crisp. Remove bacon and let it drain on paper towels. When it’s cool, crumble it and reserve in the paper towels at room temperature.
When it’s time for dessert, scoop the ice cream into small bowls, 2-3 scoops per person. Nuke the peach mixture in the microwave at high heat until warmed through, about 1 ½ minutes, and spoon peaches over the ice cream, leaving most of the peach syrup behind. (Save it for Bellinis.) Nuke the Aunt Jemima syrup until hot and pour it over the ice cream. Finally, garnish with crumbled bacon.
Serves 4.
Related posts:
bellastraniera
a.k.a. Marcy Swingle - obsessed with food and fashion.
Email 
Twitter 
RSS
August 31st, 2009 at 1:06 pm
Goodness gracious, that is a delicious sundae!!
August 31st, 2009 at 6:50 pm
Where did you find that pear fabric??!?!?
August 31st, 2009 at 7:10 pm
It’s a kitchen towel-type napkin I bought from Crate & Barrel in like 1997 I’m afraid. Cute fabric tho.