This is a beautiful dessert that I made one evening after dinner because I had a lovely bowl of peaches on the bench that no one was eating and I didn’t want them to go to waste. The recipe came together really well just using the ingredients that I had in the pantry. Instead of peaches, nectarines or apricots would work equally as well.
What is coconut sugar?
A while a go I purchased some coconut sugar, I have never used coconut sugar before and I was curious. Coconut sugar is a natural sugar alternative. It is produced from the sap of cut flower buds of the coconut palm. Coconut sugar has been used as a traditional sweetener for thousands of years in the South and South-East Asian regions.
Coconut sugar has very little processing unlike refined sugar. It starts with harvesting the blossoms of a coconut tree. The farmer makes a cut on the spike that holds the flowers and the sap starts to flow from the cut. The sap is then collected in bamboo containers as it is mainly harvested in South and South East Asia.
The collected sap is transferred into large woks and placed over moderate heat to evaporate the moisture content of the sap. The sap is translucent and is about 80% water. As the water evaporates, it starts to transform into a thick syrup-like substance known as a “toddy”. From this form, it is further reduced to crystal, block or soft paste form, or it remains in this form.
I found this information about coconut sugar on Wikipedia, you can read more here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coconut_sugar
I wouldn’t go crazy eating piles of coconut sugar, but a little sprinkled in this recipe is nice and it is still a real food that has had no processing except for the evaporation of water from the sap. If you don’t have coconut sugar or don’t want to use it, you can use honey or natural maple syrup in this recipe.
- Peach Filling
- 6 ripe peaches
- 1 tablespoon coconut sugar
- ½ teaspoon nutmeg
- Crust
- 1 cup raw macadamia nuts
- ½ cup shredded coconut
- ¼ cup coconut sugar
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 tablespoon coconut oil
- Pre-heat the oven at 180 degrees. Prepare 4 ramekin dishes by placing them aside.
- Cut the peaches in half and remove the seeds. Place the peaches facing up on a oven tray, lined with baking paper.
- Sprinkle the nutmeg and the 1 tablespoon of coconut sugar over the peaches.
- Place the tray of peaches in the oven and roast for 20 minutes.
- Meanwhile make the crust by placing the macadamia nuts in the food processor and blitz for only a few seconds until they form a crumble. Be careful not to over process.
- Add the shredded coconut, coconut sugar and coconut oil.
- Mix the ingredients together by pulsing food processor once or twice.
- Once the peaches are nicely roasted place three peach halves into each of the four ramekins.
- Top the peaches with the macadamia crumble and place the ramekins in the oven.
- Bake for a further 15 minutes or until the crust is golden brown.
- Serve hot from the oven and garnish with a slice of fresh peach.
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