Peach Pastries in Vanilla Cream Sauce

I LOVE peaches! Their sweet yet tart flavor makes my mouth insanely happy! I bought a bunch of Chilton County (Georgia) peaches today while at the Farmer's Market. They have to best the best peaches. God gave an extra blessing when he created the peach tree! Well, long story short, when I got home I was at a lost as to what to do with the peaches. I mean it has to be good, right?! So, I thought up this recipe and truly it was delicious! Very simple I might add. This can be made fairly quickly and would be a great dessert for dinner guests. It does call for a vanilla bean, ( by now you should know how high esteem I have for the vanilla bean). You can purchase them in the spice section of your grocer.


You will need:

4 ripe peaches,pitted and sliced thinly
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/4 cup half n half
1 tsp. cornstarch
1 vanilla bean (do not skimp here- get the real thing)
1 sheet puff pastry dough
1/4 tsp. all spice
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. cinnamon

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

First, thaw the puff pastry dough, then cut into three sections, vertical. I used the frozen lines from the folds already made. Once again you will cut the dough, this time horizontally, into three sections from each vertical length of dough. I hope this make sense. In other words, take one of the vertical sections and cut across it making three squares.
Spray 6 ramekins with cooking spray. Lay each square of pastry dough in ramekin. Patting all around and pricking with a fork. Bake til golden brown, but not too done. You will re-bake with the peaches in later.



See, I forgot to prick with the fork!


Next, over medium heat, bring to a simmer the half-n-half, sugar, cornstarch and whole vanilla bean, ( do not split, yet). You will need to whisk all along. Once the vanilla bean has heated and softned, remove and split. Scrape out all the seeds and add to cream sauce, whisking in. Remember as I told in the bread pudding blog: wash the vanilla bean in the cream sauce to get all the seeds out.





In a seperate bowl, add the sliced peaches, nutmeg, allspice, and cinnamon; mix well. Add the cream to the peach mixture stirring until all the peaches are coated.




Remove the pastry from the oven. Scoop the peaches and sauce into each ramekin over the pastry. Cook about 12-15 minutes, or until bubbly. Cool slightly before eating.