Easy Fruit Desserts

These recipes are taken from Sweets to the Sweet by Susan Branch.  To buy this book, please visit www.susanbranch.com.  

 

Sliced Peaches & Cream: Briefly dip whole ripe peaches into boiling water, peel with a sharp knife & cut into slices.  Sprinkle with sugar and chill at least one hour.  Serve with or without a wee soupcon of heavy cream.

Cantaloupe & Ice Cream:  Cut a cantaloupe in half, scrape out seeds & fill cavity with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.  

Lemon Ice:  Hollow out whole lemons and fill them with Lemon Ice and freeze them.  To Serve:  Pile them in a pyramid and tuck in mint sprigs.  Recipe:  3 1/2 C. water 1 1/4 C. sugar  3/4 C. fresh lemon juice  2 Tbsp. lemon zest.  Boil water, stir in sugar until dissolved, add lemon juice & zest & freeze in a bowl.  Remove from freezer, beat till fluffy, fill lemons and refreeze till ready to serve.

Watermelon Surprise:  Remove visible seeds from a slice of watermelon, spread with sour cream & sprinkle over brown sugar.  

Red, White, and Blueberry Sundaes:  Strawberry ice cream drizzled with blueberry sauce topped with whipped cream & a big fresh strawberry.

Blueberry Sauce:  Delicious over ice cream.  12oz. fresh or frozen wild blueberries, 1/3 C. water, 1/3 C. sugar, & 1 Tbsp. grated lemon rind.  Place all ingredients in a non-aluminum saucepan & bring to a boil.  Simmer gently for 10  minutes.  Serve hot or cold.  

Fruit Fondue with Orange Chocolate Sauce:  Skewer fresh strawberries, pineapple, bananas, pears, apples, and pieces of angel food cake & dip them into this heated chocolate sauce:  12oz. semi-sweet chocolate, 2/3 C. heavy cream & 2 Tbsp. orange liqueur.  Heat chocolate and cream, stirring over low heat till chocolate melts.  Stir in liqueur.  Keep warm over very low heat.  

Baked Bananas with Ice Cream:  Put one rip banana per person on a cookie sheet (in it's skin).  Bake at 350 degrees until it turns completely black, about 20 minutes.  Slit open and mush up, same as you would with a baked potato.  Serve with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Almost Fruit - for the kids:  Hollow out halfed oranges and fill with Jell-O.  Serve with a dot of whipped cream.  This makes 10 halves:  make a 6oz. pkg. of Jell-O according to instructions except use only 1 1/2 C. boiling water.