Years ago an Italian friend taught me to stuff and bake perfectly ripe summer peaches with a filling featuring crushed amaretto cookies. I still love to make that, but when I saw a recipe in The Herbal Kitchen: Cooking with Fragrance and Flavor by Jerry Traunfeld, I was intrigued, because Traunfeld (of the restaurant Herbfarm near Seattle) used sliced almonds instead of cookies, and made a lovely batter for them.
It’s like serving individual peach crisps. Very easy to make, and when summer peaches are available, who can resist? I tweaked the recipe to make it gluten and dairy-free. I haven’t tried, but I imagine it would be easy to replace the egg with egg replacer, if you want to go egg-free also.
Roasted Summer Peaches with Almond Filling
Yields 8-10 halves
6 Tbs. Miyoko’s vegan butter, or butter, softened
1/3 c. coconut sugar
6 Tbs. white rice flour
1 egg, beaten
¾ c. sliced almonds
½ tsp. almond extract
½ tsp. freshly ground fennel seed
4 or 5 large freestone peaches
Preheat oven to 400 d. Using an electric mixer, beat together the vegan butter (or butter) with the sugar. Add the flour and the egg, and continue beating until a smooth batter forms. Stir in the almonds, the extract, and the fennel seed.
Split the peaches in half, removing the pits. Place peaches, cut side up, in a shallow baking dish. Scoop a little of the filling, about a tablespoon, into each peach cavity, dividing evenly among them. No need to spread the filling; it will spread during baking.
Bake for about 30-35 minutes, or until the filling spreads over the tops of the peaches and turns brown and crisp. Let them cool slightly before serving with vanilla ice cream or freshly whipped cream.
