Baked Stone Fruit

I am a big fan of Amazine - love the layout and the various stories shared there. Have found many luscious recipes and have tried out a few. Well, let me tell you . . . the recipe I'm going to share now is a favorite, both with my husband and me. My husband has actually requested it several times and since it's quick and easy and healthy and, above all, TASTY, I don't mind making it. Fruit is a great love of mine and I'm always ecstatic to find a recipe like this and then make my own changes.

Credit: Janet Bocciardi originally shared the recipe on Amazine from the blog COOKIEandkate (where I lifted the photos since I seem to never remember to take pics). Thank you, Janet and COOKIEandkate!

Peaches, plums and cherries - a good start! photo courtesy of COOKIEandkate

Since I am trying to cut down on sugar wherever possible, I have halved the amount of sugar in the original recipe. The fruit has been quite sweet on its own and hasn't needed much additional sweetener.

Here's my recipe. To see the original, click on the COOKIEandkate link.

* 1 3/4 pound stone fruit in any combination of peaches, plums, cherries, nectarines, pluots, etc. (Hint: Rainier cherries are especially tasty and are much easier to pit)

* 1/8 cup turbinado (raw) sugar, plus 1 tsp set aside

* 2-3 Tbsp balsamic vinegar

* vanilla ice cream, frozen yoghurt, Greek yoghurt

* can add toasted almonds, pistachios, pecans

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees

2. Pit and slice the fruit (I don't peel the fruit but you can if you want - you just loose a lot of the nutrients that are right under the skin of fruit when peeled). I usually slice the peaches, plums, pluots and nectarines into 8 equal pieces. The cherries are halved. Place in a large bowl.

3. Line a baking/cookie sheet with foil (this really helps with the clean up!)

4. Toss the stone fruit with the 1/8 cup sugar and balsamic vinegar. Spread into a single layer on the baking sheet.

5. Bake for about 30 minutes, mixing the fruit after about 15 minutes.

6. Serve warm or cold with vanilla ice cream or other yummy dessert type thing of choice. Before dishing out the fruit over the ice cream, sprinkle the fruit with the 1 tsp. of turbinado sugar that was set aside.

Serves 4

Fruit before baking; photo courtesy of COOKIEandkate

So there you have it! I actually like a lot of fruit with just a small amount of ice cream (: If there is any left over (which doesn't happen too often), I have mixed a couple of TBSPs into my Greek yoghurt for breakfast the next morning. Divine!