If you’re going to cook a perfect peach, give it the Foster treatment. Where the retro New Orleans dessert’s boozy, warm-spiced brown sugar sauce and caramelized banana feels a bit seasonless, using stone fruit as the star plants this version firmly in summertime. Coming together in about 10 minutes in just one pan—take that, long-baked pie and crumble!—it’s ideal for warm summer nights. It actually comes together so quickly it’s very important to have all the ingredients measured and ready to go as soon as you turn on the heat.
Flambéed dark rum provides another layer of earthy-sweet flavor to the caramel sauce; if that scares you, don’t abandon ship just yet. Add the liquor over a low heat and you can skip the fireworks altogether, gently simmering the sauce for a couple extra minutes to meld the flavors.
Make sure that both the butter and peaches are at room temperature before starting; if added cold, the sauce will bubble furiously and could split. If this happens, you can save it by reducing the heat to low and cooking slowly, swirling the pan occasionally, until it turns silky again.
Recipe information
Total Time
10 minutes
Yield
4–6 servings
Ingredients
Preparation
Step 1
Combine 1 tsp. Diamond Crystal or ½ tsp. Morton kosher salt, ¾ cup (150 g) sugar, and 3 Tbsp. water in a large stainless-steel skillet. Place over medium-high heat and cook, swirling pan occasionally, until sugar is dissolved, about 1 minute. Continue to cook, stirring gently with a heatproof rubber spatula as mixture starts to color and brushing down sides of pan with a wet pastry brush to keep sugar from crystallizing as needed, until bubbling and the color of pale honey, about 5 minutes. Immediately stir in ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into ½" pieces, room temperature, and remaining ¼ cup (50 g) sugar. Reduce heat to medium and stir in 2 tsp. vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract and ¼ tsp. coarsely ground pepper. Cook until sauce is furiously bubbling and deep amber, about 20 seconds.
Step 2
Gently add 5 yellow peaches, room temperature, halved through stem ends, pits removed, arranging cut side down, then scatter ½ cup coarsely chopped salted, roasted pecans or walnuts on top if using. Carefully drizzle ⅓ cup dark rum over.
Step 3
To flambé on a gas range, carefully tilt pan to catch flame, then turn off heat. If using an electric or induction range, use a long lighter to ignite sauce. Cook, shaking pan, until flames die out, about 45 seconds. (Alternatively, reduce heat to low and simmer, gently shaking pan occasionally, until sauce is syrupy, about 2 minutes; remove from heat.)
Step 4
Using a large spoon, turn peaches over and top with scoops of vanilla ice cream as desired; sprinkle with flaky sea salt.
