Grilled Peaches with Cinnamon Mascarpone Whipped Cream & Honey

A sophisticated looking summer dessert that is easy, colorful and packed with flavor! Soft, juicy grilled peaches are complemented by cinnamon mascarpone whipped cream and drizzled with raw wildflower honey.

I feel like I’ve been awaiting grilling season forever. It seems like the last time we fired up the grill, TV was in black and white, everyone spoke in a transatlantic accent, and girls were fussing over their poodle skirts.

Okay fine – it hasn’t been that long. But it has been long enough that when I said I was going to unwrap the grill from its winter hibernation that the boyfriend asked me if I needed him to remind me how to light it. I didn’t… but that was definitely a fair question.

So that afternoon, I lit the grill and went back inside to get everything ready to go to start making these grilled peaches. I was excited, motivated and focused. I brought everything I needed outside, set up my camera to start recording some sweet video (since some of the feedback I got on this survey was that you wanted more video, and your wish is my command!), and as soon as I was ready to get started, a bunch of enormous bees swarmed the grill and went right for my head. Naturally, I’m deathly allergic to bees. So I started shrieking and hauled ass back inside. After a while I knew I couldn’t just leave the grill on with everything out there, so I put on my big puffy winter coat with the hood up, gloves, and sunglasses to attempt to protect the top half of my face and a scarf around the lower half. I feverishly ran out, turned off the grill and then sprinted in and out of the house to bring everything back in.

Those bees continued to hold my grill hostage for the rest of the day.

What I learned is that they’re carpenter bees and it’s mating season – and the males get super aggressive during mating season because they want to get themselves a woman. LUCKY ME. The good news is they’re not burrowed in our deck (it’s actually the neighbors’) and that after mating season they’re basically going to disappear until next year. For some reason, they’ve decided that our deck is a sweet pick up spot – so we just need to wait them out until they’ve decided to get out of da club.

I finally managed to regain control over our appliances so that I could make you some delicious, sweet, beautiful grilled peaches. And I’m sure you’re in complete shock over what I chose to top them with: mascarpone whipped cream and honey. But here’s the thing – it’s not the same as my usual whipped cream. It’s almost all mascarpone cheese, with only a hint of powdered sugar, cream and vanilla so that it’s thicker and can be scooped like ice cream. Plus, I added cinnamon, so it’s obviously completely different.

Just kidding, I get that I’m a broken record when it comes to this whipped cream. But I can’t help it, you guys. It’s just so freaking good. Everyone I’ve ever served it to has raved about it and threatened to steal entire bowls of it from my kitchen. I’m not going to deny people excuses to eat half a bowl while it’s being made of yet even more ways to enjoy it. However, I have to assume there’s a risk of giant fuzzy carpenter bees attacking you for it because it’s delicious and they just want to take away your happiness. Selfish sons of… bees.

Speaking of bees (but in this case, the productive, cute little honeybees)… for the honey in this recipe I used my pantry staple Boston Honey Company Raw Wildflower Honey. You’ve seen me mention them before plenty of times, but for realz – Evan and his crew really know what they’re doing. If you’re lucky enough to live in Massachusetts, you just have to pick up some of their honey. The raw wildflower is my favorite to use in cooking, and the wildflower infused with pollen and propolis is a must have to put on toast. I get mine at the Boston Public Market, but I’ve seen it in local grocery stores and Whole Foods as well!

I can’t emphasize enough how much you need the peaches to be ripe. If they’re not, you’re going to need a steak knife to eat these, even after you’ve grilled them. And you can’t just leave them on the grill longer, because then the outside will be all charred and just… not good. We’re not trying to make peach-flavored charcoal here.

Here are a few tips to make sure you’re using prime peaches:

• They should be a nice, dark yellow. If you see any green, abandon ship. 
• Look for some shriveling around the stem – that’s another good sign of a juicy, ripe peach that will be full of flavor.
• They should be slightly soft. If you give it a gentle squeeze, it should give a little – but don’t go Hulk-handing them, because then they’ll be bruised and mushy.
• They should smell sweet. If they don’t have a nice scent, they probably also don’t have much flavor.

I have the serving size listed for this as 1/2 of a peach, so servings are easy to calculate. If you have 8 people, you only need 4 peaches. And it’s even easier if it’s just you and one other person, because you’ll only need one! Planning how many peaches you need with this recipe is super easy – take your total number of dinner guests and divide it in half.

I like to keep it simple just do a drizzle of honey and garnish them with mint leaves, but you could do all sorts of things: brown sugar, more cinnamon, almond slices, walnuts, fresh berries, caramel sauce, crumbled bacon… whatever your heart desires.

If you do use honey (which I, of course, highly recommend), you can go with a discreet drizzle: enough to give it flavor, but still lets the whipped cream shine.

But let’s get serious, you’re not going to stop there. Add a little bit more – enough that it will drip down onto the peach and let their flavors meld together.

Or be like me and just go hog wild and drench the thing. Honey on the whipped cream, the peach, the plate, your hands, the table, your cat’s head…

I really like honey, okay?

This would be the perfect dessert for a Memorial Day BBQ, a graduation party, or a random Tuesday night. Everyone will agree that it’s peachy keen!

Aren’t you amazed I waited until now to make that joke? 😉

 

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