Grilled Peaches with Mascarpone Cream

Grilled Peaches with Mascarpone Cream

These Grilled Peaches with Mascarpone Cream are a simple, yet elegant summer dessert. The easy port reduction on top makes every bite that much more indulgent!

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Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 40 minutes

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These Grilled Peaches with Mascarpone Cream are a simple, yet elegant summer dessert. The easy port reduction on top makes every bite that much more indulgent!

A summer dessert for fancy and everyday occasions

Grilled fruit is an underrated treat. The heat enhances the sweetness and makes peaches, pineapple, and melon taste subtly smoky and even more delicious. Top that fruit with cool and creamy toppings and you have the ultimate summer dessert.

You’ll find all of these qualities and more in these Grilled Peaches with Mascarpone Cream. Halved peaches grill on the barbecue for a few minutes before they’re topped with vanilla-infused mascarpone cream and port reduction. It’s a great way to take advantage of those juicy summer peaches!

Every bite is sweet, creamy, and juicy. It may sound like a fancy and complicated dessert, but the recipe is fairly simple. You’ll want to serve grilled peaches for all of your summer events!

Ingredients you need

Grilled peaches are the star of this summer dessert, but the toppings truly make it special. This is what you need:

Peaches

This fuzzy fruit is a summer staple. The best peaches for grilling are yellow peaches or freestone peaches. Only grill peaches that are perfectly ripe and feel slightly firm when squeezed. 

The heat from the grill will enhance the peaches’ natural sweetness and bring out all of their delicious juices. They’ll taste refreshing, and the tender and soft texture makes them easy to bite into.

Pro tip: Get your hands on as many ripe summer peaches as possible! The extras make for a delicious snack or topping on granola, can be sliced and used in white wine sangria, and even blended for a bellini.

Mascarpone cheese

Mascarpone is a soft and spreadable Italian cheese. It’s acidic, like cream cheese, but richer and smoother in texture. You’ll often see mascarpone used as a filling in desserts (like tiramisu and my coconut icebox cake) but it can also be stuffed in pasta and used as a dip with fresh fruit.

While mascarpone cheese is rich and delicious on its own, it needs a few extra ingredients if it’s going to be piped onto grilled fruit. That’s where heavy cream, sugar, vanilla, and salt come in. These flavor-boosters enhance the topping while the granulated sugar gives the whipped mascarpone structure and stability.

The one downfall to Italian mascarpone is that it can be expensive. Thankfully, you can make homemade mascarpone cheese using just two inexpensive ingredients: heavy cream and lemon juice!

Port wine

A rich and sweet port wine reduction takes this dessert from good to great. Port wine is easy to reduce too. Simply throw it in a pot, let it cook and reduce, then drizzle it over the whipped mascarpone on top of the grilled peaches. Yum!

Tips and tricks

Your grilled peaches will always turn out just right when you keep these tips in mind:

Butter the peaches

Brush the cut side of the halved peaches with melted butter before they go on the grill. This helps with aesthetics and prevents the peaches from drying out.

Use a piping bag

Transfer that gorgeous whipped mascarpone cream into a piping bag fitted with a star tip. Pipe the cream on top of the peaches for a fancy presentation!

Customize the dessert

There are a few ways you can customize grilled peaches with mascarpone:

• Instead of peaches - Grill another summer fruit you love, like plums, nectarines, or watermelon. They’ll all taste great when topped with mascarpone.
• Instead of mascarpone - Keep it simple and top the peaches with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.
• Instead of port wine - Use balsamic reduction.
• Add toppings - Like crushed nuts, fresh mint or basil leaves, and a drizzle of honey.

Make ahead tips

The port reduction and mascarpone cream can both be made ahead of time. Keep them in separate airtight containers in the fridge until it’s time to serve.

Frequently asked questions

Grilled Peaches with Mascarpone Cream

These Grilled Peaches with Mascarpone Cream are a simple, yet elegant summer dessert. The easy port reduction on top makes every bite that much more indulgent!

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Author: Michelle Weiner

Course: Dessert

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 40 minutes

Total Time: 50 minutes

Makes: 8

Ingredients

• 2 cups port
• ½ cup heavy whipping cream
• ½ cup mascarpone cheese
• 1 tbsp. sugar
• ¼ tsp. pure vanilla extract
• pinch of salt
• 4 ripe but firm peaches halved and pits removed
• Optional: melted butter

Instructions

• Place port in a small pot and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce to a simmer and cook until you have ¼ cup remaining, about 30 minutes. Place in the refrigerator to cool.
• While port reduction is cooling, make the mascarpone cream.
• Using a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whisk the mascarpone cheese, sugar, vanilla extract, and salt on medium speed until well mixed, about 30 seconds.
• Reduce the speed of the mixer to low and slowly stream the whipping cream. Once all of it is added, scrape down the sides of the bowl, and return the mixer to medium speed. Whisk until firm peaks form, about 1 minute. Place the cream into the refrigerator.
• To grill the peaches, bring a grill pan or grill to medium-low heat. I you like, brush each peach half with the melted butter and place on the grill pan. Grill the peach halves until they are slightly softened and have dark grill marks, 6 to 8 minutes.
• Allow the peaches to cool slightly, top the peaches with the mascarpone cream and drizzle with the port reduction.

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Notes

You can make the port reduction and the mascarpone cream ahead of time. Just let the port reduction come to room temp before using or else it will be too thick to pour.

Brushing the peaches with butter before grilling will keep the cut portion of the peaches from drying out (totally an aesthetic thing).

These are also great chilled! Feel free to grill the peaches, allow them to cool a bit, and then chill them before topping with the cream and port reduction.

Feel free to pipe the mascarpone cream onto your peaches if you want to make them look fancy!