Summer Fruit Fills -

Fruit by itself is wonderful, but it’s also nice to embellish them with wonderful fillings. If fact, they look “good enough to eat.” It is especially nice to add sweet fillings to fruit that aren’t quite ripe.

Skill Level: Easy

What you will need:

• Any fruit that can be halved or stuffed, e.g., apricots, plums, peaches, nectarines, small apples, figs, and even strawberries
• Fillings are only limited to your imagination: e.g., cream cheese, whip cream, chocolate, puddings.
• Piping bag. You can improvise by using a large freezer bag and snipping the corner. And, for a fancier fill, use decorative piping tips (e.g., floral design).

Here are a few sweet filling ideas:

Cream Cheese: Unless you get the “whipping” type of cream cheese, the cream cheese will need to be thinned down to a consistency that can be piped. Take 1 8-oz package of room temperature cream cheese, ½ cup of sugar (more if you like it sweet), and between a ½ to 1 cup of whipping cream, sour cream, or even crème fraiche. Whip the cream cheese with the sugar and slowly add the “cream” to a consistency of butter frosting. Add about a ¼ cup of lemon juice (optional), or add an extract of your choice, e.g., vanilla, lemon, almond, etc.

Chocolate Ganache: Equal parts semi-sweet chocolate to heavy whipping cream. Bring 1 cup of heavy whipping cream almost to the boiling point. Simply add this hot cream to 1 cup of semi-sweet chocolate and stir until chocolate is melted. Once the mixture is nicely incorporated, you will need to incorporate air to the mixture. Using an electric mixture, beat until is the consistency of frosting.

Puddings: Use your favorite pudding recipe. You can even use “boxed” pudding mix, no one will know but you.

Preparation:

Wash fruit. Halve them, and if they have a stem or seed, remove them. If using strawberries, cut the pointed part of the strawberry so that it can lay flat on a plate. Take a small pairing knife and remove the stem and scoop out a small amount of strawberry from the top so you can fill it later.

Fill the piping bag with the mixture and simply pipe them into the fruit. You can garnish the fruit by sprinkling them with julienne mint, nuts, or chocolate shavings. Serve immediately, Note: you can refrigerate the fruit up to 4-hours before serving. I don’t recommend refrigerating them longer than 4-hours. Depending on the “cream” used, the fat portion has a tendency to separate.

Enjoy, and Happy Cooking,

-randy-