My Spiced Poached Plums are a perfect, easily prepared, dessert. Fragrant and gently spiced, this is a dessert which is simple but full of flavour. Serve the Poached Plums warm, at room temperature or chilled. Top them with ice cream or cream for a fabulous dessert or serve them with yoghurt for a delicious breakfast.
Wash the plums well and cut them in half following the natural indentation in the plum. Remove the stone using the tip of a small, sharp knife.
Combine the plums, sugar, water, balsamic vinegar, star anise, cinnamon sticks and orange peel in a medium-size saucepan over low-medium heat.
Slowly bring to the boil, stirring gently, until the sugar has dissolved.
Cover the saucepan and cook for a further 5 – 10 minutes or until the plums are soft and just cooked. The length of cooking time will depend on the ripeness of your plums. – See Note 6
When cooked, remove the star anise, cinnamon and orange peel. Gently transfer the plums to a heatproof serving bowl to stop the plums from cooking further.
Serve them warm, at room temperature or chilled with a little of the poaching liquid. Serve the Poached Spiced Plums with our Vanilla Ice Cream or Greek yoghurt. There are further serving suggestions in the section above the recipe.
For textural contrast, serve with toasted slivered or flaked almonds.
Notes
Plums come in a range of colours. My preference is for dark-skinned plums. When serving, they are more aesthetically pleasing and the vibrant colour of the skin contains more antioxidants. However, if only pale-skinned plums are available, these will also taste delicious.
My preference is for caster/superfine sugar as it dissolves quicker than granulated sugar.
I add just a little water to encourage them to release their natural juices and to stop them from catching whilst the sugar is dissolving.
The Australian tablespoon is 20 ml or 4 teaspoons. In many other countries, the tablespoon is 15 ml or 3 teaspoons. Please adjust your measurements if necessary.
Remove strips of peel from the orange using a vegetable peeler, being careful to avoid the bitter, white pith.
My plums were quite firm and they took 15 minutes to cook so you will need to time yours according to their ripeness. If yours are fully ripe, they may only take a few minutes.
Please note, the nutritional information is based on this recipe serving four people. It does not include what it is served with. The nutritional information is an estimate only.