A warm and inviting fruit salad, sweetened with maple syrup, vanilla and just a hint of cinnamon and star anise. Topped with maple cinnamon cream, this delightfully simple fruit salad is a great end to any meal. Enjoy it around a roaring fire in winter months, or under the stars with the perfect dessert wine after a summer barbecue.
This wonderful easy recipe started life in my mid-teens as a warm winter fruit salad. Back then I made it as a way to enjoy as many tamarillo as possible during the winter months when these delicious fruit are readily available. Tamarillo are another one of those fruits, like my beloved feijoa (see my fruit loaf recipe) that us Kiwi kids grow up devouring. My kids adore them. But it wasn’t until my eldest came home from daycare saying that one of her little friends thought her lunchbox was “weird” that I realised how exotic these little red gems might be.
The tamarillo, or tree tomato, is a fruit that only makes an appearance on our shelves from March to October. They’re an interesting little morsel. Red is the most common variety, though they are available in yellow and gold as well. I love the red ones. They have a blushed yellow flesh when first cut, and are full of hard little seeds that are encased in a dark red ‘gel’. A bit like beetroot they have a tendency to turn everything they touch a lovely shade of red, as they do in this warm fruit salad. Their flavour is sweet and tart and a little bit musky.
In its original version, I would make this warm fruit salad with the all important tamarillo, as well as apple, pear and citrus segments sweetened with soft brown sugar. The modern version of this salad uses any fruit readily available, sweetened with maple syrup and is spiked with spices and sweet vanilla. Its still my favourite way to enjoy tamarillo but if you can’t come by them, any fruit that is delicious poached will be lovely in this simple salad.
These days seasons are largely irrelevant when it comes to most fruit, if you know where to look. We’re just into the last month of winter here in New Zealand but I was able to get the typically summer fruit of fresh peaches, nectarines and even cherries for this salad. It was like a little taste of summer. To further add to the illusion, the sun actually shone for a few hours the day I made this. The cherries in particular were delicious and made me wistful for Christmas time.
This warm fruit salad makes a great end to any meal. Being warm its a delightful winter dessert. And the gorgeous red colour means it looks very festive. Its just begging for a shot of white rum or brandy and to be added to the Christmas (or mid-winter Christmas) menu. Likewise, because its really just fruit and a little cream, its a lovely light and gently sweet ending during summer barbecue season.
 Yum
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Serves: 4-6
- 4 tamarillo
- 2 peaches
- 2 nectarines
- 12 cherries
- ¼ fresh pineapple
- 2 tsp maple syrup
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 1 star anise
- ½ vanilla pod
- 1 tbsp white rum or brandy (optional)
- 1 cup fresh cream
- 1 tsp maple syrup
- ½ tsp ground cinnamon
- Preheat the oven to 180C Bake.
- Using a vegetable peeler, peel the skin from the tamarillo and slice them into ½ cm rounds. Alternatively, if the tamarillo are soft and difficult to peel, cut them in half and scoop out the flesh. Discard the skin.
- Slice the peach and nectarine in half and remove the stones. Cut into slices or cubes.
- Cut the cherries in half and remove the stones.
- Remove the skin from the pineapple and cut into slices a similar size to the peach and nectarine.
- Place all the fruit in an ovenproof casserole dish. Drizzle over the maple syrup and add the cinnamon stick and star anise. Scrape the seeds from the vanilla pod and add to the fruit.
- Pour over the rum or brandy if using. Stir gently to combine.
- Cover with foil and bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes until the fruit is just soft and warmed through.
- While the fruit is in the oven, pour the cream into a bowl. Drizzle over the maple syrup and sprinkle on the ground cinnamon. Whisk or beat until soft peaks form. Check the taste and stir in more syrup and ground cinnamon if desired.
- Remove the fruit salad from the oven. Pull out the cinnamon stick and star anise and discard. Stir the salad gently. Either serve directly to the table in the casserole dish or spoon into individual serving bowls, dividing any residual fruit syrup between the servings. Serve the cream on the side for your guests to use as they wish.
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