Grilled Peach Dumplings W/Spicy Dulce de Leche & Welcome to New Contributor!

A few weeks ago, I introduced you to a close friend of mine, Christina Arpante, as one of two new guest bloggers I’ve invited to help me out for a while. It’s now time to introduce you to Marye Audet. Marye answered my Tweet request faster than I could hit “send” and expressed amazing enthusiasm. She went a step further and offered her commendable C.V. Truthfully, I was impressed with her profound knowledge of coffee, a treat you all know I’m obsessed with. Well, espresso really, who am I fooling? But, her verbose chatter on the matter sealed the deal.

And then, as if it just couldn’t have gotten any better, she sends me her first post, full of deliciousness and utter food porn! Did she know I had just done a dulce de leche drink post? If not, great minds think alike. Clearly, she’s all about making ultra yummy goodness! And, dulce de leche anything can never fail.

I’m so excited to have both these ladies join me and share with you their sexy and luscious creations. Please welcome Marye Audet, a food writer, blogger, and author. She and 6 of her 8 children live on a small acreage in a historic home near Dallas, Texas where they are attempting to become somewhat self sufficient without getting too far away from the mall.

Say dumplings to most people who have spent time in the country and they aren’t thinking of something you might find on the menu at an Asian restaurant. They are thinking of either chicken and…. or they are thinking of fruit in pastry, often served with slightly sweetened pouring cream. Dumplings are a fabulous, comforting dessert and they are easier to make than most people think, especially if you keep some puff pastry sheets on hand.

I wanted dumplings but I wanted something a little more in your face than the sweet, fresh faced apple variety that felt at home on a red checked tablecloth. I wanted something more in your face, black leather, and smoky eyed… These are just that. Grilling peaches caramelizes the sugars and intensifies the flavor..which is necessary because these dumplings have a lot of flavors and textures happening all at once. The grilled peaches are placed on a bed of brown sugar and toasted pecans and then wrapped in puff pastry. They are baked to perfect crispness and then served with a rich dulce de leche that has been flavored with cinnamon and chipotle… and then the whole thing is sprinkled with just a touch of smoked salt.

Intensely sweet…rich….spicy….salty…everything you could want right here.

You can easily knock these out in 30 minutes.

All images by Marye Audet, RestlessChipotle

Grilled Peached With Dulce De Leche

Ingredients:

4 peaches, skin and stone removed, cut in half
1 package frozen puff pastry, thawed
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup brown sugar
Cinnamon

Method:

Grill peaches on a hot grill until you get good grill marks. Cool. Preheat the oven to 425F and grease a large pan or cookie sheet with sides. Roll out the puff pastry sheets and cut each sheet into 4 squares. Sprinkle the squares with cinnamon. Place 1 Tbs each of the pecans and brown sugar in each square. Lay a grilled peach half cut side down on the pecan mixture and fold the puff pastry over the peach, pinching edges to enclose completely. Sprinkle the top with a little extra brown sugar. Bake for 30 minutes or until puffy and golden.

Dulce De Leche

Ingredients:

2 cups dulce de leche homemade or Nestle’s canned
2 Tbs chipotle in adobo chopped until it is a paste
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 cup cream to thin the texture as needed

Method:

Warm the dulce de leche up over low heat until it is liquid. Stir in chipotle and cinnamon. Taste and adjust for spiciness. Serve the warm dumplings with the dulce de leche on top. Pour some heavy cream over the pastries and sprinkle with a few pecans and just a pinch of smoked salt.

Serves 8