How To Poach Fruit for Babies
If your baby is fond of eating delicious fruits but finds them difficult to chew, simply poach the fruits for him/her. Poaching fruit is basically a unique procedure to preserve the under-ripped or out-of-season fruits that are hard to eat or haven’t grown enough natural sugar to be flavorsome on their own. Adults can use some fine quality wine, whiskey or rum to poach but for children, you can add in fruit juice. The rich liquid of the poached fruits can be flavored with some spice mixture like vanilla, cloves and cinnamon etc in order make a filling fruit dip.
Prep time: 10 to 15 min
Cook time: 40 min
Total time: 50 to 55 min
Yield: 10 servings
Utensils: Cooking pot, slotted spoon, bowl, strainer, fruit scissors, paring knife, an apple corer, spoon, or melon baler
Ingredients:
Vin santo: 1 bottle (about 750 ml)
Sugar: 1 ½ cups
Cinnamon stick: 1 large
Cloves: 6 whole
Vanilla bean: 1
Orange – zest julienned: 1
Lemon – zest julienned: 1
Pears – Bosc pear are preferred: 10 whole
Large dried fig: 1 ½ cups
Large dried apricot: 1 ½ cups
Large dried pitted prunes: ¾ cup
Instructions
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1
Take a large cooking pot or shallow saucepan and pour about 70ml of VIN santo into it.
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2
Add in 1 ½ cups of sugar, 1 large cinnamon stick, 6 whole cloves, 1 vanilla bean, 1 zest julienned orange and 1 zest julienned lemon.
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3
Top the mixture with 2 cups of lukewarm water and cover the pot. Set on the stove with medium heat range and bring the solution to boil.
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4
Once the solution starts boiling, reduce the heat range to medium-low and let it simmer for 10 to 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
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5
In the mean time, grab a knife and peel the 10 pears properly, without removing their stem.
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6
Cut or scoop out the cores of the pears, using a paring knife, an apple corer, spoon, or melon baler.
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7
Hold the pears from the stems and gently lay them on their sides in the simmering liquid. Let the poaching mixture simmer for 15 to 20 more minutes. However, make sure to change the side of the pear once in the mid of the simmering period.
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8
Take advantage of the available minutes and shear off the hard stems from 1 ½ cups of the dried figs, using sharp fruit scissors.
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9
Place the dried figs, 1 ½ cups of large dried apricot and ¾ cup of large dried pitted prunes in the poaching liquid and let the mixture simmer for 10 to 15 more minutes until the dried fruits are tender.
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10
Remove the poaching mixture from heat and set the pot aside until lightly warm to handle, keeping unsealed.
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11
Carefully drain the mixture and shift into a large bowl. Discard the cinnamon, cloves, and vanilla beans.
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12
Enjoy the poach fruit with your baby!