Yogurt Pudding with Poached Peaches

 

You would be surprised how often I end up with a surplus of a single ingredient. This may happen due to shopping list duplication between Flick and I, or a Costco-triggered impulse buy. Our neighbours went on vacation and gifted us with the perishable contents of their fridge. Since last week, I have tried to get through 2.5kg of plain yogurt, making four loaves of banana cake, a dozen large muffins, and a batch of muesli. In addition, I baked two loaves of no-knead whole wheat bread, and a blueberry pie. To cap off this flurry of activity, I made this yogurt pudding.

A search on my Eat Your Books library led to this recipe for a yogurt pudding with poached peaches. It's a panna cotta made from a mixture of various dairy ingredients, lightly sweetened, flavoured with vanilla and citrus (I used lemon zest). For the fruit, I used two large, white peaches that were unfortunately quite mealy. Since neither of us enjoy licorice-flavoured liqueurs like arak or ouzo, I substituted some white port from Prince Edward County.

This is a very satisfying dessert. The rich pudding is a nice foil for the slightly tart fruit, and the roasted nuts provide a contrasting crunch. As other bloggers have tried, I think other tart fruit would make a good variation, like sour cherries or plums.