Praline-Peach Dessert

This is a 5-minute dessert that looks and tastes like you spent an hour on it. Brown sugar and chopped almonds get melted with butter into a bubbling praline sauce, then sliced peaches go in just long enough to warm through. Spoon the whole thing, sauce and all, over slices of angel food cake.

The praline sauce is basically a quick stovetop candy. Brown sugar, butter, and almonds boiled together create that distinctive New Orleans-style praline flavor, all toffee-dark caramel and toasted nuts. The peaches soften slightly in the hot sauce, releasing their juices and thinning the praline into a pourable, glossy topping.

Fresh peaches in season are ideal, but frozen thawed peaches work just as well here. The sauce does most of the flavor work, so even slightly underripe fresh peaches benefit from the sweet, buttery coating.

Kitchen Tips

• Watch the brown sugar mixture carefully. It goes from bubbling to burnt in seconds once it starts boiling.
• Simmer the peaches only 3 minutes. Overcooked peaches turn to mush and lose their shape.
• Serve warm for the best texture. The sauce thickens as it cools and becomes sticky instead of pourable.
• Angel food cake is the classic pairing because its spongy texture absorbs the praline sauce. Pound cake works if you want something richer.

Variations

• Use pecans instead of almonds for a more traditional Southern praline flavor.
• Add a splash of bourbon or dark rum to the sauce just before adding the peaches.
• Try this over vanilla ice cream instead of cake for a praline peach sundae.