Sweet Grilled Peaches with Honeyed Vanilla Bean Mascarpone and Walnut Sugar

Tomorrow's our 5th anniversary, so for a pre-anniversary treat, I thought I'd try something new and fancy. I follow a blog called Picky Palate and the blog author recently competed on the Food Network's Ultimate Recipe Showdown. She made Sweet Grilled Peaches with Honeyed Vanilla Bean Mascarpone and Walnut Sugar. The judges absolutely loved it and it looked simple enough that I could perhaps give it a shot as well. I went to the store today to get the mascarpone cheese, but unfortunately the store I went to didn't carry it. So, I came home and Googled my options. I found out that if you add some sour cream and sugar to softened cream cheese and whip it, the end result is somewhat close to mascarpone cheese. So that's what I did. I also couldn't find vanilla beans, so I turned to Google again to determine how much pure vanilla extract to use. Here's the original recipe with my substitutions in parenthesis:

Ingredients

• 1 stick unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup honey
• 1 1/2 vanilla beans, divided (or slightly more than 2 tsp. pure vanilla extract)
• 10 ounces mascarpone cheese (or 8 oz. softened cream cheese, mixed with roughly 2 tsp. sugar and 2.5 tbsp. sour cream)
  
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1/2 vanilla bean (or slightly more than 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract)
  
• 4 ripe white peaches, rinsed and blotted dry
• 1/2 cup finely ground walnuts (I'd say optional for those who don't like nuts)
  
• 6 tablespoons coarse white sanding sugar (I forgot to do add this...oops!)
  

Directions

Melt butter and honey in a small saucepan over medium-low heat. Split the whole vanilla bean in half lengthwise. Scrape all the seeds from 1 vanilla bean and place into saucepan along with the vanilla bean. Stir to combine; let simmer until sauce has thickened, about 5 minutes then reduce heat to low.

Preheat indoor grill pan to medium heat on stovetop.

Place mascarpone cheese and honey into a medium bowl. Split the remaining 1/2 vanilla bean in half lengthwise, scrape all the seeds from the bean and place into bowl; discard the bean. If you use the cream cheese mixture instead of the mascarpone cheese, be sure to taste the mixture to make sure it is sweet. I had to add a little more sugar and honey to get it to my desired sweetness. Stir to combine and set aside.

Cut each peach in half and discard the pit. Dip peaches cut side down into the butter-honey sauce and in batches, place onto hot grill pan. Grill for 2 to 3 minutes, until peaches have nice grill marks.

Combine walnuts and sugar into a bowl. Place grilled peaches, onto serving plates, 2 per plate. Top each with a very generous dollop of mascarpone cheese and sprinkle with walnut sugar. Remove the vanilla bean from the honey sauce and drizzle a spoonful of warm sauce over peaches and plates. Serve warm.

The Verdict: We both LOVED this! It is SO good and SO simple. Even with my improvisations it was excellent, so I can only imagine how good it would be with the recommended ingredients! Definitely dinner-party worthy in my book, especially while peaches are in season.