A delicious standby dessert
Easy and delicious, this fruit salad is made with store cupboard ingredients, keeps well in the refrigerator and can be served hot or cold with icecream, cream or custard. It sounds like the perfect recipe for our lock down times.
Photo supplied
By Wendy Hays
THIS MONTH’S easy recipe has been around for decades and was increasingly requested by my parents as they progressed through their nineties.
They always kept a big glass jar of this delicious concoction macerating in their fridge. The rate of its consumption was sometimes staggering.
Any dried and canned fruit can be used, so adjust the basic recipe to suit your taste and budget.
Dried apricots, peaches, pears and apples work well as does fruit brandy.
You can omit some of the sugar and substitute fresh fruit juice for the brandy to make it child friendly but the fruit salad won’t keep for quite as long
One of the beauties of this recipe is that it keeps well in the refrigerator for several months and storage only enhances its flavour.
It makes an excellent quick, convenient dessert if there are unexpected guests or you are short on time.
Refrigerator Fruit Salad is equally delicious served warm with custard and at room temperature or straight from the fridge with vanilla yoghurt, whipped cream or a scoop of ice cream.
In my parents case, it never lasted very long because our dear old Dad was discovered sneakily mounding it onto his cornflakes with cream for breakfast.
Probably not the most sensible and nutritious breakfast, but when you’re 92, you’re probably entitled to eat whatever you like.
I hope you enjoy it as much as he did.
Refrigerator fruit salad
Ingredients
1 x 425gm can pitted cherries
1 x 440gm can pineapple pieces
1 x 415gm can sliced peaches 1
/2 cup sultanas
1 cup prunes – cut in half
1/2 cup sugar
1/4–1/2 cup brandy
Method
1 Strain the juice from the cans of fruit and place into a saucepan with the dried fruit and sugar. A delicious standby dessert
2 Bring to the boil slowly then reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes.
3 Allow syrup/dried fruit mixture to cool then add the canned fruit and brandy.
4 Place in in a sealed container and refrigerate for 2 weeks before using
