Bourbon Peaches and Cream

I was feeling pretty damn good and had a little extra cash, so I decided to make breakfast for Ben.  I've recently made crepes, I could do pancakes, omlettes, biscuits, muffins or even a parfait. But I wanted something new, and relatively simple.  In comes the idea of fruit, but I wanted to make it a little special. 

I know Ben has a taste for bourbon, and I was in the mood for peaches, so I went with it.  There's quite a few recipes for this and similar dishes, but I think you should just use them as a guide and kinda make it up as you go. 

The thing that really brings it all together though is fresh whipped cream, which is something my Dad showed me how to do.  It's so amazingly easy, an it really adds a nice touch to whatever you cook up.  All you need is heavy whipping cream, some sugar, and I like to add either lime juice or even orange juice for a little bit of tanginess.  Pour the cream into a bowl and mix on high with a handmixer (do not be ambitious and use a whisk, you'll be there forever). It takes about 3 minutes or so, but you'll start to see the cream thicken up somewhere around two. When you decide to stop mixing is really up to you, you can have more of a smooth cream or keep on mixing for fluffier cream. Either way, at 3 minutes you need to add your sugar, again this is personal taste, and anything else you would like. And that's it.

For my peaches, I made a syrup to soak them in as I made the cream. Basically I mixed sugar, bourbon and a teeny tiny bit of melted butter, I did a very rough estimate, but for the bourbon, a little goes a long way-I used almost a shot and it worked out pretty well for the 3 peaches I had.

Once I cut up my peaches into nice thick slices, I layed them in a saucepan along with the bourbon syrup and simmered them on low heat for about 10 min, mixing them around once or twice.  Obviously, the longer you keep them in the pan, the more bourbon you're going to taste in them, so its all personal taste.  Many recipes I came across advised soaking the peaches in the syrup in the fridge for at least half an hour, but I'm not that proactive about cooking and I also prefer warmer fruit when paired with cream. either method will work, mine was more of a quick fix, but you could get a more concentrated bourbon taste by soaking in the fridge.

Once I was happy with the peaches, I spooned them into little bowls and topped them with cream and sprinkled walnuts on top and then that was that.  Even though this meal was super easy, I still felt pretty good about it and will be experimenting with other fruits and sauces.