Stewed Fruit

My husband loves stewed fruit. After several experiments I came up with this recipe, which he just loves. Because he is diabetic, I use fructose for sweetening, but you can use sugar.

photo by Mandee84, flickr

Ingredients

2 cups dried fruit of your choice, cut into large pieces

1 sliced lemon

1 cup sugar

  OR ⅔ cup fructose

4 cups water

3 whole star anise pods

6 whole cloves

½ tsp ground cinnamon

Method

Mix sugar (or fructose) and water in large pan and bring to a boil, stirring until sugar/fructose completely dissolves.

Add spices and all “tough” fruits (pears, peaches, mango, apricots, dark raisins, etc), reserving the softer fruits (prunes, figs, etc.) for later addition.

Bring back to a boil, reduce heat and simmer uncovered for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes add the soft fruits and simmer another 20 minutes or until the “tough” fruits can be easily pierced with a fork.

Remove lemon slices, anise pods and whole cloves and discard, set fruit aside to cool.

Serve warm or cold with thick cream or vanilla yoghurt.