Baked peaches with cinnamon oat crumble
Halved peaches filled with a cinnamon oat crumble and baked or air-fried for 20 minutes until soft, sweet and juicy, with a warming spiced aroma.
- 30 min
- Serves 2
- Bake
- Easy
Why it suits you: Blood-stasis types have sluggish circulation, with cold hands and feet, period pain or a dull complexion, and hours in summer air conditioning let cold congeal the blood further. Peaches, in season now, are sweet, sour and warm, generating fluids and moving blood; cinnamon warms the channels, brown sugar moves blood and dispels cold, and oats support the spleen. Served warm, it's a gentle summer pudding.
Method
Prep 10 min · Cook 20 min- 1Heat the oven to 180°C. Wash, halve and stone the peaches, and scoop out a little extra flesh with a teaspoon.
- 2Rub the oats, cinnamon, sugar and butter together with your fingertips into a coarse crumble.
- 3Pile the crumble into the peach hollows, arrange in a baking dish and bake for 18–20 minutes until the fruit is soft and the topping golden.
- 4Leave to cool slightly, drizzle with a little honey and eat warm.
Cautions
- Cinnamon is hot: leave it out if you have a sore throat, dry mouth or heavy periods, and take care in pregnancy.
Chef's tips
- Choose ripe but still slightly firm peaches so they hold their shape; an air fryer at 180°C for 12–15 minutes works too.
The TCM view
Peach is sweet, sour and warm, generating fluids, moistening the bowels and moving blood to disperse accumulation. Cinnamon is pungent, sweet and very hot, warming and freeing the channels and easing pain; brown sugar is sweet and warm, moving blood and dispelling cold; oats are sweet and neutral, strengthening the spleen. Warm, blood-moving spice balanced by sweet, juicy fruit makes it suitable even in summer for blood-stasis types.
