Slow Cooker Fruit Recipes

Guide to Slow Cooking Fruit

Many people tend to overlook fruit s as viable ingredients for slow cooking. However, this method is actually ideal for preparing fruit sauces, side dishes, and desserts. Before starting your fruit dish, though, be sure to properly prepare your ingredients. This means thoroughly washing all your fruit. Depending on your recipe of choice, you may also need to peel, chop, or core the fruit as well.

Fruit can be prepared in a variety of ways in the slow cooker. One popular technique is poaching, which is especially good for autumn fruits like pears and figs. This involves cooking the fruit in hot syrup. A variation of this technique is simple stewing, which slow cooks fruit in liquid. This is great for apples, berries, and rhubarb. You can also use apples to create “baked” dishes in the slow cooker. This is simple to do and means cooking the whole fruit in a small amount of liquid. Another popular fruit dish prepared in the slow cooker is the compote. Fruit compote makes a great dessert and consists of fruits cooked in syrup for roughly an hour. The cooking time is evenly distributed between high and low heat, helping the fruit achieve a sweet, tender composition. The compote can be served either hot or cold, and some people even enjoy it as a breakfast dish. Cobblers and crumbles are also exceptionally popular recipes. Although commonly prepared in the oven, you can achieve amazing results by choosing to make these desserts in a slow cooker. For cobblers, it is often easier to start with canned fruit in a bit of syrup. All you really need to do is mix your topping and let the whole thing cook. Crumbles are essentially prepared in the same way, but use fresh fruit and some light liquid base.

Slow Cooker Safety Tips

• When purchasing a slow cooker, look for one with a removable liner. They are much easier to clean. If you have a non-removable liner, however, all is not lost! Line your slow cooker with a cooking bag and you'll have no cleanup at all. Spray the inside of the liner with cooking spray before you fill it to make cleanup easier.
• 60C is the temperature the food needs to reach as quickly as possible. If you are at home during the cooking times, test the food temperature after four hours of cooking on LOW - the temp should be at least 60C.
• For food safety reasons, it's a good idea to cook on HIGH for the first hour to quickly bring the temperature up to 60C. Then turn the dial to LOW and finish cooking.
• Experts recommend you do not put frozen foods in the slow cooker. All foods should be defrosted before cooking so the food temperature can reach 60C as soon as possible. However, since none of my family members are in a high-risk group, I often cook frozen foods in the slow cooker. The informed choice is up to you.
• Remove cooked food from the slow cooker or liner before you refrigerate the cooked food. Because the liner is made of such thick material, the food won't cool down quickly enough to prevent the growth of harmful bacteria.

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