Boozy Fruit

Susan Collicot's Request
The Suggestions
             Edmund Burton
             Kerry Webb
             David Tardiff
             Joann
             John Marmet
             Hugh Yemen
             Sara Waterson
             Jessie Strader
             Katherine Tharp
Peaches in Their Own Brandy - Lois
Sherbet - Katherine Hannan

Susan Collicot's Request
A friend says:
I inherited several jars of brandy infused apricots, cherries, cranberries and blueberries from a friend who is cleaning out her kitchen. Her spousal unit had grand plans a year ago when he put these up to make fruitcake but it never happened and, frankly, never will so they're now home with me. I make fruit liqueurs myself and use the booze infused fruit to make some seriously mean fruitcake, but I'm looking for some other options for all this tipsy fruit. It's way more fruit by-product than I ever end up with after making cordials.
So I thought I'd ask the LIssuns what they'd use boozy fruit for other than fruitcakes.

The Suggestions
Edmund Burton
On ice cream or pound cake, or both.

Kerry Webb
We had a great dessert recently involving sponge fingers (soaked in Tia Maria or some such) placed around a basin, with the cavity filled with layers of fruit, cream and more soaked sponge fingers. When inverted, it forms a dome.
More literate lissuns may know of the formal term for this, but I call it yummy!
(Cathy McMann and Edmund Burton say it's a trifle.)

David Tardiff
Here's my family's quick-but-very-popular chocolate cake recipe.
Start with a standard box chocolate cake mix. Replace some of the water with your favorite fruit liquor flavor. Bake two layers, then slice each horizontally. Fill the cut with a layer of fruit preserves mixed with more of the booze. The two cakes are separated with a frosting layer, and of course the outside is covered with frosting.
Did I mention that the 'frosting' is made from a recipe intended for the centers of chocolate-covered truffles? It's made from cream, dark chocolate, butter, and more booze.
If I had a ready supply of boozy fruit, I'd use it for the fruit layers in this
recipe, with more of the same booze in the cake and frosting.
Oh, I forgot.....we also drizzle some of the booze on the warm cakes as they come out of the pan, before assembly of the cake.

Joann
Never having been the proud owner of that much boozy fruit, I haven't had much experience using it. But I think I'd probably experiment with pies and tarts.
Ah. Rice pudding. I think it would be really good in rice pudding.

John Marmet
Put in cheese cloth. Squeeze into glass. Discard fruit and cheesecloth. Drink what's in glass.

Hugh Yemen
Wait for cold, snowy day.
Gather friends together.
Drink.
Recreate famous snowball fight scene in Abel Ganz's "Napoleon". At tactically crucial moment, begin substituting flaming fruit for snowballs.
Retire to warm den.
Dress wounds, drink more, reflect on how incendiary comestibles might have changed face of Europe.

Sara Waterson
Make some egg custard mix, pour over the boozy fruit, and cook very, very slowly in the oven, setting the bowl in a bain-marie [pan of water]. This would be great for the apricot. Leave to set when cool. Serve with almond shortbread biscuits.
A variation would be to make a sort of light pancake batter, pour over the fruit set in a wide ovenproof dish, and bake. Serve hot. Or use a crumble topping - try sliced apple, boozy fruit layer, more sliced apple on top, crumble topping - good with the smaller dark fruits.

Jessie Strader
Compote. Warm. Over ice cream.
I'd put it in a saucepan -- non-reactive -- with sugar, some citrus zests, maybe a bit of vanilla bean; and reduce it to a syrup.
Then again, I might just dump it in the blender with some yogurt and make a smoothie with a kick.
Or take the compote to an extreme and turn it into jam for scones.
Create your own flaming dessert: Bananas Camelama!
What the heck, take off the lid and get yourself a spoon.

Katherine Tharp
You could try a variation on Bananas Foster, substituting your fruit for the bananas and banana liqueur.
Brennan's Restaurant - Bananas Foster (Opens in a new page.)
You might need to add a little more rum or brandy to get enough alcohol content to ignite. This is basically the same as cherries jubilee.

Peaches in Their Own Brandy - Lois
For the peaches, you'd cut them in half in peach season, and layer them in a mason jar with sugar, plenty of peaches and sugar, alternating. Then you'd close the jar, and put it away in a cool cupboard. After a couple of months, when November or December rolled around, you'd have peaches in their own brandy, great on ice cream, cake, or on their own. You didn't have to add any liqueur or alcohol, it made its own with only the peaches and sugar.
No, no one ever got poisoned, even though nothing was boiled or sterilized or anything. Just clean old jars and peaches and sugar.
I think the original recipe for the peaches came from Gourmet magazine, and the family declared it a winner.

Sherbet - Katherine Hannan
From the Family Receipt Book, 1819:
"Eastern Beverage Called Sherbert. This liquor is a species of negus without the wine. It consists of water, lemon or orange juice, and sugar, in which are dissolved perfumed cakes, made of the best Damascus fruit, and containing also an infusion of some drops of rose-water; another kind is made of violets, honey, juice of raisins, etc. It is well calculated for assuaging thirst, as the acidity is agreeably blended with sweetness. It resembles, indeed those fruits which we find so grateful when one is thirsty."