The Challenge: An “Italian” dessert, featuring cheese and using a sauce pot.
After the 13-hour grilling marathon that I went through for the pulled pork pitas, I wanted something quick and simple for my next recipe. This recipe definitely fits the bill.
Incredibly easy to make and taking less than 20 minutes to put together and grill, this dessert is still stunning to look at and is sure to impress your family, friends and dinner guests. After grilling up dinner, you can easily finish things off by popping this dish onto your barbecue.
The best thing about this recipe is that you can substitute many different fruits in place of the figs, but there’s something about grilled figs that makes me think of late summer evenings on the patio. But if you can’t find figs, other fruits that grill well, such as pears and peaches, can also make a great dessert.
The little cast-iron sauce pot that I used for the mascarpone is extremely heavy-duty and well-made – definitely tough enough for any griller! It comes with a handy angled brush and also does double-duty as a meat pounder (the bottom of the pot has a diamond-ridge pattern for flattening and tenderising chops and filets).
Don’t forget! Starting July 1, 2014, you can vote for your favourite #OGBChallenge recipe and be eligible to win one of five $100 gift cards to Ontario Gas BBQ! Get more info about the OGB Challenge here, plus follow all the action on Twitter by following the hashtag #OGBChallenge and keep watching my blog for more recipes and details about the contest.
ingredients
- 4 large figs (or 8 small ones)
- 2 tbsp (23 g) brown sugar
- 1 cup (240 mL) mascarpone cheese
- 1/2 tsp (2.5 mL) ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp (2.5 mL) pure vanilla extract
- 2 tbsp (30 mL) heavy cream
- 2 tbsp (30 mL) orange juice
- pistachio slivers (to serve, optional)
directions
- Preheat grill on Medium-High to 400° F.
- Cut figs into quarters without cutting all the way through the bottoms so that you can spread the fig open like a flower.
- Place a sheet of aluminum foil across the grill (as a “pan” for the figs)
- Place the figs, slightly open, onto the foil and sprinkle each fig with a small amount of brown sugar.
- Close the BBQ lid and turn all the burners to Medium.
- Grill for 5-7 minutes or until the figs are soft and the brown sugar has melted.
- Remove figs from the grill and plate (1 large fig or 2 small figs per person)
- Remove the foil from the grill and place the sauce pot onto the grill. Turn the burner right below the sauce pot to Low and turn off the other burners.
- In the sauce pot, mix together the mascarpone, cinnamon, vanilla, cream and orange juice.
- Continue stirring. Once the mascarpone has started to soften, remove from heat (you want it soft and creamy and not like a liquid – think of a thick yogurt or sour cream consistency). On my grill this took 5 minutes.
- Spoon a generous amount of mascarpone onto each fig.
- Scatter pistachio slivers over the mascarpone and serve.
Check out my other OGB Challenge recipes! Which one do you think the judges will choose to represent my blog in the Voting round?
Day 1: Masala Chicken Drumsticks
Day 2: Grilled Vegetable Stir-Fry
Day 3: Pulled Pork Pitas
Day 4: Grilled Figs with Vanilla-Orange Mascarpone
Day 5: Breakfast Quesadillas
Disclosure: kitchen frolic received sauce pot and brush set and monetary compensation in order to develop this recipe and take part in this competition. All opinions we shared in this post are sincere and belong to us alone and were not influenced by the compensation. Please read our disclosure policy for more information.
What a lovely dessert. Grilled figs sounds heavenly and I love that little pot 🙂
I think I’m suffering from pot envy!
Love this idea. I’m a big fan of figs and mascarpone.
Very pretty pictures! Love figs AND marscapone. I’ve thrown in some prosciutto and arugula with them before, just for kicks.