Very Berry Compote for Babies and Toddlers (and their parents)

I love berries.  In summer, pretty much the only pudding I really want is fresh raspberries, maybe with some blueberries or blackberries depending on the month.  I miss that in the winter, as does my son from the amount of times he's asked for "Strawberries and Cream" recently.

Well winter feels like it's here and if you think I'm buying a hothouse strawberry at this time of year, you must be mistaken.  There's no point.  The flavour in strawberries is pretty much all perfume and sweetness, winter strawberries have neither (and some would argue a lot of summer ones aren't much better!)  So I have turned to the frozen berries.  Raspberries can just about get away with being frozen and defrosted to be eaten cold and only just.  They're still better as part of a dish.  That said, you can use the tendency for berries to leak juice to your advantage and make this compote.

I have added honey to the compote because the frozen berries I had weren't very sweet.  Obviously only do so if your child is over 1 year old and if you want to.  I wouldn't have sweetened this when my son was still a baby and if you're looking at 1-2 tsp across the whole batch, it's not a lot compared with cakes and sweets.  Likewise if you do have a younger baby, you could also whizz this up and sieve out the seeds (if you want to, I never bothered) and mix with yoghurt for a lovely pudding.

For adults this would be great as a topping for a good vanilla ice cream or even as a topping for porridge in the morning.

Berry Compote - Makes 4 toddler sized portions or 2 adult portions (but my son did have seconds)

Ingredients

3 ripe pears (if they're less than ripe you might need more honey)
200g, 7oz frozen berries, mine had a mixture of strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, red currants and black currants
1-2 tsp honey (optional)
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

Method

Peel and core the pears and put into a saucepan.  Add the berries, honey and cinnamon and heat gently until all of the berries are defrosted.

Continue to heat until everything is softened and hot through.  Cool until they're warm rather than boiling hot to serve.  A bit of pouring cream on top went down well with my little man.  An easy way to get those 5 a day in!  My son had seconds and asked for thirds which is when Mummy said "perhaps you've had enough..." especially as his face was kind of purple.

Can also be served cold in a little pot with some pouring cream in a lunchbox (although perhaps just for grown ups considering the potential for mess!)

I've linked this up to Totally Tasty Tuesdays!