Peach Melba Recipe
Easy, authentic Peach Melba recipe invented by renowned French chef, Auguste Escoffier. Made with just a handful of summer's finest ingredients, fresh poached peaches are served on vanilla ice cream and topped with a raspberry purée.
Ingredients
- 4 peaches not too ripe, not too hard, or bruised
- 125 g (4½oz/ 1 cup) raspberries fresh or frozen
- 200 g (7oz/1 cup) sugar
- ½ teaspoon vanilla powder or seeds from a vanilla pod
- 1 litre water
- 4 scoops vanilla ice cream
Instructions
Vanilla Poached Peaches
- Carefully plunge the peaches into a large bowl of boiling water for no more than 30 seconds. This makes peeling off the skins easy.
- Stir together the sugar into the water in a saucepan with the vanilla powder and bring to the boil for 5 minutes (see NOTES).
- Gently lower each peeled peach into the simmering syrup with a large spoon (so not to bruise them) and poach for 5 minutes, turning halfway. Remove from the syrup and cool for about 30 minutes. Once cool, slice in 2 or quarter and discard the stones.
Raspberry Purée
- Simply blitz the raspberries to a purée with a hand-blender. If your raspberries are particularly acidic, add a spoonful of sugar to your taste - but the acidity is delicious with the ice cream.
Presentation
- Place either peach halves or quarters in individual bowls over a large scoop of vanilla ice cream and top with the raspberry purée.
Notes
Poaching the peaches: As vanilla beans are expensive, I use powder for the syrup. For something refreshingly different, add a few fresh or dried lemon verbena leaves.
Ice Cream: delicious also served with lemon verbena ice cream.
Decor: add a few toasted almond flakes or serve with almond tuiles.