Posted by Joshua Bousel, August 15, 2008 at 7:15 PM
For all my love of raspberries, I rarely cook with them—their cost gets in the way. So it was a joy to see a huge sale sign above six remaining boxes of raspberries on a recent trip to the grocery store, marking the end of the short raspberry season when prices drop dramatically. I quickly bought all that were left on the shelf and started cooking with them at home.
Almost all of these went into an excellent raspberry sherbet. The leftovers got pureed into a syrup to top peaches, perhaps the greatest of grilled fruits. After one taste of the sauce, the bright flavor of the raspberries had me rushing to the grill to take care of the peaches, expediting this tasty union.
Peaches grilled and sauced, I thought I'd be in heaven, but was surprisingly left in purgatory. Something was sorely missing—and that was vanilla ice cream. With none on hand, I went for the next best thing: heavy cream whipped with sugar and vanilla to dollop on the peaches. Suddenly, all was right in the universe.
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Posted by Amanda Clarke, July 30, 2008 at 6:15 PM
Eaten straight out of hand or cut up, a ripe peach is hard to beat. But, peach perfection is a fleeting thing, and the only way to forestall an impending perish? Cooking the fruit.
Cobblers, pies and preserves all have their merits, but when it comes to cooking peaches, I’m partial to poaching. A poached peach will never be the same as a raw, ripe one, but done right—which is to say, gently and patiently—this method surpasses all others in preserving the natural form of the peach, while yielding a tasty, peach-infused syrup in the process.
Poaching in wine can yield an especially lovely and complex syrup. Red wine specifically will impart a rosy hue to the outer flesh, recalling the natural blush of peach skin. A few days ago, I ended up with a dozen wine-poached peaches, and for the record, there’s nothing like it—especially accompanied with ice cream. What to do with the inevitable surplus of poaching liquid? The old-fashioned English tipsy peach pudding, of course.
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Posted by Lucy Baker, July 25, 2008 at 2:30 PM
I couldn't agree more with Anna Pump, author of this week's Cook the Book selection, Summer on a Plate, who believes that "sweets are an essential part of the day...if you serve a fabulous, knockout dessert, chances are your guests may not remember what they had for dinner. Desserts always bring smiles to the table, and no matter how full people claim they are, there always seems to be just a little bit of special space left over."
Today’s recipe is for a classic fresh peach tart. A simple, butter cookie crust is par-baked and then spread with apricot preserves; filled with juicy, sliced peaches; and scattered with crunchy almonds. Anna suggests serving the tart with ice cream or whipped cream. I think it would also be divine with strawberry sorbet.
Win 'Summer on a Plate'
We're giving away five (5) copies of Anna's book. Enter for a chance to win here.
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Posted by Robyn Lee, July 2, 2008 at 12:00 PM
The following recipe is from the July 2nd edition of our weekly recipe newsletter. To receive this newsletter in your inbox, sign up here!
This recipe for Blended Peach Creams, excerpted from Margaritas, Mojitos, & More, is the perfect treat for a hot summer afternoon. Fresh peaches, nectar, milk, and cream are blended into a whimsical beverage reminiscent of that favorite ice cream truck dessert.
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Posted by Leah Greenstein, June 9, 2008 at 4:00 PM
- serves four -
Adapted from The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz.
Ingredients
4 cups blackberries
1 cup water
2/3 cup sugar
2 tablespoon rosewater
2 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
3 tablespoon candied ginger, finely chopped
4 ripe peaches, halved
2 tablespoon olive oil
Procedure
1. Puree rinsed blackberries with water, rosewater, and sugar until smooth.
2. Pour blackberry puree through a fine sieve to remove seeds.
3. Stir lemon juice into blackberry puree and then chill mixture down to 45°F.
4. Pour sorbet batter into your ice cream maker, adding ginger pieces just before it's done churning. Using a rubber spatula, scrape the sorbet into an airtight container and freeze 4-6 hours.
5. When sorbet is ready, fire up your grill and brush peach halves with olive oil. Place peaches on grill cut side down and cook until warmed through, about 4 minutes.
6. Plate sorbet and peaches together and enjoy.
Posted by Sarah Wolf, May 23, 2008 at 3:00 PM
- serves 6 to 8 -
Adapted from Bobby Flay's Boy Gets Grill
Try this recipe as part of a Memorial Day grillfest.
Ingredients
8 ripe peaches, halved and pitted
Mild vegetable oil, such as canola
1 cup crème fraîche or sour cream
1/4 cup molasses, light or dark (not blackstrap)
Procedure
1. Heat your grill to high.
2. Brush the cut sides of the peaches with oil. Grill cut side down until caramelized and browned, about 2 minutes. Turn the peaches over and grill for 1 to 2 minutes more, until the flesh is almost soft.
3. Place the peaches cut side up on a plate. Drop a tablespoon of crème fraîche in the cavity of each half. Using the tines of a fork or a squeeze bottle, drizzle lightly with molasses. Serve immediately.
Posted by Dorie Greenspan, August 30, 2007 at 2:45 PM
Okay, this really isn't about baking, but it is about dessert, so I hope you'll cut me some slack. I'm also hoping that once you get a taste of this sundae, you won't care that you didn't turn your oven on this week.
The sundae is a gently tweaked peach Melba, a dessert of peaches, raspberry sauce, and vanilla ice cream, created by world famous chef Auguste d'Escoffier, in honor of the opera singer Nellie Melba. I hadn't made one in years—make that many, many years—but we'd been getting such great peaches this summer that I found myself reprising lots of tucked-away favorite recipes. Of course, once I made this, I made it again and again, reminded of why some dishes become classics: they're just so good.
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Posted by Robyn Lee, July 17, 2007 at 1:30 PM
I love peaches, but they're so fragile that after buying a bucket's worth I end up having to quickly devour most of them before they turn into sad, brown, bacteria-infested versions of their former delicious selves. While I have no problem eating lots and lots (and lots) of peaches, maybe it's better to preserve the essence of those fresh peaches by making them into a dessert. Dorie Greenspan's crunchy and custardy peach tart from Baking: From My Home to Yours nearly made me weep for combining three of my most favorite things: peaches, tart crust, and custard. A streusel topping gives the tart an extra layer of sweet buttery pastry goodness. Try out the recipe after the jump.
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Posted by Ed Levine, May 8, 2007 at 7:00 PM
Here's the second recipe from Robb Walsh's Texas Cowboy Cookbook. As Robb says, "Paige Denison is known as the 'Cobbler Queen' on the Adamah Ranch cook-off team. She makes a lattice-crust peach cobbler that may not be historically accurate but tastes sensational."
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