An Almost Classic Peach Melba

And a seriously good vanilla ice cream

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Hello! Happy Friday!

Before we get to this week's recipe, just a couple of quick things. Firstly, you only have a few days left to get the Kindle edition of my book, Chocolate Baking, at a ridiculously low price. It is currently just £/$1.99, but once that promotion ends it will go back up to full price, so get it whilst you can! Secondly, you may have seen that I am collaborating with Get Baked, who will be selling BIG slices of my Chocolate and Whipped Caramel Cake, available with UK-wide delivery. I can now announce that the first drop will be available for pre-order next week on Tuesday the 23rd from 7pm. It will then be delivered on either the 16 or 17th July (with most orders delivered on the 16th). Okay, back to the recipe.

I love the stories that exist behind the creation of classic recipes. Even when these stories are a little fanciful or hard to believe, the origin stories we repeat still tell an interesting tale and create a body of lore that adds intrigue and even a touch of mystique. In the case of Peach Melba, we need to travel back to London in 1892. In that year, the opera singer Nellie Melba was performing in Covent Garden. One story about the dish says that to celebrate Melba’s performance, the Duke of Orléans hosted a dinner party in her honour, at the storied Savoy Hotel. Another story says the dish was created at this time, as the chef had heard Melba sing, and his love for her voice inspired him to make a dish in her honour. The chef at the time, one Auguste Escoffier (yes, he of the reference cookbooks), served a dessert of peaches with vanilla ice cream. That combination hardly seems worthy of significant praise, even if the dessert was served inside a silver dish sat atop a swan ice sculpture. Surely it’s just fruit and ice cream served in a rather elaborate fashion? But nothing that hadn’t been done before, right? After Escoffier was fired by the Savoy for larceny, embezzlement and fraud, he helped set up another London institution, the Ritz-Carlton Hotel. Another story says that it was actually here, in this new hotel, that the dish was created, either because Melba, a guest at the hotel whilst on tour, requested peaches and ice cream so often that they named the dish after her or the chef was so enamoured with her that he was inspired to create a dish just for her. The most popular telling of the story is an amalgamation of all of the above: that it was at the Ritz that dessert became known as Peach Melba and it was here that the raspberry sauce was added to Escoffier’s earlier dessert from The Savoy. Whilst this combination is simple, it is undeniably delicious. I do wonder what about the dessert made it a classic though? Was it a dish that went ‘viral’ or whatever the equivalent would have been in the 1800s? Maybe it was the talk of the town, and this was enough to establish it in the pantheon of classic desserts? Regardless, it remains a classic to this day.

For my version, I have stayed true to the classic, only adding a small twist to update it slightly. There is vanilla ice cream and, of course, raspberry sauce, but for my peaches I like to poach them in a mixture of rosé wine, lemon peel and tarragon. The resulting flavour adds a beautiful floral and herbal flavour to the peaches that works so well with everything else going on in the recipe. It also helps when the peaches you’ve bought are on the firm side and eating them raw would be a tad unpleasant, aka every time you buy a peach in the supermarket.

For the ice cream, I have also done something a little different, at least on this side of the Atlantic. The ice cream is a simple affair, one infused with a lot of vanilla flavour. To ensure the vanilla shone through, I decided to skip the egg yolks. Most people making ice cream in the UK make a simple custard base, an egg yolk rich creme anglaise that is then churned to make a deliciously creamy ice cream. The yolks act as emulsifiers, which help reduce ice crystal formation whilst the ice cream is in the freezer. I wanted this ice cream to be a very clean dairy flavour, allowing the vanilla to really shine through. That meant replacing the egg yolks with something else. If you’ve ever looked at the ingredients of commercially made ice cream, you’ll notice many of them list a whole host of different ingredients that can act as emulsifiers. Anything from cream cheese to guar gum to carrageenan. My weapon of choice is more commonly found in gluten-free baking: xanthan gum. When a very small amount is added to your ice cream base, it lightly thickens it and soaks up some of the water content and binds it so that when frozen it can no longer form big ice crystals, making for a really smooth ice cream. It also means making the ice cream is incredibly simple because you don’t need to make a custard.

This egg-free ice cream is a Philadelphia-style ice cream that is more popular in the US, where custard-based ice cream is the outlier. When adding xanthan to your ice cream, you want to use a tiny amount; just 1/4 tsp is enough to work its magic. Add too much, and the ice cream can get chewy, almost stringy textures. If you look at the recipe, you’ll also notice it calls for skimmed milk/non-fat milk powder. This ingredient adds milk protein to the ice cream, making it creamier and serving a similar role to xanthan in reducing crystal formation. And whilst the ice cream has one whole pod, I do also add a tablespoon of vanilla extract. Yes, this does boost the flavour, but vanilla extract is about 35% alcohol, so the inclusion helps make the ice cream very scoopable straight from the freezer. If you prefer, you can omit this and replace it with pure vodka, or simply leave it out altogether.

If you prefer a much more modern take on this classic dessert, you’ll love this week's newsletter for paid subscribers; it’s a coupe cake (it’s a thing) flavoured in the same manner as a classic peach melba.

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An Almost Classic Peach Melba
Serves 4

Philadelphia-Style Vanilla Ice Cream

420ml whole milk

280ml whipping cream (40% fat)

1 vanilla pod

135g caster sugar

30g skimmed/non-fat milk powder

1g (1/4 tsp) xanthan gum

1/4 tsp fine sea salt

Poached Peaches

2 slightly underripe peaches, halved with the stone removed

500ml rosé wine

100g caster sugar

2 strips lemon peel

1 very leafy sprig of tarragon

Raspberry Puree

75g raspberries

1 tbsp caster sugar

2 tsp lemon juice

1/4 tsp cornflour

To Serve

150g fresh raspberries

Toasted slivered almonds

Note on Cream

In this heavy. Have listed whipping cream for the ice cream base; this is a UK cream with a fat percentage of 40%. In the US, this would be Heavy Whipping Cream. If you are buying your ingredients from a large supermarket in the UK, whipping cream is normally widely available. If you can only get your hands on double cream, you can adjust the ratio slightly to keep the overall fat content the same. Use 225ml Double Cream and 475ml Whole Milk to get the exact same texture.

To make the ice cream, mix together the milk and cream in a large jug. Pour half of this into a small saucepan. Cut the vanilla pod along its length and use the back of your knife to scrape out the seeds. Add both the seeds and the pod to the pan along with half of the sugar. Bring this mixture to a boil. In a small bowl, whisk together the remaining sugar, milk powder, xanthan gum and salt. Once the milk mixture is boiling, remove the pan from the heat and pour this mixture into the jug with the remaining dairy. Scoop out the vanilla pod and set aside for the moment.

Xanthan gum tends to form clumps, so we mix it with the other dry ingredients to disperse it more evenly. I also like to blend the base with an immersion blender (or regular blender). Place the blender into the jug and blend on low speed whilst sprinkling in the dry ingredients. Once all of this has been added, blend for about 30 seconds to ensure everything is fully combined, then cover and refrigerate for 6-12 hours. Chilling the base allows the xanthan gum to do its job and will result in a much creamier finished ice cream

To make the raspberry puree, add everything except the cornflour to a small saucepan and place over medium heat. Cook for a couple of minutes, until the raspberries start to break down and are swimming in juice. Cook for 3 minutes at a gentle simmer, mashing with a fork to break down the raspberries as much as you can. Pour this mixture into a bowl through a fine-mesh sieve, pressing the back of the fruit to extract as much liquid as possible. Add the cornflour to a small bowl and whisk in a little of the puree, until smooth and lump-free. Pour into the main portion of puree and scrape this back into the pan. Bring to a boil and cook, whilst whisking, for a minute. This will thicken the puree but only a very small amount, just enough to give the puree a little bit of body. Cover and refrigerate this puree until needed. This can be made up to three days in advance.

Once thoroughly chilled, remove the ice cream base from the fridge and give it a really good stir. The xanthan can make it look slightly separated, but stirring will bring it back together; no problem. Churn the ice cream in your ice cream machine using the manufacturer’s instructions. Once churned, transfer to a freezer-proof container and freeze for at least 4 hours before using.

For the poached pears, pour the wine, sugar, lemon peel, and tarragon into a wide saucepan, place over medium heat, and bring to a boil. Once the sugar has fully dissolved, add the peach halves, cut side down, and cook at a gentle boil for 5 minutes, then flip and cook for another 5 minutes. Remove and set onto a rimmed baking tray for the moment. Continue cooking the syrup until it has reduced to about 200ml worth of liquid. Remove the lemon and tarragon, then pour the syrup over the peaches. Cover and refrigerate until needed. These poached peaches can be made up to three days in advance.

Note: if you want, there is enough syrup to poach 4 peaches (8 halves) and serve either 2 halves per person or stretch it to 8 servings. You may need to increase the other elements if you increase the final serving amount.

To serve, place one peach half in a bowl with a little syrup, then garnish with a few raspberries, some of the puree, and a scoop of vanilla ice cream, garnishing with a few chopped almonds.

Note: there will be plenty of the syrup left over after the dessert is served. This can be used in other desserts, to moisten cake layers or in lots of different summer cocktails. It is delicious, so do not waste it.