Serves: 10
A sweet peach dessert with raspberry sauce and Chantilly cream that is sure to impress any guest.
INGREDIENTS
For the poached peaches
- 4 ¼ pints (2l) water
- 2 cups (400g) sugar
- Scant 1 cup (250g) raspberry syrup
- Zest of ½ orange
- 2 vanilla beans
- 10 peaches
For the raspberry sauce
- 1 lb (500g) raspberry purée
- ½ cup (100 g) sugar
- ⅕ oz (6g) apple pectin
For the caramelised almonds
- Scant ¼ cup (50ml) water
- ¼ cup (50g) granulated sugar
- 4 ½ oz (125g) sliced almonds
For the translucent raspberry leaves
- 2 ⅔ cups (500g) sugar
- 4 ½ tbsp (100g) glucose syrup
- Raspberry extract
For the chantilly cream
- 1 ¼ cups (300ml) whipping cream
- 1 tbsp plus 1 scant tbsp (15g) confectioners’
- sugar
- Seeds from ½ vanilla bean
- Vanilla ice cream
DIRECTIONS
For the poached peaches
1Place all the ingredients, except the peaches, in a saucepan, and bring to a boil. Chill for 24 hours. Peel the peaches. Bring the syrup to a boil and add the peaches. Immediately remove the saucepan from the heat, cover, and leave to cool.
For the raspberry sauce
1Heat the raspberry purée. Incorporate the sugar and pectin, whipping until smooth. Leave to boil for 2 minutes. Transfer to a dish, cover with plastic wrap, and chill.
For the caramelised almonds
1Bring the water to a boil with the sugar and pour syrup over the sliced almonds. Drain the almonds; pick them up, one by one; and place them on a silicone baking sheet. Bake at 340°F (170°C), until golden. Set aside in an airtight container.
For the translucent raspberry leaves
1Combine all the ingredients in a saucepan, and heat to 311°F (155°C). Pour the cooked mixture onto a silicone baking sheet and let it cool. When it has hardened, break into pieces. Place the pieces in the bowl of a food processor, and process until fairly fine. Strain through a sieve, so that you are left with sugar dust. Set aside in an airtight container.
2To cook: cut out food safe, 1¾ in (2 cm) acetate disks and place them on a silicone baking sheet. Sprinkle the raspberry sugar through a small strainer above the circles. Remove the acetate disks. Bake sugar at 350°F (180°C) for 2 minutes. Leave to cool, and store in an airtight container.
For the chantilly cream
1Whip all the ingredients together with an electric beater until firm. Spoon the cream into a pastry bag fitted with a ¼ in (1 cm) tip. Refrigerate until needed.
To plate
1Drain the peaches and dab them dry with a paper towel. Spoon the vanilla ice cream into a pastry bag fitted with a ½ in (14 mm) tip. Remove the pits from the peaches and fill them with vanilla ice cream. Cover the ice cream with caramelised almonds. Place the peaches on a rack, and douse in raspberry sauce. Then arrange them in the centre of each plate.
2Pipe out mounds of Chantilly cream around each peach. Arrange the caramelised almonds and translucent raspberry leaves, alternating them. Decorate the plate with reduced poaching syrup and raspberry sauce.
This comes courtesy of Taste of France Issue Two. For more great recipes, food news and interviews with top chefs, buy your copy here!
This is not of course quite the original recipe, but never-the-less. What is however a great pity, is that the story behind it and its creation by probably the best-known (French) chef in the world, Auguste Escoffier, in the Savoy Hotel, London, England in 1892. Here the Wikipedia explanation:
“Creation of the dessert
In 1892, operatic soprano Nellie Melba was performing in Wagner’s opera Lohengrin at Covent Garden. The Duke of Orléans gave a dinner party to celebrate her triumph. For the occasion, Escoffier created a new dessert, and to display it, he used an ice sculpture of a swan, which is featured in the opera. The swan carried peaches which rested on a bed of vanilla ice cream and which were topped with spun sugar.
In 1900, Escoffier created a new version of the dessert. For the occasion of the opening of the Carlton Hotel, where he was head chef, after he had been quietly sacked from the Savoy for embezzlement along with the General Manager, Cesar Ritz, Escoffier omitted the ice swan and topped the peaches with raspberry purée.
Other versions substitute pears, apricots, or strawberries instead of peaches or use raspberry sauce or melted redcurrant jelly instead of raspberry purée. The original dessert used simple ingredients of “tender and very ripe peaches, vanilla ice cream, and a purée of sugared raspberry”. Escoffier himself is quoted as saying, “Any variation on this recipe ruins the delicate balance of its taste.”