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shallow bowl of white poached vanilla peaches topped with homemade raspberry puree and vanilla ice cream with some fresh lemon verbena leaves

Peach Melba Recipe

Jill Colonna
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.
5 from 2 votes
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Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 10 minutes
Chilling Time 30 minutes
Total Time 55 minutes
Course Dessert
Cuisine French
Servings 4 people
Calories 408 kcal

Equipment

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 vanilla extract
  • 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 (or extract) 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

  • Blitz the raspberries to a purée with a hand-blender (or push them through a fine-mesh strainer).
    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 for a delicious crunch.
Storage: keep the peaches in their syrup and the raspberry purée in airtight containers in the fridge for up to 2 days. 
Variation: Escoffier also made Fraises Melba - replace the peaches with ripe strawberries (no need to poach), top with the raspberry purée and serve with vanilla ice cream.

Nutrition

Calories: 408kcalCarbohydrates: 84gProtein: 4gFat: 8gSaturated Fat: 5gPolyunsaturated Fat: 1gMonounsaturated Fat: 2gCholesterol: 29mgSodium: 86mgPotassium: 363mgFiber: 5gSugar: 78gVitamin A: 777IUVitamin C: 15mgCalcium: 106mgIron: 1mg
Keyword peach melba, pêches melba
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