summer dessert recipe Archives

This recipe of Peach Melba is a favourite with my mum in law.On one of the days when I wasn’t feeling too bright she decided to set the mood right with one of her sweet fixes.She disappeared into the kitchen and 20 minutes later appeared with a tray with this gorgeous dessert topped with vanilla ice cream begging to be devoured!

A bit of history about how this dessert came into being should be shared here I guess as it makes me appreciate the recipe so much more.This is a brainchild of French Chef Auguste Escoffier who created this in honour of Australian Soprano Dame Nellie Melba, known as the ”first Australian Diva” to quote from the website of a museum dedicated to her. When she was performing in London, The Duke of Ore’lans hosted a dinner party to celebrate Dame Nellie Melba‘s triumph and Chef Auguste Escoffier gave the world what we now know as the Peach Melba – peaches served on a bed of ice cream, he later created various versions of which the one topped with raspberry sauce is most popular now.

Serves:4 Prep Time :20 minutes + cooling for few hour in the refrigerator

Ingredients:

4 fresh juicy peaches
Plain everyday white sugar
The best vanilla ice cream you can lay your hands on
Toasted blanched almonds to garnish

Method:

Heat water in a pan,when it has boiled,gently lower the washed peaches into it and blanch them.When you remove them the skin should readily come off. Test for how ripe your fruits are before you blanch ,over ripe fruits will not take well to being dunked in hot water!
Remove the skin and remove the seed and halve, if you are unable to do that just get of as much of the fleshy bit from around the seed as you can.
In another saucepan add enough water to hold these peaches in a pool of sugary syrup approx 250ml .
Add 4 heaped tablespoons of sugar and stir continuously on a low flame til the sugar is totally dissolved and you have a proper sugar syrup,nice and thick and of course sweet!
Dunk the peaches into this syrup and on a very low flame let them soften , do not allow the sugar syrup to turn dark in colour and a maximum of 5-7 minutes should do the trick as the peaches will ”cook” quickly”
Thoroughly cool the fruit+syrup mix and decant into a bowl and place in the refrigerator.
Serve on a bed of your best vanilla ice cream and top off with the toasted almonds.
Smile when your guests praise you and regale them with the story of how this lovely dessert was created or how much you enjoyed reading this blog and creating the dessert, ok all right all right, won’t show off 😉

This dessert was something I had drafted quite some time back and thankfully as I made this yum dessert to finish off my Caribbean themed summer party menu, it will now finally appear on my blog!That’s why you must make the most of the summer days and have as many parties and barbecues and picnics as you can!Wooohooo!

Calling all DEXTER Fans!

Key Lime Pie – or one of Dexter ”victims” last meal, (who wanted to be a well ”victim”, if you watch Dexter as obsessively as I do, you will know! Season 3 episode 8 – Easy as Pie)

Well, this popular American Dessert is very easy to make and a delicious dessert option to serve. Recipe adapted from Martha Stewarts’ recipe for homemade Key Lime Pie and from BBC Good Food.

Key Limes get their name from the association with the Florida Keys and because they are the main ingredients in well, Key Lime Pie! I have used the darker green skinned limes and they give that – much required and tangy citrus taste to the pie.

Ingredients:(Serves 8)

300gm HobNobs (hob-nobs are the U.K version of the U.S Graham Crackers, use any biscuit/ cracker that will give you a good crumbly base)
150gm unsalted butter melted and cooled
One 397gm tin of condensed milk
Four egg yolks
Zest and juice of 4 limes

Method:

Put the hobnobs into a thick, strong, food-grade plastic bag and give them a good bashing, what fun, totally de-stressing! Or if you are less violent and do not watch Dexter then please use a food processor.
Mix these beautiful crumbs with the soft melted and cooled butter in a bowl, my big orange plastic bowl is so good for this (for a quick peek at the bowl check out my post about cookies and headache ok well just cookies tehehehe)
Firmly pat onto a tart tin 22 cm is what I have, I used a thick white ceramic pie pan which I purchased earlier on in the day and ended buying a gorgeous Brita Water Filter with it too, I love low price deals and my old water filter jug needed to be chucked!
Bake the base for 10 minutes in a pre heated oven at 160C/fan 140C/gas 3
Then separate the 4 egg yolks from the whites and add the entire tin of condensed milk, whisk for about 3 minutes , good if you have an electric whisk , I was making this pie at an obscenely late hour in the night and didn’t dare use my electric whisk ;), so had to mix really well for about 5 minutes.
Zest the limes so that some of the zest can go into the mix and some can be used to dress the pie
Now add the juice of the limes and some of the zest into the egg & condensed milk mix and whisk for another 3 minutes.
Pour onto the cooled base and bake for another 10 minutes.
Cool completely on a wire rack and then refrigerate for at least 3 hours or overnight.
Dress the pie with some more lime zest, I didn’t want to do the whipped cream bit on the top but ended up using the ready made squeezy ready to use cream from a can, it sits very quickly and if you do not consume immediately it will form a puddle on the top so please avoid !

This is a wonderfull dessert to be shared with friends and family and is apt for weekend meals, make ahead and refrigerate.Great for summers!