Like many old-fashioned recipes, peach melba may be a dessert you’ve heard of but never had the chance to try. It’s time to change that! With peaches, ice cream and raspberry sauce, peach melba is sweet, tart and colorful. It’s simple enough to make for a light weeknight dessert yet elegant enough to serve at a dinner party.
This peach melba recipe makes two servings, but it’s easy to double or triple to scale up. I often make this recipe when fresh peaches are in season and overflowing in bins at farmers markets and produce stands.
What is peach melba?
To make peach melba, peaches are gently cooked in sugar syrup until they become velvety and tender. They’re served with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and a drizzle of raspberry sauce.
This dish was created in the late 1800s by renowned French chef Auguste Escoffier for a beloved opera singer of the time, Nellie Melba. The raspberry topping served with peach melba is sometimes called melba sauce.
Ingredients for Peach Melba
- Peaches: For this peach melba dessert recipe, choose a fresh, ripe, unblemished peach. You can’t ripen an unripe peach, so choose one already at its peak. No need to peel it.
- Sugar: The peach halves are poached with sugar to soften and sweeten them.
- Lemon juice: A splash of lemon juice balances the sweetness of this dish with some acidity. The citrus also helps amplify the fruit flavors.
- Vanilla extract: Choose a quality vanilla extract. It’s added to the poaching liquid for the peaches.
- Raspberry jam: The jam adds luscious raspberry flavor and the color is gorgeous against the peaches and ice cream.
- Vanilla ice cream: Because this dish is made with just a few ingredients, it’s important to choose vanilla ice cream with the best texture and flavor. Homemade vanilla ice cream is delicious in this dessert, too!
Directions
Step 1: Poach the peaches
Pour water and sugar into a small saucepan over medium-high heat. Stir the water as it comes to a boil to dissolve the sugar. Stir in the lemon juice and vanilla extract, then reduce the heat to low. Slide the peach halves into the water with the cut sides facing up. Cook the peaches for five to eight minutes, or until tender.
Remove the pan from the heat and leave the peaches in the syrup to cool for 30 minutes.
Step 2: Chill the fruit
Remove the peaches from the syrup with a slotted spoon and place them in a shallow dish with the cut sides down. Cover the dish and refrigerate the peaches for two to four hours.
Editor’s Tip: Save the sweet, peachy syrup in a covered container for up to one week. It’s quite tasty stirred into iced tea or poured over ice cream.
Step 3: Assemble the desserts
Have two dessert plates or bowls ready. In a small microwave-safe bowl, warm the raspberry jam for 20 seconds or so and stir until it’s smooth. Place the chilled peach halves in the dessert dishes, cut sides facing up. Add a scoop of vanilla ice cream to each peach half. Finally, drizzle the warmed raspberry jam over the ice cream and fruit. Serve the peach melbas immediately.
Recipe Variations
- Use fresh raspberries: Skip the jam and top the peaches and ice cream with a handful of fresh red raspberries. You can also macerate the berries: Stir them with a little granulated sugar and let them sit for about 30 minutes. They’ll be sweet and juicy atop this dessert.
- Make a grilled peach melba: Instead of simmering the peach halves in syrup, grill them. Brush the cut surfaces lightly with olive oil, then place them cut sides down on hot grill grates. Grill the peaches until they’ve started to soften and have grill marks. The heat brings out the natural sweetness of the fruit and adds a little smokiness, too.
- Swap the ice cream flavor: Pair other ice cream flavors with the ripe peaches, such as strawberry, butter pecan or pistachio ice cream or lemon sorbet.
- Add fresh herbs: Sprinkle chopped fresh herbs over your peach melbas just before serving. Crushed lavender, mint, basil and lemon thyme are all good choices.
- Garnish with edible flowers: The orange and raspberry colors of this dish are beautiful, and even more so when enhanced by edible blooms like pansies, nasturtiums or rose petals.
Can you make peach melba ahead of time?
This peach melba recipe tastes best when assembled just before serving; however, you can get some of the steps done in advance. The poached peaches can be stored in the sugar syrup in the fridge for up to three days. You can even scoop the ice cream in advance: Scoop out perfect rounds and place them on a small tray. Cover and keep them in the freezer for up to one week.
Those steps make it easy to dish up several servings of peach melba in minutes. Place the prepared ice cream and peaches in dishes, add raspberry jam or fresh berries, and they’re ready to go.
Peach Melba Tips
When do you serve peach melba?
The ideal time to serve peach melba is when peaches are in season—their fresh-picked flavor shines in this recipe. Depending on your region, peaches are in season from May through September. Check with local growers and farmers markets for the best fruit, and store your peaches properly once you get them home.
Can you make peach melba with canned peaches?
While we prefer to make this dish with fresh peaches, the reality is that when not in season, fresh fruit may be hard to find. This is also true of regions where peaches can’t be grown. If you can’t get fresh, canned peaches are a good choice for peach melba. Choose canned peach halves in sweet syrup and skip the poaching step. Chill the peaches before assembling the dessert. Frozen peaches can also be used. Let them thaw in the fridge and keep them cold until you assemble the desserts.
