Peach Melba

Learn how to make perfect grilled Peach Melba with juicy peaches, ice cream, and a quick fresh raspberry sauce. Discover my best tips and tricks to bring this impressive, low effort dessert to your table all summer long.

 

Meggan’s notes

Grilled Peach Melba is a simple summer dessert that is equally beautiful and delicious, but technique matters. Even if you start with summer’s ripest, juiciest peaches, your dessert will flop if you don’t have your peach-peeling method down pat.

Start by scoring the peaches, then poach them in water long enough for the skins to become tender and start peeling back, but not so long that the peaches turn mushy on the inside. If that happens, you won’t be able to remove the pit or get clean cuts for grilling.

Transfer your poached peaches from their poaching liquid to an ice bath to stop the cooking and make the peaches easier to handle. You can use either a standard grill or a grill pan, but during recipe testing, I was more successful with a grill pan.

Add a scoop of ice cream and a drizzle of no-cook raspberry sauce and thank me later! If you want a heartier dessert, add a slice of vanilla Pound Cake and treat it like Strawberry Shortcake with the fruit and ice cream on top. Make Peach Melba for dinner parties, date nights, and backyard barbecues all summer long.

Peach Melba ingredients

• Raspberries: This Raspberry Coulis begins with 3 cups of fruit, or about 1 ½ pints of fresh raspberries. To substitute frozen fruit, use 12 ounces frozen raspberries but thaw before using (so you don’t lose all that syrup!). 
• Powdered sugar: Since you can always add but can’t take away, start with ¼ cup. Blend, strain, mix with lemon juice and add more powdered sugar to taste.
• Peaches: Look for ripe yet firm peaches. These luscious stone fruits (named for the pit inside) are generally in season from June to October with the best fruits coming at the height of summer. I cut the peaches into quarters, but you can use peach halves instead if you prefer.
• Fresh lemon juice
• Oil for grilling
• Ice cream for serving

Step-by-step instructions

To make the raspberry coulis:

1. In a food processor or blender, add raspberries and powdered sugar. Pulse until raspberries are puréed.

2. Set a fine-mesh sieve over a small bowl and pour purée through, pressing on the mixture to extract as much juice as possible. Discard the pulp. Stir in the lemon juice and add more powdered sugar to taste, if desired.

To peel the peaches:

1. In a large saucepan, bring 4 cups water to boil. Set a large bowl of ice water nearby. Score the blossom end (bottom) of each peach with an X.

2. Working with a few peaches at a time, submerge in boiling water just until the skins pull back and wrinkle, about 30 to 40 seconds.

3. Using a slotted spoon or strainer, immediately remove the peaches and plunge into an ice bath to stop the cooking.

4. Once the peaches have cooled, you should easily be able to remove the skin with your fingers or a paring knife.

To grill the peaches:

1. Preheat grill over medium-high heat for 5 minutes and clean and oil grates. While the grill is heating, halve and pit the peaches, then cut each in half again to make quarters.

2. Place the peach quarters cut-side down on the grill until grill marks appear, about 4 minutes. Turn them so the other cut side faces down and continue grilling, about 4 minutes longer.

3. Turn the pieces again to round-side down and grill 4 minutes longer, until the peaches sizzle and can easily be pierced by a skewer. Cool to room temperature.

4. Serve the cooled peaches in a dish with ice cream and the raspberry coulis.

Recipe tips and variations

• Yield: This recipe makes enough Peach Melba for 4 servings (1 peach each), but you can easily increase the recipe by increasing the number of peaches, ice cream, and raspberry sauce. The raspberry sauce makes 1 cup sauce, so you may get more than 4 servings out of it depending on how much everyone wants.
• Storage: Grilled peaches are best enjoyed the day you make them, but they can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.
• Make ahead: To get a head start on Peach Melba, you can score, poach, and peel the peaches in advance. You can also make the raspberry coulis up to 3 days in advance.
• Freezer: The raspberry coulis can be made well in advance and frozen. Label, date, and freeze up to 2 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator.

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