Poached Peach with Damson Ice Cream

Damson Ice cream with Poached Peach.jpgMy sister has a wonderful easy to make damson ice cream recipe, and this year I decided to give it a try for myself. I also decided to combine the ice cream dish with fresh poached peaches and  some homemade almond and cherry biscotti to complete my last Last Hurrah to the summer of 2019.

Damsons small

*Please Note this recipe makes 3 tubs of ice cream so you can halve the recipe if you wish. I made a large batch because I had so many damsons.
Damson Ice Cream
3 lbs Damsons
1 lb Caster sugar
1/2 pint of water
1 pint double cream

  1. Rinse the damsons and drain.
  2. Place in a stainless steel saucepan together with the water and cook for 10-15 minutes.
  3. Remove from the heat, add the sugar and allow it to dissolve completely.
  4. Use a metal sieve to strain the mixture to remove the skins and stones. Make sure you press all of the pulp through the sieve.
  5. Allow the pulp to cool and then whisk the double cream to soft peaks.
  6. Gently fold the cream into the cold damson puree and freeze for 1 hour in your ice cream tubs.
  7. Take the ice cream back out of the freezer and stir to break up the ice crystals and then allow to completely freeze.

Chef’s note: This ice cream is easy to make and the finished result is a delicious smooth, yet not too sweet, fruit ice cream that is intense in flavour and clean on the pallet. And makes great accompaniment to rich desserts.

In this instance I decided combine the damson ice cream with one of my newspaper recipes.

Almond & Cherry Biscotti with Poached Peaches serves 4© Kevin Ashton 2006 

The Italians have a delicious hard biscuit called Biscotti, which usually contains nuts and / or various kinds of dried fruit.  The word Biscotti means twice baked and refers to the fact you bake Biscotti in a loaf shape, slice it on an angle and then bake it some more to crisp it off.   In different regions of Italy, biscotti are prepared or flavoured differently. In Tuscany they are often eaten with a sweet dessert wine called vin santo, though in other parts of the world (particularly the United States) biscotti are considered an essential part of the espresso bar experience.

Biscotti Recipe
250g/10oz Plain flour.
200g/8oz Caster sugar
1 tsp baking powder
2 eggs beaten plus one egg white
50g (1 ½oz )Whole Almonds cut in half
60g dried sweeten cherries
pinch of salt

  1. Preheat the oven  180 C gas mark 4.
  2. Sift together the dry ingredients, then slowly stir in the beaten egg mixture and fold the nuts and cherries in.
  3. Dust your hands in flour then roll the mixture into 4 sausage shape loaves and place on a baking tray lined with parchment and bake for 20 minutes on the middle shelf of your oven.
  4. Cool for 2-3 minutes then slice the loaves on an angle.
  5. Place the slices on the baking tray and brown in the centre of the oven, turn over and repeat the process.

Poached peaches.
4 large ripe peaches
2 vanilla pods
2 cups water
1 cup caster sugar
peel of 1 orange
peel of 1 lemon
1 small bay leaf
6 peppercorns

Poaching Peaches

  1. Use a sharp knife and make a crisscross on each peach and blanch for 30 seconds in boiling water, then transfer the peaches to a bowl of  cold water.
  2. Under cold water peel off the skin. and then reserve the peaches.
  3. Next make the stock syrup by combining 2 cups of water, the sugar, vanilla pods the orange and lemon peel, bay leaf and peppercorns in a stainless steel saucepan.
  4. Bring the syrup to a low simmer and carefully place the 4 peaches into the liquid.
  5. Poach the peaches for 15 minutes  then remove from the heat and allow the peaches to cool in the syrup.

To Serve
Dust 12 slices of the Biscotti with icing sugar and place 3 slices on each plate.  You can either keep the peaches whole as I have done or cut the peaches in half to remove the stones. Scoop the damson last because ice cream will melt quickly. To help stop your ice cream melting you could chill the plates down first as I did with my china spoons.

Chef’s Tip
Freeze the stock syrup so you can use it again

A big thanks to Steelite International for the wonderful Storm Blue plate from their Potter’s collection
And also a big shout out to the German company Schönwald for their wonderful porcelain spoon that my ice cream is presented on.

© Kevin Ashton 2019 all rights reserved

Don’t forget to visit my other food blogs

Cheap & Easy Student recipes

Recipes, reviews & food articles from my old Food Blog

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34 thoughts on “Poached Peach with Damson Ice Cream”

  2. A delicious combination Chef! The colour of the peach on the plate looks especially vibrant. Talking of the peach, would you please explain the purpose of the crisscross at the top?

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

    1. Whenever you want to remove the skin from a tomato or a fruit like a peach you need to put it into boiling water for 15-30 seconds. The reason you make a crisscross cut is to help the heat & steam get under the skin making peeling the fruit much easier. And then plunging the fruit into very cold water stops the cooking process.
      Best Wishes
      Kevin

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  5. Hello, yesterday I had already answered you, but apparently this has disappeared in the unfathomable depths of the web. Plums are also available in Germany and are very popular here.

    Best Wishes
    Balle

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

    1. Hi Resa, Good to hear from you.
      Damsons are a small, more tart, more ancient variety of plums originating probably from Syria. As they were taken by monks and spread throughout Europe over centuries the monks developed hybrid varieties more akin to modern plums, i.e. larger and sweeter.
      So to answer your question you could use a dark purple variety of plums, to make the ice cream but you won’t get the intense fruit flavour that damsons give. If I was you, I would add some blackberries to the plums to increase the acidity and fruit intensity. The great thing about not having the correct ingredients is it’s an opportunity to experiment and you can still eat your mistakes.

      Best Wishes
      Kevin

      Liked by 2 people

      Reply

      1. I love this personal reply!
        The history alone enamours me. I think that knowing, makes food taste better.
        Where I am, we have plums and lots of blackberries.
        Blackberries soaked in Ice Wine from Ontario is my secret topping for anything.
        OMG I hope you will try blackberries marinated in Ontario Ice Wine (white) for a few hours.
        Then it’s over the vanilla ice-cream it goes!

        Liked by 2 people

      2. I did make it to Toronto a few years ago checking out the food and drinks scene, so of course we had to try Ice wine and enjoyed it very much,
        please stay in touch. 🙂

        Best Wishes
        Kevin

        Liked by 1 person

    1. Thanks Ann for your kind words. In the last few years I could always count on helping to pick the damsons in my sister’s garden, but now there is talk of down sizing and moving so next year I may have to make ice cream and jam from some other ingredient.
      I enjoy visiting your blog, please stay in touch.
      Best Wishes
      Kevin

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

    1. Dear Quaill,
      Thank you for your kind words. Damsons are a type of small plum, an older variety so you don’t seen many damson trees around these days. Originally I believe from the middle east as were plums. You do see damson trees in the US, Shropshire is perhaps the best known variety in America. Damsons are more tart and thus rarely eaten straight off the tree so they are usually made into jams and chutneys.

      Best Wishes

      Kevin

      Like

      Reply

    1. Thank you Leena, your kind words mean a lot. Taking food photographs of real food, is such a roll of the dice. Will the ice cream melt? Will the sauce look dry, leaving just a brief time to take to photos. The Damson Ice Cream photo is still one of my favourites.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply
  15. Pingback: Chocolate Dome with Matcha and Nectarine Ice Cream – Chef Kevin Ashton

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