Frozen Peaches With Strawberries and Mint
A refreshing dessert featuring poached peaches frozen to an icy consistency, served with fresh strawberries and infused with vanilla and mint. The peaches are gently cooked in a sugar syrup until tender, then frozen until they reach a perfect granita-like texture.
Ingredients
- •¾ cup sugar
- •6 whole large ripe peaches
- •1 whole vanilla bean
- •3 sprigs spearmint or mint
- •1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
- •1 cup small strawberries
- •
Cooking Instructions
- 1.
Sprinkle sugar evenly across bottom of a large straight-sided skillet or Dutch oven and place peaches, cut sides up, in a single layer on top. Scrape in vanilla seeds and add pod; scatter spearmint over. Pour in water to come halfway up sides of peaches. Bring to a very gentle simmer over low heat, stirring once or twice just to dissolve sugar. Cook peaches, turning once, until tender but not falling apart, 5-10 minutes. Let cool.
15 min
- 2.
Pluck out vanilla pod and spearmint from pot; discard. Stir in lemon juice. Remove skins from peaches (they should slip off easily). Transfer peaches, cut side down, to a 3-qt. shallow baking dish and pour poaching liquid over. Freeze until peaches are icy all the way through but still soft enough to cut with a spoon, 45-60 minutes (poaching liquid should be semifrozen and break into shards when scraped with a fork, just like granita).
60 min
- 3.
Scatter strawberries over peaches just before serving.
2 min
- 4.
Peaches can be poached 1 day ahead. Let cool in poaching liquid; cover and chill.
