The combination of peaches & raspberries goes back a long way to a dish created by Escoffer (a celebrity chef in the Victorian era). He created a wonderful dish called Peach Melba; using freshly poached peaches, a sauce made from fresh raspberries and real vanilla ice cream. Unfortunately somewhere in the late Nineteen Sixies the fragrent peaches where replaced with tinned peaches, the Melba sauce was replaced by a red sauce that bore no resemblance to a raspberry sauce and the ice-cream became yellow in colour without any hint of a vanilla pod.

Pastry
200 grams Plain Flour
125 grams Softened butter
50 grams Icing sugar
1 large egg beaten
Filling
5-6 fresh ripe peaches
150 ml whipping cream
3 large eggs
45 grams sugar
Almond topping
50 grams whole almonds
20 grams butter
Pinch of sugar
Pinch of salt
Stock Syrup
500 ml water
400 grams sugar
1 vanilla pod
Raspberry sauce
450 grams fresh or frozen raspberries
50 ml stock syrup

1. Make pastry and leave to rest in a cool place for 30 minutes.
2. Roll out the pastry until it is no thicker than 4 mm.
3. Lightly butter a 10” ceramic flan dish, and then line with the parchment paper circle.
4. Trim off any excess then refrigerates.
5. Combine the stock syrup ingredients into a large stainless steel saucepan and bring to the boil.
6. Use a small sharp knife to make a crisscross on the bottom of the peaches.
7. Turn off the heat & then carefully place the peaches into the stock syrup.
8. By the time the syrup is cool the peaches will be cooked enough, but not mushy.
9. Remove and drain the peaches, then peel them (the skin should easily pull away from the fruit).
10. Carefully cut each peach in half, trying remove each stone as cleanly as possible,(save any peach trimmings).
11. Beat the eggs & sugar of the filling ingredients together, and then add the cream.
12. Cut open the vanilla pod lengthwise and scrape the seeds out and add to the egg mix.
13. Lay any peach trimming into the pastry case then arrange the peach halves on top.
14. Gently ladle the custard into the centre, so as not to splash the peaches.
15. Bake on the middle shelf of a preheated oven 170C (gas mark 3) for 45 minutes until the egg custard is set.
16. Whilst the tart is cooking combine the almond topping ingredients in a non-stick saucepan and
fry gently 4-5 minutes, stirring them often.
17. Chop up the almonds using your pulse mode on your food processor & sprinkle on top of the tart during the last 5 minutes of cooking.
18. Combine the raspberries and the stock syrup then simmer for 5-7 minutes.
19. Strain the raspberry sauce through a fine strainer and offer on the side or zig zag it across the plates before laying down a slice of the warm peach tart.

Chef’s Notes
I prefer the raspberry sauce for this dish to be a little tart so it contrasts nicely against the peaches and the egg custard. The left over stock syrup with keep for several weeks, and can be used in fresh fruit salads.