Our Best Peach Recipes
Besides warmer weather and barbecues, one of the best things about summer is peach season. When they reach their peak in July and August, we love to incorporate the fresh, juicy fruits into our meals, whether we're using them to sweeten barbecue sauce for jerk-smoked duck, or grilling them for an indulgent ice cream sundae topping. (Not to mention, they're great with burrata.) Read on for our favorite peach recipes.
Buttermilk-Biscuit Peach Cobbler
Bobby Flay opts to bake the biscuits separately from the fruit so the undersides cook fully; then, just before serving, he sets the biscuits on the fruit and bakes them for a few more minutes, so they can soak up some of the juices without getting soggy.
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Kaiserschmarrn with Peaches
Kaiserschmarrn is a popular Austrian dessert that can also be eaten for breakfast. It's a light pancake, cut up while it's frying and topped with fruit and confectioners' sugar.
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Grilled Peach, Onion & Bacon Salad with Buttermilk Dressing
The secret to this salad is using big, juicy sweet onions like the Vidalias that Linton Hopkins favors, which get nicely charred on the grill.
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Georgia Peach Pie
When you slice into this delicious pie, don't be surprised by the gap between the filling and the top crust. This happens when a pie is baked at high heat because the crust sets before the fruit in the filling has cooked down.
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Peach Crostata
Free-form tarts (sometimes called crostatas) are an easy, quick-to-prepare way to use up seasonal fruit.
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Peach-and-Blackberry Crisp
This beautiful dessert pairs perfectly with vanilla ice cream or lightly sweetened whipped cream.
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Grilled Lemon Pound Cake with Peaches and Cream
Chef Bryan Calvert loves the versatility of his supermoist lemon pound cake: He uses it to make everything from French toast to a stuffing for baked apples. At this time of year, he grills it until crisp and toasty, then tops it with warm, tender grilled peaches and whipped cream.
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Sweet Peach Olive Oil Cake
On Top Chef, Kristen Kish's winning menu included fennel pollen olive oil cake. She makes the simplified version here with peach slices.
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Peaches and Plums with Sesame Crumble
When making fruit crumbles, pastry chefs prepare the components separately, then bake them together quickly so the topping stays crispy. Grace Parisi follows that example.
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Chilled Peach Soup with Fresh Goat Cheese
Chef Jason Franey makes this sweet and tangy summer soup by marinating fresh peaches overnight with dried apricots, honey, vinegar and olive oil and then pureeing the mixture. Since peaches can vary in flavor, Franey suggests seasoning with vinegar to taste as you puree.
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Roasted Peaches with Mascarpone Ice Cream
Chef Daniel Humm infuses roasted peaches with honey-rosemary syrup.
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Vietnamese Peach Relish
Alice Waters likes eating savory peach relishes with fish. Make sure to use peaches that are firm enough to hold their shape once diced.
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Butter Pecan Cookie and Peach Ice Cream Sandwiches
"Ice cream sandwiches are universally popular, and everyone loves peach ice cream, too," Linton Hopkins says. "To make this recipe really Southern, we use pecans in the crispy cookie."
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Jerk-Smoked Duck with Peach Barbecue Sauce
2019 Best New Chef Bryan Furman's method of smoking the duck over a drip pan is quick and efficient, infusing the duck with intense smoky flavor in only 30 minutes without toughening the meat. The combination of jerk seasoning and peach-sweetened barbecue sauce is also a great match for grilled chicken halves.
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Peach Chutney
Grace Parisi's gingery peach chutney is terrific on a grilled cheddar-cheese sandwich or brushed on pork chops during the last few minutes of cooking. To make removing the pits easier, look for freestone peaches, rather than clingstone.
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Melon-and-Peach Salad with Prosciutto and Mozzarella
Chef Andy Glover used smoked pork, but prosciutto is also tasty.
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White Peach Tart
"This crust is not what you'd expect," Marco Canora says. "Instead of being crunchy, it's puffy and cakey." The dough is terrific for impromptu baking, because it doesn't need to be chilled before it's rolled out. For the filling, Canora recommends using peaches that are ripe but still firm, as drippy fruit will make the soft crust soggy.
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Summer Chopped Salad with Quick-Pickled Vegetables
Paul Newman, the late co-owner of Dressing Room, Michel Nischan's restaurant in Westport, Connecticut, loved a good chopped salad. To add a tangy burst of flavor, Nischan pickles the carrots, celery and peppers before tossing them with the rest of the salad.
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Stone-Fruit Panzanella with Zabaglione
A classic Italian panzanella (bread salad) combines juicy tomatoes and bread cubes. Here, Chris Cosentino swaps in stone fruits like apricots and peaches for the tomatoes. Then he pushes the dessert over the top by dolloping the "salad" with an airy zabaglione, a frothy sauce of egg yolks whipped with sweet dessert wine.
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Peach-Buttermilk Ice Cream
Be sure to use the best buttermilk you can get for this recipe: The ice cream is just as much about the rich, tangy buttermilk as it is the fragrant peaches.
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Peach, Tomato, and Fried Farro Salad with Burrata
This is the salad Ann Taylor Pittman makes on those rare and lovely unhurried nights. It features the alluring combination of juicy peaches and even juicier tomatoes that are lightly coated in just enough dressing to moisten—so that nothing overpowers the flavors of the fruit. Hunks of creamy burrata pair beautifully here, offering luxurious richness that, again, does not compete with the fruit.
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Achiote-Marinated Quail with Grilled Peaches
Grilling is great use for firm peaches. The smoke is a great counterpoint to the fruit's natural sweetness and, here, an excellent complement to the quail.
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Peach-Rosé Vinegar
A great way to preserve the abundance of peach season for the colder months ahead, peach-rosé vinegar makes for a great addition to cocktails both alcoholic and alcohol-free.