Our Best Peach Recipes

These juicy and winey macerated peaches are perfect with vanilla ice cream. A bonus tip: You can drink the tasty macerating liquid or use it to make an excellent sangria.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Free-form tarts (sometimes called crostatas) are an easy, quick-to-prepare way to use up seasonal fruit.

“The day I created this chutney, the ingredient list grew and grew because I just kept adding things,” says chef Minh Phan, who loves to improvise when creating pickles. Adjust the vinegar brine’s flavor until it tastes good, then add the fruit and continue to tweak the flavor. “The main components to play with are sweet, tart and salt. There’s really no messing up: You can always add more sugar, more salt or more vinegar. If you like a particular herb or spice more than others, just add more of it.”

An almost-instant crust, made with vanilla wafer cookies and smoked almonds, is the secret to this simple and unusual tart.

While playing with leftover ingredients one night, Jamie Boudreau combined grappa and peach puree. The mixture was sweet, so he added Aperol, a bitter orange liqueur, then Champagne, resulting in this well-balanced cocktail.

This beautiful dessert pairs perfectly with vanilla ice cream or lightly sweetened whipped 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.

For the sweet-savory peach relish that accompanies these big, juicy pork chops, Amelia O’Reilly says it’s important to use firm, ripe fruit that won’t get mushy during pickling.

On Top Chef, Kristen Kish’s winning menu included fennel pollen olive oil cake. She makes the simplified version here with peach slices.

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.

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.

Chef Daniel Humm infuses roasted peaches with honey-rosemary syrup.

Alice Waters likes eating savory peach relishes with fish. Make sure to use peaches that are firm enough to hold their shape once diced.

The warm heat of ginger perfectly complements sweet peaches in this thick fruit sauce that’s delicious on yogurt, ice cream or even on a piece of toast.

“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.”

“I use macadamia nuts two ways in this summery zucchini-and-peach salad: chopped, for crunch, and also pureed, to make a dairy-free cream,” says chef Alyssa Gorelick.

Venice-based blogger Skye McAlpine suggests using fragrant but slightly underripe peaches for this baked dessert--they're more inclined to hold their shape as they roast. She sometimes adds chunks of dark chocolate or slivered almonds to the peach-and-amaretti-cookie filling.

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.

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.

Chef Andy Glover used smoked pork, but prosciutto is also tasty.

Tim Love's shortcake reflects his easygoing style: Instead of making individual biscuits or multiple layers, he simply pours the batter into a 9-by-13-inch baking pan. For smaller cakes, bake the batter in 24 muffin tins.

Punch up your regular chicken recipe with this flavorful salsa.

"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.

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.

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.

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.

Punchy rémoulade cuts through the richness of the crispy buttermilk fried chicken, which is served over a salad of pickled fennel and peaches in this recipe from Top Chef Season 16 winner Kelsey Barnard Clark. Seek out underripe, firmer peaches for the salad—they’ll hold up to the pickling best.

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.

Ripe and fragrant summer peaches are the hero of this simple homemade ice cream. We love it on its own—or on a slice of toasted pound cake for a dinner party dessert. For an easy do-ahead, make the blueberry jam a week in advance, then stir it in when you’re ready to freeze. If you’re inspired, make a double batch of the jam and keep it around for topping toast or stirring into yogurt.

Justin Chapple’s spin on the classic peach Melba takes advantage of the smoky flavor grilling lends to fruit for these Grilled Peach and Pineapple Melba Sundaes, which layers vanilla ice cream with grilled pineapple and peaches. The traditional sauce is reinvented with grilled sugared raspberries.

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. 

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.