To celebrate a good friend and coworker’s birthday I decided to share my newest experiment. So, today, my next peach inspired recipe is Basil and white wine poached fresh peaches with a lavender creme patissiere. These sweet and tangy peaches are covered in a sweet basil infused syrup, plated, and then topped with a dollop of lavender spiked cream.

I love fresh peaches and I’ve always wanted to try poaching them. I looked at different poaching recipes and decided on this for two reasons. First, I simply had the ingredients at hand and secondly, I wanted to find a recipe that complemented the sweet and savory of the lavender and basil.

Basil Poached Peaches

Ingredients:

• 1 cup white wine
• 1 1/2 cup water
• 1 1/2 cup white granulated sugar
• 1 large bunch of fresh basil
• 6 fresh peaches

Instructions:

1 Place the wine, water and sugar in a wide bottomed saucepan and stir to dissolve the sugar. (Make sure you use a sweet white wine because even though the syrup was sweet because of the sugar I used a dry white wine and it taste more tart.) Place the pan on the stove over medium heat and bring the mixture to a boil. Boil for 5 minutes and then reduce the heat, leaving the syrup to simmer.

2 Cut the peaches in half and remove pits. Drop half of the basil leaves into the syrup, and then gently place the peach halves cut side down into the syrup. Poach for about 3 minutes and then gently turn over using a slotted spoon. Continue poaching for an additional 3 – 4 minutes, until soft. Carefully prick the cut side of the peaches to check for tenderness. The peels should be wrinkling up.

3 Remove the peaches to a plate with a slotted spoon. When they are cool enough to handle, gently slide the skins off and discard. Add all but about six basil leaves to the syrup and bring to a boil; boil until reduced by about half. Pour any juices that have collected on the plate with the peaches into the syrup. Leave to cool to room temperature.

4 While the peaches are cooling start the lavender pastry cream.

Lavender Pastry Cream

Ingredients:

• 3 large eggs
• 5 Tbs white granulated sugar
• 1 1/2 Tbs all purpose flour
• 1 1/2 Tbs corn starch
• 1 1/4 cup whole milk
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1-2 tsp food grade lavender ( to taste. Remember you can add not take away)

Instructions

1 In a bowl, whisk together egg yolks and sugar just until pale yellow and creamy Next whisk in cornstarch and flour. Set aside and start step two.

2 In a medium saucepan, heat milk, and vanilla seeds on medium heat just to a boil. Remove from heat. Gradually pour the hot milk into the egg mixture while simultaneously whisking constantly until smooth. Be careful to not do his step too fast or you will curdle your eggs.

3 Transfer mixture back into saucepan. Cook over medium-low heat, whisking constantly and vigorously until mixture thickens. Remove from heat and transfer to a medium heatproof bowl. Add vanilla and lavender and whisk. Press a piece of plastic wrap directly onto the surface so no film develops. Let cool to room temperature, then refrigerate until chilled.

4 When ready to serve, peel off the wrinkled peach peels and discard. Place peach halves in a dish and drizzle with a little syrup. Add a generous dollop of the cream. Garnish with basil leaves. Enjoy!

(Adapted from food52.com & prettysimplesweet.com)