Peach Praline Bombes and Peach Syrup (Page 870)

RECIPE #1215
Date: Monday, September 6, 2010 -- 10pmLocation: East Lansing, MIKitchen: Our HouseDining Companion: MattyRecipe Rating: B-


I put off making this recipe because it looked like it was going to be a huge pain. As it turns out, that assessment was correct. In brief summary: I started by making a peach syrup from fresh peaches, sugar and lemon juice. Then I made homemade peach ice cream by making a custard base, adding pureed peaches, chilling it, and then freezing it in an ice cream maker. Then I made homemade praline by making caramel and stirring in chopped almonds. I finely ground the praline in a food processor, then folded the praline into some whipped cream. Once I had made all the components, I assembled the dish. I put some ice cream at the bottom of paper cups. I hollowed out a little well in each ice cream layer and put the praline whipped cream in the wells. I then topped the whipped cream with more peach ice cream. I froze the bombes for more than 8 hours, then I tore away the paper cups. I cut the bombes in half and served them with the peach syrup. What a pain! I have an extremely high tolerance for fussy recipes if the end products are awesome, but that was just not the case here. The end product was only OK. The ice cream didn't have a great texture -- it was pretty icy. The praline whipped cream was definitely the highlight of the dish. It was extremely tasty. The peach syrup was fine but nothing special. All together it was really a lot of peach. I found the peach ice cream with peach syrup to be overkill. Neither me nor my special gentleman were too impressed with this dish. Indeed, there are several more of these bombes sitting in our freezer and we haven't touched them. It will have to be a pretty desperate dessert situation in our house before they get eaten!

The recipe is here.

Only 78 recipes left to go!

As soon as my special gentleman and I bought a house, both his parents and mine unloaded all of our childhood belongings on us. We each did an initial sort, establishing what we wanted to keep and what we were ready to get rid of. The keepers were thrown into the upstairs closets to be dealt with later. Later has arrived and I have been repacking everything into big, stackable, waterproof plastic tubs for storage in the basement. The task doesn't sound super fun, I admit, but in fact it has been delightful. I have found some serious gems from my childhood. My favorite discovery today was an "essay" I wrote when I was 6 years old. It is typed (which is baffling because I don't know how I would have typed it without the help of an adult, and after reading it I find it impossible to believe that an adult helped me) on white paper. At the bottom of the page I drew a pilgrim and a table with a turkey on top. The essay is about Thanksgiving. It reads as follows:

"This year we are going to washintin for thanksgiving. We yusily have thanksgiving at home with turky and pupkin pie. Not this year we are going to washintin."

Hahahah... every time I read it I laugh out loud. Pupkin pie! I love it!

Seriously though, I think it has been a helpful exercise for me to go back and look at my own assignments from way back when -- essays I wrote before I could spell, or math problems I did before I knew algebra. As a teacher it is important to keep in mind that I didn't always know the things I know now. Going through my childhood papers has definitely been humbling. Also humorous. It must be really funny to be an elementary school teacher. Every terrible essay I wrote has phrases like, "Great job Teena!" strewn across the top. Really? Great job? Hahaha!