Ingredients
| ½ cup mānuka honey plus 2 tablespoons extra | |
| 4 tablespoons lemon juice | |
| 1 litre apple juice, well chilled | |
| 60g butter | |
| ½ cup flour | |
| ½ cup hazelnuts | |
| ½ cup whole oats | |
| 8 peaches, halved, stones removed |
A simple sorbet to celebrate the intense toffee flavour of mānuka honey. You could substitute your favourite if mānuka isn’t your cup of tea, but choose a stronger-flavoured honey as the flavour is dulled when cold. I like a churned sorbet so you get a lovely texture, but you can use the icier granita method of freezing for an hour then stirring with a fork to break up the crystals, then stirring every half hour until frozen.
Served here with grilled peaches and granola crumb, the sorbet is also great with a simple fruit sauce, or with other grilled, macerated or fresh fruits, with a scoop of ice cream or a spoon of mascarpone.
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Instructions
| 1. | Put ½ cup honey in a bowl and stir in the lemon juice until it is a smooth syrup – this will take about 3 minutes of stirring for the honey to start dissolving. Set aside 3 tablespoons for the peaches. |
| 2. | Stir in enough apple juice to make 1 litre of liquid. |
| 3. | Pour into an ice-cream maker and churn according to directions for about 35 minutes until firm. |
| 4. | Spoon into a container and freeze until needed. |
| 5. | Heat the oven to 170°C. |
| 6. | Put the butter and flour in a food processor and process to a crumb. |
| 7. | Add 2 tablespoons honey and the hazelnuts and process to chop the nuts a little, then add the oats and pulse just to mix. |
| 8. | Spread out to about 8mm thickness on a lined or greased baking tray and bake for 15 minutes then transfer to a rack to cool (don’t worry if it breaks up as you will be crumbling it). |
| 9. | Once cooled, break into pieces and put back in the processor and pulse to make it into a crumble-like texture. Store in an airtight container until needed. |
| 10. | Brush the cut side of each peach with the reserved lemon-honey mixture. |
| 11. | Heat a barbecue or grill pan to hot. |
| 12. | Cook the peaches, cut-side down, for about 3 minutes until softening and charred. |
| 13. | To serve, remove the sorbet from the fridge for about 10 minutes to soften. |
| 14. | Spread 8 dishes with a bit of the crumb then arrange two peach halves on top and a spoon or two of the sorbet. |
Recipes & food styling Fiona Smith / Photography Aaron McLean / Styling Fiona Lascelles