peaches: 3 ripebutter: 100g
golden caster sugar: 100g
puff pastry: 350g block
thyme: 6 small sprigs
crème fraîche: or ice cream: to serve
• Heat the oven to 200C/fan 180C/gas 6. Cut a small cross in each
peach and pour boiling water over them. Leave for 1 minute, then drain
and peel off the skins. Halve them and remove the stones. Gently heat
the butter and sugar together in a pan until you have a rich caramel.
Cut 6 circles out of foil making them big enough to fold up around the
peach halves. Lay them on a baking sheet lined with more foil. Cool
the caramel until it is quite thick. Fold the edges of each piece of foil up
to make a cup shape – the base should be only a little larger then the
cut side of each peach. Divide the caramel between the foil cups.
• Roll out the puff pastry to ½ cm thick and cut out 5 circles big enough
to cover the rounded side of each peach. Drape the pastry over each
half peach and mould it onto the dome shape. Put a thyme sprig onto
the caramel on each piece of foil and lift a peach and its pastry
face-down onto caramel. Bake for 25 minutes or until the pastry is
puffed and browned. Turn carefully out onto a plate (be careful of any
hot caramel) and serve with a scoop of crème fraîche or ice cream.