A perfect dessert recipe paired with wine

One of the benefits of being a chef and cookbook author is being able to learn from the best in the business. While I photograph books, I spend many hours with the amazing and talented people of the restaurant world.

Pairing Wine with Savory Food I’ve been lucky enough to spend half my life learning from the greats. Not so much with candy until I shot The Wine Lover’s Dessert Cookbook with Jennie Schacht And Mary Chec. The First Lady of Chocolate, Alice Medrich, sums up this book best:

This book is an instant jumpstart, a quick and more confident way to learn and practice the art of serving wine with dessert… Great new work, and yes, I wish I had thought of it myself!

The recipes and pairings are the bomb. Here are two of my favorites. Enjoy this treat this weekend while peaches and nectarines are in season!

Photos by Frankie Frankeny

Fresh mango nectarine crumble

In this twist on the typical streusel, we baked a buttery topping that is spread over macerated fruit just before serving. Try pairing this with other seasonal fruits – peaches and blackberries, apricots and cherries, mango and crushed lychees, fuyu persimmons and seedless tangerines.

RELATED: Say goodbye to grilling season with the ultimate steak

Make the match

The fresh fruit and buttery topping pair well with many wines, from a light Muscat wine to a bold ice wine. Audubon Cellars Late Harvest Chardonnay (California) reflects both tropical and stone fruit flavors in this dessert.

Makes 6 servings

Streusel topping

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature, cut into 8 pieces
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Fruit

• 2 ripe mangoes, peeled and cut into julienne strips
• 2 ripe nectarines, cut into very thin slices
• 3/4 cup Moscato d’Asti or whatever wine you serve with dessert
• 1/4 to 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon finely grated lime peel
• 2 teaspoons fresh lime juice

DIRECTIONS:

To prepare the streusel topping: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Stir together flour, 1/3 cup sugar, and salt in a medium bowl. Add the butter and sprinkle evenly with the vanilla. Squeeze the butter with your fingertips and rub it into the flour until the mixture resembles coarse cookie crumbs. Spread the streusel on an ungreased baking sheet and press it down slightly to form clumps. Bake until golden brown, 15 to 20 minutes, stirring once or twice to ensure even baking. Place the baking sheet on a rack to cool.

While the topping is baking, prepare the fruit: Combine the mango and nectarine pieces in a medium bowl. Add the wine, 1/4 cup sugar, lime zest, and lime juice, stirring gently to avoid breaking up the fruit. If necessary, add sugar to taste.

Spoon the fruit into six dessert cups and drizzle each with a tablespoon or two of juice from the bowl. Sprinkle the streusel topping over the fruit.

Photos by Frankie Frankeny

Buttermilk panna cotta with fresh peaches

Panna cotta or “cooked cream” is typically Italian in its simplicity. The trick is to use just enough gelatin to set the cream without compromising its silky smoothness. Here, buttermilk provides a spicy contrast and peaches complement the wine. You can easily substitute berries, plums or other seasonal fruits and vary the wine to match.

Make the match

Peaches pair well with the Muscat Canelli grapes used to make Asti and Moscato d’Asti. We love this with La Spinetta Moscato d’Asti (Piedmont, Italy). A delicate late harvest white wine without oak that is not too sweet or heavy, such as a Demi-Sec-Vouvray, also goes well with this. Look for a wine with fresh stone fruit aromas that pick up the flavors of peaches, rich cream and tart buttermilk.

Makes 4 servings

• Vegetable oil for ramekins
  
• 1 1/4 teaspoons unflavored gelatin
• 1 cup of cream without additives
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 4 ripe yellow peaches, preferably stone peaches
• 1 tablespoon light brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon grated lemon peel
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

DIRECTIONS:

Lightly oil four 4-ounce ramekins or pudding cups. Pour 1/4 cup cold water into a small bowl and sprinkle the gelatin evenly over the surface. Let it soften for 5 minutes.

Gently warm the cream and sugar in a small, heavy saucepan over low heat, stirring frequently. A drop should feel warm, but not hot, on your upper lip. Remove the cream from the heat and stir in the soaked gelatin until completely dissolved, at least 1 minute. Stir in buttermilk. Divide the mixture between the prepared pans and place on a plate to cool until almost room temperature (about 1 hour). Refrigerate until the panna cotta is firm, about 3 hours or up to 4 days. The cream should move in a single wiggle when shaking one of the molds. To avoid condensation, wait until they have cooled completely before covering them tightly with plastic wrap.

Prepare the peaches up to 2 hours before serving. Collect the juice in a small pot, peel the peaches with a sharp knife and cut them into centimeter-thick wedges. Gently stir in the brown sugar, lemon zest, and lemon juice a little at a time, adjusting the flavor to bring out the flavor of the peaches. Gently warm the peaches to dissolve the sugar and soften the fruit slightly. Allow to cool to room temperature.

RELATED: Science explains how marijuana inspires awe

Just before serving, run a thin, sharp knife around the inside of the ramekins to loosen the cream, then invert each into the center of a soup bowl or wide-rimmed serving plate. If the panna cotta does not come apart easily with gentle tapping, insert the knife between the panna cotta and the baking dish to squeeze out the cream. Place peach slices decoratively over and around the panna cotta and spoon some juice over them.

###

Named one of the 100 Most Creative People in America by Entertainment Weekly, Frankie creates images for some of the top names in food.

Frankie helped: The art of the bar: cocktails based on the classics;The Sample Bakery Cookbook; Miette: Recipes from San Francisco’s Most Charming Pastry Shop; The Green Eggs and Ham cookbook and the Star Wars cookbook series. Follow her on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.