I keep reading that peach ice cream is the quintessential summer ice cream, the Fourth of July All-American ice cream, the ice cream that screams homemade on Grandma’s porch to people all over this country. And here I was, a midwestern/Californian/east-coast girl who had never had peach ice cream in her life. How could this be? How did this happen? Were my parents remiss?
It could have something to do with my childhood disinterest in fruit, and my continued love for all things chocolate when it comes to ice cream. But I determined last week that it was time to rectify the situation. I saw a huge container of delicious smelling ripe peaches at the market and I knew it was time to see what all the fuss is about. I decided to experiment a little, though. Instead of straight up peach ice cream, I wanted to make something that would taste more like peach pie, with vanilla ice cream. And you know, I succeeded.
The only thing wrong, really, is the texture, and Crystal would tell you that I’m just being my normal picky perfectionist self. There’s nothing really wrong with it. It’s delicious and peachy and creamy, but there is just a touch too much iciness to it for my liking.
I modified a recipe for apricot ice cream that I found in David Lebovitz’s book that involved making a fruit puree and adding cream. Simple. No custard, no cooking, not too much in the way of ingredients. But after it was finished I kind of wished I’d just given it up and gone to the market across the street for eggs and milk and whatnot, and just made a custard. I think it would have been that extra step that would have made this ice cream perfect. But yet again my laziness resulted in slightly less than awesome results. I should know this about myself by now.
And I should probably take Crystal’s advice and let it go, because this ice cream is pretty damn good and perfectly summery.
Peach Pie Ice Cream
- about 1 pound of peaches
- 1/2 c. water
- 1/2 c. sugar
- 1 c. heavy cream
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
Peeling the peaches is perhaps the most difficult part of this whole process. The easiest way to do this is with boiling water. Set a very large pot of water on the stove to boil, and cut X’s across the bottom of each peach. Throw the peaches in the boiling water for about 20 seconds, then remove them to a colander (you might want to do this in batches). Run the peaches under cool water, then just slip them out of their skins. You might need to pull the skin off some of them a little, but they should all come off very easily. Throw the skins away, and cut all the peaches up into roughly one inch chunks.
Put the peach pieces and the water in a saucepan and cook them over medium heat for about eight to ten minutes, or until the peaches are very tender. Remove the pan from the heat, and stir in the sugar. Let the peach mixture sit until it’s about room temperature.
Pour all the peaches and the sugary juice into a blender or food processor and puree until it’s smoooooth, no lumps. Unless you want lumps. Then stir in the cream, vanilla, and cinnamon. Pour it into a bowl and set it in the refrigerator overnight to chill, or in the freezer for about an hour.
Then just pour it into your prepared ice cream maker and churn away for the designated time specified.
I think what would be better, and the only reason I opted not to do this was I wanted to try something different, would be to make vanilla custard and mix the peach puree in. You might have to halve the vanilla recipe, but I bet it would be more awesomer. I guess that’s an experiment for another time. In the meantime, we will enjoy this, as it really is the ice cream embodiment of a slice of peach pie. Awesome sauce.