Fresh Peach Homemade Ice Cream

home creamery

...this is some kind of good.

I grew up in an ice-cream eating family. We ate so much of it, we pretty near had to make our own just to keep the cost down. Nowadays, I do believe it is so much cheaper to buy it from a commercial creamery, but to me, there is nothing better than small batch, homemade.

There are so many ways to make ice cream. We have always liked a custard base, those made with eggs, some with a egg & flour sauce (really an old way) and some using Junket Ice Cream mixes. The latter is really an easy way to go and if you can find it in stores, try it, you will like the creamy texture from this all natural product dating back to 1874.

Basically this recipe is built around versions from two of the best on the subject, who else... Dorie Greenspan and David Lebovitz and on how they go about making ice cream. What I like about both is they use all yolks and cook them using real cream into a custard base. Dorie prefers to use honey and sugar as sweeteners (he prefers just sugar). I like to bring about my own nuance or nuisance to some, in adding the southern element of corn syrup and brown sugar. I just think it rounds out the flavor on my southern palate a little better making this all about the peaches and the cream; the sweeteners are actually mild. I also add a stronger punch of peach flavor by adding more peaches, along with the fresh but subtle flavorings of citrus. Enjoy!

Fresh Peach Homemade Ice Cream
makes about 3 quarts

about 4 pounds ripe peaches
1/4 cup light corn syrup
1/4 cup honey
2 tablespoons brown sugar
juice of 1 lemon
2 cups heavy cream
2 cups milk
6 egg yolks
1 1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons Cointreau
4 tablespoons vanilla extract

Bring a large saucepan half filled with water to a boil. Add about 4 peaches at a time and let set simmering on low for about a minute. Remove and plunge in a bath of ice water. Slide the peel right off from the peaches and dice the flesh (if clingstone) from the seed into a large measuring cup. Some varieties of peaches (like freestone) will pop right off the pit but be careful not to retain any small pieces of the seed. Repeat until you have 5 cups of cut-up fruit. Place fruit and its juice into a large saucepan. Add the corn syrup, honey, brown sugar and bring to a simmer. Cook until the peaches become a bit soft, not mushy and remove from heat. Stir in the lemon juice. Remove about a cup if you want bits of fruit in your ice cream and puree the remaining peach mixture in a blender or food processor. Add the reserved cup and pulse once or twice to desired size. Remember to chop this small enough so it will not clog up the beaters while freezing.

In a medium bowl, whisk the egg yolks with the sugar to a light buttery color.

In another large saucepan, heat the milk and heavy cream to a boil and remove from heat. Slowly drizzle about half of this hot milk mixture into the egg mixture whisking vigorously to temper the yolks. Now whisk this back into the remaining milk mixture. Cook over medium low heat stirring all while until temperature reaches 170 degrees F. or as it coats the back of a spoon nicely. Do not heat over 180 degrees.

Pour custard into a large glass bowl. Stir in the peach mixture, the Cointreau and vanilla. Let cool and refrigerate until completely cold.

Follow your manufacturer directions on making ice cream. I still use the old-school wooden barrel model (it does have an electric motor though) to make mine and after packing it with ice and salt, it took less than 30 minutes before it stopped at freezing. I repacked it with more ice and lots more salt and let it harden for about 2 hours.

Note: To really top off this ice cream with southern essence, sprinkle with chopped sugar praline coated pecans or a brown sugar sauce.