Peach Ice Cream

I'm pretty much down to the bottom of my freezer now with just about no fresh produce left (until tomorrow when I see what's out at the East Liberty Farmer's Market Cooperative). I've been struggling with a way to use the peaches I froze last September. I saved a lot of them. They turned out to be not so great in most of the ways I tried to use them. Too mushy. And there are just too many for smoothies only. However, I finally hit on a nice idea now that the weather has turned. Ice cream!

I already have an ice cream tub in our freezer. Once that has been freezing for 24 hours, it is ready to be used.

First, I skimmed the cream off the top of some jersey cow-produced, raw, unhomogenized milk purchased from Joe Rush . Next, I trawled my cookbooks and the internet for a good recipe. Not as easy as it sounds. I tried a Betty Crocker recipe and ended up making scrambled eggs and curdling some milk. I left the ice cream base mixture on the stove just a little too long at a critical moment. Turns out seven and two year old boys can't be trusted not to color in their mouths with markers. It's hard to stay focused when you are confronted with a multi-colored tongue.

Since that batch was ruined, I turned to Alton Brown, who is always good for general cooking advice, and went on from there. Tempering the egg mixture. Ah-ha. Then you basically make pudding and throw in some pureed peaches (I used a food mill) and put them in the ice cream maker and wouldn't you know it? Peach ice cream. I used a custard based recipe, and it turns out I don't really like peach ice cream made from a custard base. Other people who ate it claimed to have liked it, so I will share the recipe. In the future, I will look for a non-custard style (one with no eggs). I think that would be easier too since it wouldn't require cooking.

Peach Ice Cream

2.5 cups ripe peaches pureed

3 eggs lightly beaten at room temperature

1 1/4 cups sugar

1 Tablespoon flour

1/2 Tablespoon vanilla extract

dash of salt

2 cups heavy cream

1 1/2 cups milk

In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, sugar, flour, vanilla and salt until well blended. Set aside.

In a large, heavy saucepan over low heat, heat the milk and cream, just until it begins to steam. Pour a little of the heated mixture into the egg and sugar mixture, and stir. [there's the tempering]. Then pour the bowl of egg/sugar/milk mixture back into the heavy saucepan. Continue to cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until mixture is thick and smooth. [this can take quite a while. I read elsewhere, stir until mixture coats the back of a spoon]

Remove from heat, and refrigerate the mixture for several hours or until well chilled. Add the puréed peaches to the chilled mixture, stir well, and pour into an ice cream freezer. Continue freezing according to the manufacturer's directions. Allow ice cream to ripen for at least an hour. Makes about 3-1/2 quarts.

Now I have to figure out what to do with all that frozen corn. And corn ice cream is not an option.