Peach Ice Cream

By Julia Reed

Updated May 7, 2023

  • Andrew Scrivani for The New York Times
Media 1 of 1
Total Time
About 1 hour, plus freezing
Rating
4(783)
Comments
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This easy ice cream is meant to evoke hazy memories of a summer spent luxuriating on a front porch, cold glass in hand, waiting as your ice cream maker does the churning work for a late-afternoon treat. Use the best peaches you can find — the flavor of this depends directly on the fruit. You can also use mangoes or strawberries, or other stone fruits. Use your imagination, but let the ice cream maker do most of the work.

Featured in: FOOD; Frozen Assets

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Ingredients

Yield:About 1½ quarts, 6 to 8 servings

  • 4 pounds ripe peaches

  • 1 ¼ cups sugar (or more, as needed)

  • ⅛ teaspoon salt

  • 2 teaspoons lemon juice

  • 1 quart (4 cups) heavy cream

  • 1 2-inch piece of vanilla bean (or 2 teaspoons vanilla extract)

Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (6 to 8 servings)

56 grams carbs; 135 milligrams cholesterol; 617 calories; 11 grams monosaturated fat; 2 grams polyunsaturated fat; 27 grams saturated fat; 44 grams fat; 1 gram trans fat; 3 grams fiber; 69 milligrams sodium; 5 grams protein; 54 grams sugar

Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.

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Preparation

  1. Step 1

    Peel peaches over a large bowl to catch the juice. Halve and pit them and chop roughly. Place in the bowl and sprinkle with ½ cup of sugar, the salt and lemon juice and let them sit for 30 minutes.

  2. Step 2

    While peaches macerate, put cream and remaining sugar in saucepan with vanilla bean or vanilla. Heat over medium-low heat, stirring frequently to keep from scorching, until the sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat and cool. Discard vanilla bean.

  3. Step 3

    Pour cream over peaches and mix thoroughly. Taste to see if it needs more sugar. (This will depend on the peaches.) Refrigerate until chilled.

  4. Step 4

    Pour the mixture into an ice-cream machine and freeze according to the manufacturer's directions until set but not quite hard. (If serving immediately, freeze harder.) Pack the ice cream into a bowl or mold to completely solidify. When it has hardened, dip mold into hot water or wrap in a hot towel and invert onto a serving platter. Or, simply scoop and serve.

Tip

  • This recipe is also delicious made with fresh mangoes.

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Ratings

4 out of 5
783 user ratings
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Comments

Ice cream goddess

You got ice crystals because there are no eggs in the recipe. Adding eggs to homemade ice makes it keep without forming crystals. I got this secret from the Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream Cookbook.

Kayla Werlin

I made this recipe twice. The first time I followed it as written and it was great. The second time I chopped the peaches very finely and cooked them down with the sugar, and it was UNBELIEVABLY delicious!!!

David

made it with delicious, very ripe peaches and it came out great. but i agree that peaches should be chopped in to smaller chunks. also, it yielded over 2 quarts of ice cream (4 lbs of peaches plus a full quart of cream = > 2 quarts of ice cream).

505

I made this today. I reviewed the comments first. Ended up chopping the peaches and cooking them in about 1/3 cup of sugar and vanilla extract and salt. Cooked them down to where it was easy to break them with a spoon. Fished the peaches out, added cream to this peach caramel, and 1/3 cup more sugar. Then added 4 tempered egg yolks until a custard formed. Mixed the peaches into the custard. Outstanding. My mom said it was like eating a memory from childhood.

Gwen

Can you make this without an ice cream machine?

Marguerite

I had less than a pound of sliced ripe peaches in the freezer from last summer that I had forgotten. At the last minute I decided to make this recipe and did not thaw the peaches, but roughly chopped. I halved the other ingredients. It wasn’t necessary to boil the cream to dissolve the sugar. When I poured the heated cream over the peaches they thawed somewhat, and it was chilled enough to go right into the ice cream machine. Took about 15 minutes hands on, plus freezing.

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