Apparently we should have bought twice as many peaches when we were drove through Stonewall over Memorial Day weekend. I had big plans for homemade peach ice cream, fresh Bellinis, and just eating lots of the sweet fruit raw. Maybe we ate too many peaches before I got around to making the ice cream–can you blame us? They were so juicy and sweet! I ended up with about half the amount of peaches that I expected to use for the ice cream and none left for a refreshing Bellini, but the ice cream turned out pretty delicious anyway. And luckily, our grocery store carries Texas peaches, so I bought a few extras for pictures (and that Bellini that has been calling my name).
**Photography notes and more photos below recipe
I read a lot of peach ice cream recipes before I decided on one to (kind of) follow. It was the simplest and didn’t require any cooking. Since I know how fresh our yard eggs are, I don’t really worry about using them raw. The original recipe (allrecipes.com) called for 3.5 cups of sugar, but that seemed like an insane amount considering how sweet the peaches were. I made a few other changes that I noted.
Peach Ice Cream
-6 eggs, beaten (I used yard eggs from our Shady Acre hens:))
-3 1/2 cups sugar (I used 1 3/4 cups)
-10 fresh peaches, pitted and chopped (I think I had 9 or 10, but they must have been smaller than what the recipe used for testing)
-4 cups heavy cream
-2 cups half-and-half (I used whole milk)
-2 teaspoons vanilla extract
-3/4 teaspoon salt
-1/2 teaspoon almond extract (my addition)
- In large bowl, mix together eggs and sugar until smooth; puree peaches in blender or food processor and stir 5 cups of puree *(my peaches only made 2.5 cups of puree) into egg mixture. Stir in cream, half-and-half, vanilla and salt and mix well.
- Pour mixture into freezer canister of ice cream maker and freeze according to manufacturer’s instructions.
*I ended up having to make my ice cream in two batches since my ice cream mixing bowl wouldn’t hold it all.
The ice cream is rich and delicious. I think it would have been too sweet for me if I had used the entire amount of sugar. I guess tasting the peaches for sweetness should dictate how much sugar is needed. If I had made even more peach puree, I think 1 or 1.5 cups of sugar would have been plenty. Next time, I might try less cream and more milk. But, it’s so rich, it’s not like I’m going to eat a huge portion of it, so maybe I’ll leave it alone. Tice, on the other hand, would eat the entire container if I let him!
Let me know if you try it!
Photography Notes:
Most of these shots were ISO 200; f/1.6; 1/250 sec. They were all taken with my 50mm lens.
Below is a screen shot of all the photos I took. I ended with a few pull-back shots to show the whole set-up. Since the sun was setting, I put the table in the driveway for the best light. You can see that it’s not a very pretty area, but it still worked because of the light and the tightly cropped photos.
You are making me so hungry right now! Great job on the pictures! They are beautiful as always!
This was delicious! And the photography is perfect as usual.