Sweet Peach Ice Cream

This recipe for Sweet Peach Ice Cream uses fresh, ripe in-season peaches and a creamy custard base for the perfect summertime treat! Plus, it's a snap to make in your ice cream maker!

Hellooooo!!  By now you probably all know how much I love peach season…peach salads, peach pies, easy peach cobblers, peach chutney, even peach pizza…..I can't get enough!  So it's no surprise then that I'm now coming to you with a new recipe for homemade peach ice cream. 

This sweet peach ice cream recipe is so creamy and delicious, you'll love making it with your family.

Ice cream is one of those things that sounds a bit intimidating to make, but actually isn't at all. We used to have homemade ice cream at birthday parties growing up. My uncle would make it with rock salt, and it's still one of my favorite food memories. You can, of course, make ice cream the old-fashioned way, using ice, rock salt, and a lot of mixing (my preschooler did this with his class last year, so it's not as complicated as it sounds). However, a modern ice cream maker makes this process even easier by doing all the freezing and churning for you.

You can make ice cream in a couple of different ways. The first way is with a custard base, which uses egg yolks, milk, cream, and sugar. The second way uses just milk and/or cream and sugar - no eggs (which is just regular ice cream). And, while custard-based ice creams take a bit longer to make, the thick, rich, creamy results are by far worth the extra effort.

In the mood for frozen fruit desserts? Try my ice cream with fresh strawberries and shortbread, these blackberry creamsicles, or my cherry and pineapple popsicles!

How To Make Sweet Peach Ice Cream

This sweet peach ice cream recipe uses (surprise) a custard base and fresh, ripe peaches, slightly sweetened and pureed to give it a smooth, creamy texture and a delicious, summery peaches-and-cream taste. I also strayed away from using the traditional vanilla extract here and added a bit of almond extract instead, which complements the peach flavor and really lets the sweetness of the peaches shine. 

Here's how to make peach ice cream in an ice cream maker (I use a Cuisinart):

1. Peel your peaches. Start by peeling your peaches (see a super easy tutorial on how to do that here!). Once your peaches have been peeled, slice them up and place them in a bowl with half a cup of sugar, lemon juice, and some almond extract. This will macerate your peaches, a process that softens them and makes them nice and juicy. Allow your peach mixture to sit for 60 minutes, then blend everything to a nice and smooth consistency in a food processor or blender.
2. Make the custard base. Making the custard is a bit of an art, but it really just takes time and patience. You have to heat your cream mixture up, and then slowly add a portion of it to your egg yolks and sugar (a process called tempering) before combining everything and heating it some more. Slow and steady wins the race here - after all, no one wants scrambled eggs in their ice cream.
3. Cool the custard and add the peaches. Once your custard base is made, just cool it in the fridge, and combine it with your sweet peach mixture.
4. Make the sweet peach ice cream in your ice cream maker. Add your peach custard to your ice cream maker and churn according to the manufacturer's instructions.
5. Enjoy or freeze the peach ice cream! After churning your sweet peach ice cream in your ice cream maker, you can choose to eat it right away (soft serve!) or place it in a container to freeze for a few hours. You can pretty much use any airtight container to freeze it in. Or place the ice cream in a small pan and cover the whole thing with plastic wrap (making sure to press the plastic wrap to the top of the sweet peach ice cream to prevent any ice crystals from forming).

Expert Tips For The Best Peach Ice Cream

• Give your peaches enough time to macerate. Make sure you're allowing the peaches enough time to sit with the sugar, lemon juice, and almond extract. Not only will this make it easier for you to get the peaches to blend to a nice and smooth consistency, but it also allows the flavors of the sweet peaches to really open up and gives this ice cream that delicious peaches and cream taste.
• Strain your custard! Let's face it, tempering eggs can be somewhat difficult, even for the most experienced cook. It's entirely possible that you will have some bits of scrambled egg in your custard mixture.
  Do yourself a favor and make your custard extra smooth by straining it before placing it in the refrigerator to cool. It just makes the texture of your ice cream so nice and creamy.
• Keep the peach bits small. Unless you want to bite into a giant peach ice cube, keep any bits of peaches as small as you can.
• Allow the custard to cool completely before adding it to your ice cream maker. This is just common sense. You want the ice cream to turn cold, so give your custard time to cool off in the fridge before you start the churning process.
• Don't fill your ice cream maker too full. The whole point of churning the ice cream is to whip air into it, making it light and fluffy (can ice cream be fluffy?) This means that the volume of ice cream you put in will increase in size as the machine churns, leaving you with a giant overflowing mess if you add too much of your custard mixture at once. (I may have experienced this once or twice.)
• Keep your sweet peach ice cream from getting too hard. While I didn't do it in this recipe, a tip to keep your homemade ice cream from getting too hard after you place it in the freezer is to add a few tablespoons of vodka (or other alcohol that you think might complement the peaches)
  Alcohol doesn't freeze, so it helps prevent ice cream from emerging as an ice block from the freezer. (Read more about this method and a few other tips on preventing rock-hard ice cream from David Lebovitz here.)
• Try other flavors! This custard base can really be used with any flavor of ice cream you choose. It tastes delicious with sweet peaches, but strawberries, blueberries, blackberries -they'd all work well here too.

How To Serve Peach Ice Cream

Of course, ice cream is great on its own! But it also goes great with cakes, cobblers, and pies. Try it with my simple blueberry crisp, my homemade rhubarb pie, this easy peach cobbler made with cake mix, or with these brown butter snickerdoodle cookies for an extra sweet treat.

Give this Sweet Peach Ice Cream a try! It's a fun treat to make with your kids, and the peaches and cream flavor tastes sooo good on a hot summer day! If you do make it, please let me know what you think by leaving a rating and a comment below. And make sure to tag me on Instagram. I LOVE to see your creations!

Recipe