Sunday, July 1, 2012

I Scream for (Peach) Ice Cream

Having luscious peaches around inspired me to make peach ice cream. First I had to search through the storage room to find the electric ice cream maker that hasn't been used in about 20 years. Found it! Tested to make sure it still works and I was off!


I found a recipe at all.recipes.com that sounded great:

Ingredients

  • 2 1/2 pounds fresh peaches - peeled, pitted and chopped (Note: I added two extra peaches, chopped, because I love the taste of those peach morsels, partially frozen, in my mouth!)
  • 1/2 cup white sugar (a note at the bottom said you could increase the sugar to one cup sugar for a sweeter ice cream. I did.
  • 1 pint half-and-half cream
  • 1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
  • 1 (12 fluid ounce) can evaporated milk
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 cups whole milk, or as needed
A couple of changes I made and which didn't seem to affect the taste:
One, I used fat-free evaporated canned milk, and 2% instead of whole milk.

Oh yes! I forgot to add the vanilla (duh!), even though it was right there on the kitchen counter. I suppose I was in too big a hurry to get my ice cream going. Again, I find that the lack of the vanilla doesn't affect the taste.

Directions:

  1. Puree peaches with the sugar and half-and-half in batches in a blender or food processor.
  2. In a gallon ice cream freezer container, mix together the peach mixture, sweetened condensed milk, evaporated milk, and vanilla. Pour in enough whole milk to fill the container to the fill line, about 2 cups. (Note, I found I only needed to add about one cup milk, probably because I added a few chopped peaches to the mixture. 
  3. Follow the manufacturer's instructions to freeze the ice cream.              





 I was happy to have enough ice in my refrigerator-freezer to fill the machine. 






 The little machine is off and running. I placed it in the kitchen sink.






You must add ice cream salt to make the ice melt; that's what makes the ice cream freeze -- that and the rotation of the bucket and turning of the paddle inside the bucket. You probably know all this, but in case you've never done this process, maybe not. 



Thirty minutes later and tah-dah! soft-serve ice cream. I placed it in the freezer because I wanted a firmer ice cream.


Now, I am not happy with the picture below. I went ahead and dipped some into a serving glass before I placed the bucket in the freezer. This is the soft-serve version. I'll have a better picture up later tonight. It's going to be a couple of hours before we have our evening meal -- and the peach ice cream for desert. Wish you were here to enjoy a bowl with me.




I have a few peaches left. I wonder what I could come up with for tomorrow?




Later, after the ice cream had firmed up in the freezer:




14 comments:

  1. That looks Heavenly! And no cooking. I like the glass you put it in. Very elegant.

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    1. The ice cream was REALLY good, Beryl. We enjoyed a dish sitting in the gazebo tonight.

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  2. Hello Sanda

    This looks delicious I have held off getting an ice cream maker as I know I would lack will power.

    I do love the taste of home- made and it is infinitely superior to store bought.

    Have a glorious week

    Helen xx

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    1. Hello Helen

      Next time I will try making frozen yogurt. Perhaps I'll feel that's somewhat more healthy! My husband has already requested chocolate.

      It's true; there's no comparison of the store bought to homemade!

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  3. You really did a lot of work with that peach ice cream. Oh my.
    Many moons ago, I had a recipe for a home made ice cream cake, which was very complicated to do, but it did taste good. Lucky me, I have lost the recipe; ).

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    1. Making it was a fair amount of trouble -- not something I would do very often. Purchased ice cream will do very well, despite the preservatives. I love ice cream cakes!

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  4. Sounds delicious,but a minute on my lips and a life time on my hips....still I did eat a large piece of Strawberry cake at the weekend,today salads only. Ida

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  5. I like that "a minute on my lips and a lifetime on my hips," Ida. That's a new one to add to my vocabulary! Strawberry cake sounds yummy. Did you make it?

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  6. This sounds heavenly Sanda....I will have to just eat the peaches because I am not very skilled. By the way, I love the name of your blog. Years ago I saw the term and just loved it. xx

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    1. That ice cream was awfully good; still have some in the freezer. Didn't really take many skills to mix it up, just a bit of patience. I'm glad you like the Halcyon Days blog name. I had always thought it sounded so poetic and magical so choosing it made sense to me.

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  7. I'm behind reading but I would LOVE to have a bowl of that peach ice cream right now. The pictures of the peaches are so pretty I can almost taste them.

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    1. Oh, I would love to send you a large dish! Peaches are so beautiful, aren't they?

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  8. Who remembers the days before they made the ice cream freezers electric? It uses to be the kids' job to turn the crank until it got too hard to turn!

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    1. I do, Beryl. Have memories of turning the crank until it became so difficult that that a parent had to take over that job! It seems that ice cream was better than what we now make with the current electric models.

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