Last updated on June 17th, 2022
The best antidote to desert heat here in the southwest is old-fashioned churn peach ice cream. I finally broke down and bought an ice cream maker last year and with a few pantry staples and seasonal fresh fruit I was able to make rich and delicious ice cream. Unfortunately the ice cream maker I purchased decided to break down too. Ha.
This meant, in order to make the ice cream the way I had envisioned, I had to churn the ice cream by hand or lose all of the ingredients and the photo shoot. I made the best of it and turned it into quite a workout. Might have also contributed to making the ice cream taste a little bit better.
Lesson learned: please do your due diligence and purchase a quality machine. Don’t end up hand-churning ice cream in 100+ degree temperatures in your garage because you decided to spend $25 on a machine at a department store end cap sale.
Tips & Tricks for making Old-Fashioned Churn Peach Ice Cream
Ingredients:
- 1 pound peaches, sliced with pit removed
- ¾ cup sugar
- 2 cups whipping cream
- 1 cup milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- ¼ teaspoon salt
Fortunately, the ingredients are pantry staples with seasonal produce, readily available at most local supermarkets. The challenging part lies in having an ice cream maker. Many popular ice cream recipes are no-churn for this reason, due to their ease and simplicity. I wanted the creamy rich texture of old-fashioned churned ice cream, instead of freezing blended ingredients in a bread loaf pan.
Unfortunately I went “cheap” with the ice cream machine and didn’t realize I’d end up with hand-churned ice cream. This wouldn’t have been so bad if I had a backup turn crank but… I didn’t so that was tough. I am persistent and kept with it and it turned out rich and delicious. However, learn from my mistake and spend more than $29 on a machine – if you can.
Step by Step Instructions:
Place peaches and sugar in a blender and pulse until thoroughly mixed.
Let stand for ten minutes to thicken and allow the sugar to soak into the macerated fruit bits a bit.
Add cream, milk, vanilla, and salt to blender. Blend until smooth and thickened slightly – just under 30 seconds.
Pour into churn-based automatic (preferably) ice cream machine and churn – following the manufacturer’s instructions until thick.
This particular ice cream machine was very basic. Add the canister, attach the paddle and motor and you have enough space in the outer bucket to add the rock salt and ice cubes to encourage the ingredients inside of the canister to freeze and develop the texture while churning.
For the most part – everything seemed to work okay until the middle paddle started spinning the canister, instead of churning the ice cream.
I took the machine apart and put it back together a few times, reseated the canister motor, etc. But to no avail.
So I took the lid off the machine and churned the ice cream myself. Worked… like….a…. charm…. You can see where the ingredients are starting to freeze on the side of the container. Ideally the scraper removes that and it helps to form the texture of the ice cream. I did that by hand too.
Transfer to a freezer-safe container with a tight-fitting lid. Freeze immediately for up to two hours and up to one month.
I’d like to believe the extra work made the ice cream taste better, but in reality – using a machine – or churning. – is what does the trick. I am going to replace this machine and update with a Part 2 blog post.
Frequently Asked Questions
This recipe does calls for an ice cream machine in order to create a rich, creamy texture. I have not tried this recipe without it yet.
Absolutely! This recipe is fruit agnostic, feel free to add whatever seasonal fruits are available from your local farmer’s market or grocery.
Old-Fashioned Churn Peach Ice Cream
Equipment
- Automatic Ice Cream Maker
- Bags of Ice
- Rock Salt
- Freezer-safe container with tight-fitting lid
Ingredients
- 1 pound peaches sliced with pit removed
- ¾ cup sugar
- 2 cups whipping cream
- 1 cup milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- ¼ teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Place peaches and sugar in a blender and pulse until thoroughly mixed. Let stand for ten minutes.
- Add cream, milk, vanilla, and salt to blender. Blend until smooth and thickened slightly – just under 30 seconds.
- Pour into churn-based automatic (preferably) ice cream machine and churn – following the manufacturer’s instructions until thick.
- Transfer to a freezer-safe container with a tight-fitting lid. Freeze immediately for up to two hours and up to one month.
