Twinkle's Kitchen | Sweet, summery peach ice cream

Peaches, one of my all-time favorite fruits, are in season right now. Coincidentally July is National Ice Cream Month. And what better way to celebrate than by making peach ice cream.

When I was a kid, I watched in awe as my grandmother cooked, boiled, whisked, tempered and cranked the ice cream machine. My sister, cousins and I eagerly awaited the sweet, cold treat for six to eight of the longest hours that ever existed it seemed.

It was all worth it later when we were devouring the best ice cream ever.

However, I’m sure most of us do not have time to sit around babysitting and cranking an old timey ice cream maker for eight long hours. I know I don’t.

So, with a few test runs and the purchase of a fancy electric ice cream maker, I’ve come up with a modified recipe that tastes amazing and requires very little cooking and absolutely NO cranking.

Some recipes call for raw eggs, but I like to steer clear of that as much as possible in recipes. It can be hazardous and tempering them is just a pain if you don’t necessarily have to have them in a recipe.

Using yogurt and sour cream adds a little twangy punch I really love, infusing a creamy, layered and more robust flavor.

If you don’t want to use peaches, you can swap the ingredient for another fruit if you like, but you’ll need at least the four cups of fruit. Raspberries also taste great with this recipe.

Summer Peach Ice Cream

Ingredients:

3 lbs. ripe peaches, peeled, pitted and coarsely chopped (about four cups)
*For smoother ice cream, use a food processor.
½ cup water
¼ cup sugar
8 oz. sour cream
½ cup non-fat Greek yogurt
2 cups heavy cream
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 tbs. freshly squeezed lemon juice
Fresh lemon zest (from the above lemon)

*This recipe was made with a 4-qt. electric ice cream maker.

For the ice cream maker:

Lots of ice
1 lb. rock salt

Directions:

Place peaches in a saucepan with water and cook over medium heat until fruit is soft, about 20 minutes.

Pour sugar over peaches and stir, and then pour them into another pan to cool in the fridge.

After the peaches are cooled, pour them into your ice cream maker’s canister with the rest of the ingredients (except the ice and rock salt) and stir well, placing the canister into the fridge for about 30 minutes to chill.

After you’ve chilled the canister, insert the dasher – that’s the paddle-like attachment – and make sure it is positioned correctly with the can’s indentation. Don’t forget to put on the lid on the ice cream can!

Place covered ice cream canister into the bucket and attach the motor driver over the ice cream canister cover until it is in place and secure.

Plug it in.

When the machine starts running, begin by adding two inches of ice on the bottom of the bucket. Then sprinkle about ¼ cup of the rock salt over the ice.

Continue layering until the ice/salt level reaches the top of the ice cream canister. You may need to keep layering throughout the churning process to keep ice /salt levels at the top of the canister.

The machine should run between 20-40 minutes. When the ice cream is ready, the can will stop churning.

Open up the can, clean the top and pack ice cream back down into the can. Don’t freak out when you realize the ice cream is still soft when you open the machine. It’s supposed to be this way.

Place the ice cream into the freezer to harden for 2-4 hours.

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Twinkle VanWinkle was born in a small town in Mississippi. A life-long lover of music, media and food, she grew up following those three things along her path. She has almost 20 years of professional cooking under her apron strings, feeding thousands of friends, family and other folks while working in restaurants and bakeries in Oxford, Miss. She baked 300 apple pies for the “Oprah Winfrey Show” and appeared on “The Best Of...” in the same year. Along with producing dynamic entertainment content for LIN Media, she is a mother, musician and social media fanatic.

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