Old Fashioned Peach Ice Cream

Take advantage of fresh peaches while they are in season. This Old Fashioned Peach Ice Cream captures the perfect peach flavor.

This is a creamy, rich-tasting ice cream with bits of peaches throughout. 

Homemade Peach Ice Cream

I've tweaked and tested this recipe over the years to get just the right creamy texture and peachy flavor. Every scoop tastes like a bite of ripe summer peaches. It's a simple recipe that lets the peaches do all the talking, with just a bit of vanilla to bring it all together.

When I was a kid, we always made homemade ice cream. It wasn’t until I had kids of my own and a kitchen full of fresh peaches from our local orchards that I decided to try making peach ice cream. I wanted something that felt like summer in a bowl. This recipe brings together that old-fashioned homemade process with the sweet, bright flavor of ripe peaches.

This peach ice cream captures the warmth of summer with plenty of peach flavor.

Peach Ice Cream Ingredients

• Peaches - Use the very best peaches you can find. I prefer to use yellow freestone peaches. The pit in a freestone peach easily comes out and doesn’t stick to the fruit. When fresh peaches are not in season, you can use frozen peaches. Select chopped frozen peaches and don’t thaw before using.
• Sugar - Granulated sugar is used in this recipe.
• Heavy Cream - Sometimes called whipping cream. Look for a cream that has between 30-36% milk fat
• Egg Yolks - Just the yolks are used in this recipe. The yolks help form the custard that makes this recipe rich and creamy.
• Vanilla - Use real vanilla, not imitation vanilla.

Fresh peaches

I have played around with making perfect peach ice cream for a while, and I've finally nailed it. The secret is all in the fruit and extracting as much peach flavor from the peaches as possible. 

My method is to peel and cut up all the peaches into small cubes. Then put them into a bowl with a bit of sugar and let them sit and macerate. The sugar helped release a lot of the juices from the peaches. This peach liquid is added to the custard mixture, which brings a beautiful peach flavor.

Once the peaches have released a lot of their juices, I pop them into a food processor and pulse just 3-4 times. This is just enough to break down the peaches a bit more, but still leaves a few pieces. 

Just look at all that liquid! That's liquid gold! It's nothing but the juices from fresh peaches and a bit of sugar. So much yummy flavor and all that liquid, and the peaches go into the ice cream.

Frozen peaches

For years, I have only made this with fresh peaches, and they really do make the best peach ice cream. If you have fresh peaches available, use them. However, there are times of the year when fresh peaches aren't available, and you just have to have some peach ice cream. I have discovered that you can use frozen peaches. Make certain you buy unsweetened peaches. You just want the peaches and not any sweeteners or anything else added. 

Allow the peaches to thaw and cut them up into small cubes. Add the sugar and let the peaches rest for a few hours. I find you don't extract as much juice from the peaches as you do when you use fresh, but it still works. Now we can have peach ice cream all year long! 

Ice cream maker

I used an electric automatic ice cream maker to churn this ice cream. Any type of ice cream maker will work fine, just make certain your bowl will hold 1 ½ quarts of churned ice cream. Feel free to use a hand-churned maker too!

How to Make Peach Ice Cream

This delicious homemade ice cream starts by making a custard. This isn't difficult, but you do need to follow a few steps so your custard turns out. The entire recipe with ingredients is listed at the bottom of this post.

1. Heat cream, milk, sugar, and salt over medium heat
2. In a separate bowl, beat egg yolks until they are smooth and lightened in color. This can be done with a wire whisk or an electric beater

3. Once cream mixture is hot, but not boiling. Turn off heat and remove ½ cup of liquid.

4. Slowly pour hot cream mixture into egg yolks while whisking. This helps temper the egg yolks so they don't cook or curdle when adding to the hot cream mixture

5. Add egg mixture into pot with the remaining cream. Pour in slowly while whisking

6. Turn heat back on to medium heat until mixture begins to thicken and mixture reaches 185 degrees

7. Remove from heat and pour through a fine strainer to remove any bits from the egg

8. Add peaches and juices

9. Cover and refrigerate until fully chilled, at least 4 hours

Peach Ice Cream Recipe Tips

• Use the best fresh peaches you can find, or if not available, use frozen peaches
• Make certain your custard is fully chilled (at least 4 hours) before churning
• Your churning bowl should be completely frozen before churning (at least 12 hours)
• Harden ice cream in freezer after churning for at least 2 hours
• If ice cream becomes too hard, just let set at room temperature for 10 minutes before scooping
• Not sure how to separate eggs? Check out this post on how to separate eggs!

Storing Homemade Peach Ice Cream

To store homemade ice cream, place it in an airtight container to prevent ice crystals from forming and maintain its creamy texture. Store the container in the coldest part of your freezer, typically the back, to avoid temperature fluctuations. Homemade ice cream is best eaten within a month. The ice cream will last longer, but you may see some slight changes in quality.

Homemade ice cream tends to become harder in the freezer than store-bought varieties. To make it easier to serve, remove it from the freezer for 5-10 minutes before scooping.

Peaches and Cream Ice Cream FAQs

More delicious frozen treats

• Mint Chocolate Chip
• Raspberry Swirl
• Orange Sherbet
• Lime Sherbet
• Strawberry Ice Cream

More recipes using peaches

• Peach Cobbler
• Peach Bars
• Peach Muffins
• Peach Salsa
• Brown Rice and Peach Salad

If you make this recipe, I’d love to hear about it! Leave a comment below and snap a picture and tag me on Instagram @beyondthechickencoop

Please check out all my delicious desserts!

This recipe was originally posted in July 2016. Over the years, I have made some slight adjustments to the recipe. I have updated the recipe and instructions to show these changes.