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.
- Heat cream, milk, sugar, and salt over medium heat
- 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
Ice cream is churned for two main reasons. The first is to help incorporate air into the mixture, which helps make a light texture. The second is to stop large ice crystals from forming. The churning keeps everything moving and helps create the smooth texture.
The ice cream maker will churn and freeze the ice cream for you. However, it will still be very soft.
Once the churning has stopped, remove your ice cream from the bowl and place in a freezer-safe container. Immediately place in the freezer for at least 2 hours. If you have a deep freeze (0 degrees or lower) place your ice cream there. Otherwise, plan on additional time for your ice cream to harden.
More delicious frozen treats
More recipes using peaches
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!
Old Fashioned Peach Ice Cream
Equipment
- Measuring Cups
- Measuring Spoons
Ingredients
Peaches
- 3 medium sized fresh peaches (peeled, pitted and chopped - approximately 2 cups)
- ¼ cup sugar
Custard
- 2 cups heavy cream
- 1 cup milk
- ¾ cups sugar
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 4 egg yolks
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Instructions
Peaches
- Place chopped peaches in a bowl. Add ¼ cup sugar and stir. Cove and let sit for at least 1 hour.
- Once peaches have released a lot of juice, place peaches and juice in a food processor. Pulse 3-4 times just until peaches are broken up into small pieces.
Custard
- In a saucepan, heat heavy cream, milk and ¾ cup sugar and salt. Warm over medium heat, stirring often until the sugar has dissolved, 3 to 4 minutes.
- In a separate bowl, beat egg yolks with a wire whisk or an electric mixer. Egg yolks should become smooth and lighter in color (see pictures in post)
- Take ½ cup of heated cream mixture and pour slowly into egg yolks. Whisk steadily while pouring in mixture.
- Pour egg mixture back into remaining cream mixture. Reheat over medium heat for 5 to 8 minutes stirring often. You do not want this mixture to boil. Mixture will begin to thicken just slightly. You want it to be thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. An instant read thermometer should read 175-185 F.
- Place a fine strainer over the top of a bowl. Pour custard mixture into strainer to strain off any small bits of egg or lumps.
- Stir in vanilla and peaches with juices
- Cover and refrigerate until completely cooled, at least 4 hours or overnight.
- Place custard into an automatic ice cream maker and churn for 20-25 minutes
- Remove ice cream and place in freezer for 2 hours before serving.
Notes
- 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
Nutritional Disclaimer:
Nutritional information is provided as a courtesy and should only be construed as an estimate rather than a guarantee. To obtain the most precise nutritional information in a provided recipe, you should calculate the nutritional information with the exact ingredients you are using when preparing the recipe using your preferred nutrition calculator.
Nutrition
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.
Siri Zwemke says
I was a bit disappointed. Granted, I used white peaches, so perhaps a note indicating that yellow peaches would be better as I feel they would impart a stronger flavor. I felt there was too much water in the peaches and thus the resulting ice cream was a bit too watery/sorbetish for my taste. I was looking for a more creamy consistency - perhaps using freeze dried peaches instead of fresh? I followed all instructions and did leave it to chill overnight. It just wasn't up there with amazing in my book.
Kathy says
I have not used white peaches before, but if it's not a perfect peach to eat, it's not a perfect peach to use in any recipe. Nothing is going to make that peach any better. This recipe works out beautifully when you have delicious peaches. Sorry it didn't work for you.
Kathy
Mark says
This is my go-to peach ice cream recipe. It’s my husband’s favorite and I make it at least four times a year during peach season. I do a couple of things to amp up the peach flavor. I add half a packet of freeze dried peaches that I’ve ground to a powder to the custard. (I found them at my local Walmart.) Additionally when it reaches the “soft-serve” stage, I add a few tablespoons of homemade peach jam to the machine to swirl it in. Peach heaven!
Kathy says
Thanks, Mark!!! I'm so glad it's become a favorite of yours. Thanks for sharing your tips! 🙂
Kathleen says
My first ever try at making ice cream, it was fabulous. Love the custard style, perfect creamy compliment to the peaches. The only modifications I made was no sugar mixed with peaches (didn't need the extra sweetness) and no vanilla (because I forgot). I think these two modifications really let the natural peach flavor sing.
I'm thinking of trying this recipe with monkfruit sweetener, the type that measures like sugar(first ingredient erythritol). Wouldn't it be great if this could be made Keto friendly?
Thanks so much.
Kathy says
Hi Kathleen,
So glad you enjoyed this ice cream. I've never tried monk fruit sweetener but I think it's worth giving it a try!
Thanks,
Kathy 🙂
Lydia says
If you want to make this ice cream keto, you should use a 50-50 mix of erythritol and allulose. Allulose is the sweetener that allows the frozen ice cream to be scoopable. All of my homemade ice cream is made with this mixture of sweeteners. If making a 100% fruit or berry sorbet, I use 100% allulose and it works perfectly.
Mark says
I love this recipe. One question. Do you find it takes longer to churn to get to the soft serve consistency because of the higher water content of the peaches? Also since I only make this when peaches are in season, I usually have fresh peach jam on hand as well. I like to swirl a few tablespoons through the ice cream before I freeze it. Just an FYI.
Kathy says
Hi Mark,
I'm not sure if the peaches cause a longer churn time. Everytime I make it, the churning time seems to vary a bit. I like the idea of adding a bit of peach jam! Sounds delish 🙂
Kathy
stacey says
Just got done churning and it taste wonderful. Can't wait to try it after it freezes. This was the first custard style ice cream I have made. Your instructions were very easy to follow. Thank you! I will be trying the mint chocolate chip next.
Kathy says
Thanks, Stacey!!! Homemade ice cream is the best! I just posted a recipe for strawberry ice cream that you will want to check out too!
🙂
Mickie Philip says
I love this recipe! I’ve made it with mango purée & its amazing! Bless you for posting this wonderful recipe!
Kathy says
Thank you! I need to try this with mango now too! Thanks for the great idea and your kind comment!
Kathy 🙂
Tia says
You should remain consistent when calling out the units of measurements. For example you use fractions of a cup (1/4 cup) in the single recipe and decimal of cups (1.5 cups) in. the doubled or tripled recipes.
Kathy says
Hi Tia,
This is an automatic feature in my recipe template. Unfortunately when you double or triple a recipe, it automatically converts it to decimals.
Debrah Siarkowski says
I'm making up the custard for a triple batch now. When I hit 3X it tripled the main recipe. But the instructions stayed the same. So I have 2 1/2 cups of sugar for the custard, but the instructions say put cream, milk and salt into a large saucepan with 3/4 cup of sugar!!! I kept re reading it to find what was wrong with it until it dawned on me that the Ingredients were tripled in the ingredients but not in the Instructions!! Some novice cooks might not catch that and ruin a big batch of ice cream and whipping cream is terrible to waste...
Kathy says
Hi Debrah,
Thanks for letting me know about the instructions. I like the feature of being able to double or triple a recipe, but not having it change in the instructions is a bit confusing. 🙂
Roxanne says
I made this but with a couple of additions. I macerated the tiny cubed peaches with sugar and a teaspoon of balsamic vinegar and added 1/4 teaspoon powdered ginger. I left it for 4 hours and blended it into a puree (I don't like chunks of fruit in my ice cream. I held back 1/4 of the puree and layered it with the ice-cream in a plastic container so i had peach ripples when i scooped it. Wow! So peachy! Also 1 tip. I put the empty plastic container in the freezer so when i put the soft ice cream in the container, as it froze to a more solid state, no ice crystals formed on the edges. Great recipe!
Kathy says
I love what you've done! I'm going to need to try it with a bit of balsamic and ginger! What a creative idea! 🙂
james says
I am trying your recipe tomorrow, it looks like a smooth custard style recipe... loaded with peach flavor.
Kathy says
Wonderful - enjoy!!!
David @ Spiced says
I have fond memories of making ice cream the old-fashioned way (with a churn and rock salt) at my grandparents house in the summer. Man, I hadn't thought about that in a long time until I read this post - thanks for the memories there! And as far as peach ice cream, you know I'm all in! I look forward to fresh peach season, so this is one of my favorite times of the year for sure. I foresee a batch of this ice cream in our future! 🙂
Kathy says
The churning was so much fun - or so I thought as a kid! The end result was always delicious - and it still is! 🙂
Alexandra Cook says
How delicious, Kathy! I love ice cream, and nothing beats homemade.
Kathy says
I agree! 🙂
Valentina says
Stone fruits (and berries) are one of the highlights of summer. And so it making ice cream! So this is a win-win. What a beautiful and deliciously creamy recipe! 🙂 ~Valentina
Kathy says
I love the bounty of summertime and love using everything possible!
Jenna says
I am keen to try this however we have a fabulous nectarine tree in our yard. Will it work with nectarines instead?
Kathy says
Hi Jenna,
I have not tried making this with nectarines. However, peaches and nectarines are interchangeable in so many recipes so I think it should work. Give it a try and let me know how it turns out. 🙂
Devorah says
I made this ice cream recipe and everyone absolutely LOVED IT! SO CREAMY AND DELICIOUS! I added a smidgen of peach brandy to it. Kept it from getting ice hard, but not too soft, either. Just right!
Kathy says
Thanks! And I love the idea of a bit of brandy! 🙂
Shaunna says
Decadent and delicious! What a treat. I browsed several recipes and picked this one. Haven’t made ice cream for probably 25 years so I knew a made from scratch, no shortcuts, no lite versions was what was required. I did take a cue from some other recipes and added 2 tsp fresh lime juice to brighten the flavor of the peaches and counter some of the heaviness of the cream and eggs. Thank you Kathy for sharing your recipe.
Kathy says
Thanks! If you're going to make ice cream, it's got to be the real thing! Thanks for the tip about the lime juice. I'll have to try that next time! Thanks for leaving a comment! 🙂
Purvi says
How can we make it eggless if have egg allergy?
Kathy says
Hi Purvi, I'm afraid I don't have any suggestions to make it eggless. I wish I could be of help, but I've only ever made it with eggs.
Good luck!
Tammy says
Ahhh if only I had an ice cream maker! These look fabulous. Homemade ice cream is always the best and worth the extra effort 🙂
Kathy says
You might have to put one on your wish list! Homemade ice cream is soooo worth it!
Leslie says
I wish Peach Man came to our town! My mouth was watering the entire time I was reading this post. Gotta try this one!
Kathy says
We are lucky that he brings his produce to us, otherwise I'd be without delicious fresh peaches!
Debbie S says
Not sure why people can rate a recipe at all when they haven't made it! Seems like most of the people have done this here. So I guess it looks like a 5 star recipe. Not helpful.
Julie says
God, I totally agree! It makes it very difficult. I AM making it so I will review afterwards!
Heidy L. McCallum says
This recipe sounds amazing and so cold and refreshing. I could go for it right now. Think I am heading to the store to get what I need this afternoon. Super excited!!!!
Kathy says
You're in for a treat! Enjoy!!!
Stephanie Shafer says
What size ice cream maker did you use...2 quart or 4?
Kathy says
I use a 2 quart ice cream maker.
Danielle says
Fabulous way to enjoy fresh peaches while they are in season. Delicious ice cream that can surely make any hot day a little bit cooler! Yum.