Millions of peaches, peaches and cream

Have you seen the peaches lately? Unbelievable! I stopped at my local Albertson’s a few days back to pick up some contact lens solution, and was stopped in my tracks by the peach display near the front door. I have never seen larger, more perfect peaches in my life. And they are freestone! I bought almost 5 pounds. Too bad they are neither organic nor local…. but I couldn’t help myself.

So what do you do with 5 pounds of peaches? Turn them into ice cream!

Summer Peach Ice Cream

3 nice large peaches
1 egg
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup heavy cream
3/4 cup half and half
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon salt

Remove the pits from the peaches, and chop peaches into small pieces. Put into a blender and puree until smooth.

In a medium bowl, whisk the egg until light yellow in color. Add sugar, whisk to blend. Mix in cream, half-and-half, vanilla, and salt. Add peach puree; stir to blend thoroughly.

Pour into an ice cream freezer and freeze according to manufacturer’s instructions.

This makes a seriously rich and creamy ice cream and it’s just busting out with peach flavor. I want to try experimenting with less cream, more milk, to make a lighter, more ice-milk-y version. My favorite ice cream in the universe is Blue Bell’s Vanilla Bean, and I think part of the reason I like it is that it’s very light in texture; it’s not too rich, and it’s moderately creamy without having that mouth-feel of “oh my gosh I am eating pure fat.”