Peach Ice Cream - Cooks Illustrated

Published July 1, 1998.

To get true fruit flavor without an icy texture, use plenty of sugar, cook down the peaches, and add the strained peach liquid to the custard before churning.

The Problem

Working with ripe fruit can be a challenge. If you're not careful, the moisture in juicy fruits can turn into ice during freezing, producing an icy ice cream studded with fruit chunks that are as hard as marbles.

The Goal

If you have the time and the equipment, ice cream made at home is ice cream made best. And this is particularly true for fruit ice creams. When made with ripe, in-season fruit and a rich custard base, homemade fruit ice cream delivers an ultrafresh, creamy-smooth sensation that commercial brands can't match. Peaches were in season, so we decided to try our hand at peach ice cream.

The Solution

Sugar not only helps to sweeten the custard but also lowers the point at which things freeze, which makes for a softer and smoother and less icy ice cream. After trying various ratios of peaches to sugar and letting them stand or cook for various amounts of time, we finally hit on the right combination: letting the peaches stand for a bit with the sugar, then cooking them gently, then straining them, adding the syrupy juice to the custard before churning, and adding the peaches themselves near the end of churning. This gave us a smooth, creamy, and very peachy ice cream.

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