It had been a long time since I had made ice cream and I felt, it was time. I wanted to make something festive for summer in Georgia {cue the peaches} so I had planned on making peach ice cream. When I mentioned this to Jacob he got excited and said that he had wanted to try some new technique he had seen in Saveur this month, I obliged, and I'm really happy I did. This method does not include egg yolks, but instead uses cream cheese to give the ice cream and extremely creamy texture. It's kind of amazing. Also instead of cooling the mixture down in the freezer it suggests putting it in a ziplock back and an ice water bath, which means it's ready in about 20 minutes as opposed to the usual hour/two hours. This is perfect for me because I am impatient.
The new technique also gave us the idea to do a different kind of peach ice cream. Instead we cooked the peaches down with a little bit of sugar, mashed them up and layered them with the ice cream after it had been churned. The result is amazing, chunks of peaches all throughout the ice cream. Yummmm.
Ingredients:
Peach swirl:
1 lb peaches
1/2 cup sugar
Ice Cream:
2 cups milk
1 tsp. cornstarch
1 1/4 cups heavy cream
2/3 cup sugar
2 tbsp. light corn syrup
1/4 tsp. kosher salt
3 tbsp. cream cheese softened
{that is the base but we also added:}
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tbsp. fresh thyme
Directions:
Peaches:
Cook peaches in a saucepan with the sugar on medium heat until they reduce and thicken. About 30 minutes. Mash them up {with a potato masher if you have it} so they are still chunky but resemble more of a syrup. Set aside.
Ice Cream:
1. In a bowl, stir together 1/4 cup milk and the cornstarch; set slurry aside.
2.In a 4 qt. saucepan, whisk together remaining milk and the cream, sugar, syrup, and salt; bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Cook for 4 minutes; stir in slurry. Return to a boil and cook, stirring, until thickened, about 2 minutes.
3.Place cream cheese in a bowl and pour in 1/4 cup hot milk mixture; whisk until smooth. Add vanilla and thyme, stir, and let sit for about 5 minutes.
4. Pour mixture through sifter and into a plastic bag; seal, and submerge in a bowl of ice water until chilled. Pour mixture into an ice cream maker; process according to your machine.
5. Transfer ice cream, layering ice cream then peach swirl, ice cream, peach swirl; into a storage container and freeze until set.
Enjoy!
