It’s not summer in the South until you’ve churned your first batch of peach ice cream. The chopping fresh peaches until you’re sticky up to your elbows. The sweet-fresh smell of milk and heavy cream. The white noise whirr of the electric ice cream churn. The anticipation of waiting what seems like forever while the churn works its magic. Many a child learned patience while waiting for the homemade peach ice cream to get finished already.
Yes, I know. I can get peach ice cream at the store. The funny thing is: no one who has ever tasted homemade peach ice cream has ever said that to me. It’s a taste and a texture that can’t be captured in commercial production. It has to be small batch, and it has to have super-ripe fresh peaches.
Human beings have been making ice cream for a very long time. King Solomon tells us in Proverbs, “Like a snow-cooled drink at harvest time is a trustworthy messenger to the one who sends him; he refreshes the spirit of his master.” Scholars believe King Solomon is most likely referring to a Chick-fil-a peach milkshake.
Alexander the Great of ancient Greece (356-323 BC) had ice cream. Emperors of the Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD) had ice cream. Sorbet shows up in 17th century Italy. Sicilian Francesco Procopio dei Coltelli opened the first café in Paris in 1686, which served—you guessed it—gelato, or Italian ice cream.
In America, the first ice cream parlor opened in New York in 1790. Transportation being what it was at the time, George Washington spent $200 that same year to purchase ice cream supplies for his Virginia plantation since he couldn’t just pop up to NYC for a scoop. Thomas Jefferson was a fan of ice cream as well, and First Lady Dolly Madison served strawberry ice cream at President Madison’s second inauguration banquet at the the White House. Ice cream is so American we have to serve it with apple pie.
As is the case with other wonderful foods with a rich history—like deviled eggs—Southern cooks added their special sparkle—in this case by adding locally grown peaches—and took ice cream to a new level. Peach ice cream truly is the Official Taste of Summer in the South.
As fate would have it, I turned to a couple of Yankees to find the recipe for the perfect peach ice cream. Their names are Ben and Jerry, and you may have heard of them before. They started a little ice cream shop in Vermont a while back. They also put out a nice little cookbook of ice cream recipes that you need to own if you like to make ice cream.
I’m certain the secret sauce of Ben and Jerry’s Fresh Georgia Peach Ice Cream is the macerated peaches. If you have chosen your peaches well—slightly overripe even to the point you might have to cut off some bruised parts—macerating them will yield you an abundance of peach juice to mix in with your milk, cream, eggs, and sugar before you put it in the churn and leaves a nice bit of chopped peaches for mixing in the ice cream for the last few minutes of churning. (Macerating just means you chop up the peaches, stir in a little sugar, and let the juices draw out in the refrigerator for a couple of hours.)
It’s really easy to make ice cream at home, but you do need some equipment. You will need an ice cream maker. I have this one. It’s a good size for making Ben and Jerry’s recipes, and it makes really good ice cream. You need something to put your ice cream in once it’s churned. I have these containers, but you can use a Tupperware container or a casserole dish. An ice cream scoop is nice to have so you don’t bend your good spoons when you eat the leftovers the next day, assuming you have leftovers. We often don’t.
The most time consuming part of making peach ice cream is chopping up the peaches. Everything else just needs a quick whisk in the mixer. A trick I’ve learned for peeling peaches is to cut a small X in the pointy end of the peach and drop it in boiling water for 20-30 seconds. The skin peels right off, but be careful not to burn yourself.
Peaches are at Georgia farm stands now and will be around until early September. I personally think the peaches that come in during July/August are the sweetest, and freestone-style peaches are the easiest to pit and chop. Jaemor Farms just north of Gainesville, Georgia is our go-to place for fresh picked peaches, but any farmers market or farm stand in the South should have a decent selection.
If you haven’t started making peach ice cream yet this year, you need to get to it!
I scream,
You scream,
We all scream
For ice cream!
Fresh Georgia Peach Ice Cream
by Ben and Jerry (You really must buy the book.)
2 cups ripe peaches, peeled and finely chopped
1 1/4 cups sugar, divided
Juice of 1/2 lemon
2 large eggs
2 cups heavy cream
1 cup milk
Combine peaches, 1/2 cup sugar, and lemon juice in a bowl. Cover and refrigerate 2 hours, stirring about every 30 minutes.
Drain the juice into a bowl, and put the peaches back in the refrigerator.
Whisk eggs with a mixer until light and fluffy, about 1-2 minutes. Add remaining 3/4 cup of sugar a little at a time, and then continue whisking for about 1 minute. Add cream and milk and whisk to blend. Add the peach juice and whisk until combined.
Transfer to your ice cream maker and follow the manufacturer’s instructions.
About 2 minutes before the ice cream is done—it will look like soft serve ice cream at this point—add the chopped peaches and continue freezing until the peaches are fully mixed in.
This makes a bit more than 1 quart of ice cream.
Interesting Stuff From the Interwebs
This guy would have been no match for the North Hall High School Lady Trojans’ (circa 1988) fast break.
What happens when a 19 year old accidentally moves into a retirement community? They all make friends.
A Teenager Mistakenly Moved Into a Senior Living Complex. TikTok Loves It.
This gives me flashbacks to trying to talk on the phone when the kids were little.
As I close out this week, I want to tell you about my uncle, Roger Slaton. Roger was one of the funniest people I’ve ever known. I mean, deep down, belly laughing funny. He loved to tell a good joke, and he kept everyone in stitches. I could sit for hours and listen to him play the piano. He was a kind, Godly man, and I loved him dearly. He was also my insurance agent. (State Farm. He’d want me to tell you that part.) To me he was my beloved uncle, but to Dawson County, Georgia, he was a cherished native son, and the Dawson County News gave him a lovely sendoff that you can read here. Roger was married to my dad’s sister, Loretta. In February 2020, we lost Daddy, and a week later we lost Loretta. This week, we lost Roger. Three family members in fifteen months. It’s been a hard year for my family, as I know it has been for many of you as well. Please keep Roger and Loretta’s children—Barry, Chuck, and Julie—and their families in your prayers. Hug your loved ones tight every chance you get.
Until next time,
Karla