FINALLY, my exhaustive ice cream trials have yielded the smoothest, creamiest, homemade ice cream. Okay, maybe exhaustive is a little bit of a stretch but after 4 rounds of grainy, large ice crystal ice cream production, I was starting to get a little discouraged. How come I couldn’t make super creamy ice cream? Was my milk/ cream quality not rich enough? NOPE. Turns out I needed to add a little boozy ingredient to keep large ice crystals from forming during the chilling process to make these best peach ice cream ever. Or best ice cream ever. Once you try it, you can let me know.
To preface about the alcohol inclusion, there is no actual alcohol taste in the final ice cream product, it is cooked off in the initial cooking process. I imagine that during commercial ice cream production there is some additional emulsifying ingredient and super unique chilling process that helps the ice cream from creating rough crystals however I’m using this simple ice cream maker to churn up this peach ice cream at home so I had to figure out how to keep the milk from freezing quickly.
So what is the secret ingredient- it’s vodka!
2 TBSP of vodka added during the egg tempering process is all you need to keep the end result creamy and dreamy so you can enjoy that creamery style ice cream but with the satisfaction of having made it at home all by yourself.
So in all my other attempts of ice cream making, I’ve attempted vanilla, because obviously, you need to perfect the base before you jump into flavorings, right?
Right-ish. In an attempt to use up the rest of my Peach Truck peaches, I decided to channel my favorite peach ice cream from Jaemore farms and dive straight into peach ice cream land!
And while I was dreaming it up, I decided some brown sugar shortbread cookie crumble would add that perfect “peach cobbler” esque dessert that is on everyone’s cooking list this time of year.
Go big or go home!
Here’s the recipe for the best Peach Ice Cream & if you’re feeling adventurous add the brown sugar shortbread cookie crumble too. It’s your next favorite ice cream concoction. Promise. If you need more peach inspiration, check out all of our peach recipes here.
Peach Ice Cream Recipe with Brown Sugar Shortbread Crumble
Like eating peach cobbler but less messy and served in a cone.
- 2 cups heavy whipping cream
- 1 cup whole milk
- 2/3 cup white sugar
- 1/8 tsp fine salt
- 6 large egg yolks
- 2 tbsp vodka
- 1/2 tbsp vanilla bean paste
- 2 pitted peaches with skins
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 4 pieces Walkers Shortbread Cookies
- 1/8 cup brown sugar
- 2 tsp melted butter
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The night before, place your ice cream drum in the freezer to chill according to manufacturers recommendation. I also recommend placing the blade in the freezer to keep everything as cold as possible.
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In a saucepan over medium heat, simmer your cream, milk, sugar, and salt until dissolved, about 5 minutes. Remove pot from heat. In a separate bowl, whisk your egg yolks. Whisking constantly, pour about 1/3 of your warm milk mixture into the yolks to temper the eggs. Once whisked, add your egg mixture back to the milk mixture in the saucepan and return to medium-low heat. Gently cook until the mixture is thick enough and coats the back of a spoon, should read about 170-180 degrees on an instant-read thermometer. Remove from heat and whisk in your vodka and vanilla bean paste.
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Transfer to a fridge safe bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Chill for 4 hours over overnight before putting in the ice cream machine. The colder the base can be, the better the ice cream will yield in the final product.
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In a blender, add your pitted peaches, skin on, and brown sugar and puree until completely smoothed out. Should have the consistency of apple sauce or finer. Transfer to a bowl and place in the fridge.
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In a food processor, pulse the brown sugar and shortbread until combined in a rough powder. Slowly drizzle in the butter until small clumps can be formed by pressing the dough together with your fingers. Remove from bowl and set aside.
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Turn on your ice cream maker, and add your milk mixture to the bowl. Let churn for roughly 15 minutes until soft serve consistency is reached. At this point, slowly spoon in your peach puree. You may have to add two spoonfuls of puree and wait for that to incoporate before you add more.
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When the peach puree has been incorporated, let run for an additional 3-5 minutes until you can spoon out a spoonful of ice cream and it has a firmer consistency than soft serve. At this point, slowly add in 2/3 of your cookie crumble. Churn for another 30 second so it's worked in and stop the machine.
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In your ice cream storage containers, transfer the ice cream and once filled half way, add additional shortbread crumble. Then fill and top with more shortbread. Put in the freezer and let chill for an additional 2 hours or serve immediately.
