An easy-to-make peach ice cream with tons of fresh peach flavor and no egg yolks. Perfect for egg allergies or a quick DIY project!
Having been without an oven for most of the summer, I have sorely missed baking. It’s been killing me to go to the farmers market each week and see all the lovely summer fruit knowing that I can’t turn any of it into a flaky fruit pie or a biscuit-topped cobbler. Arguably, I should have stopped going to the farmers market since it was like rubbing salt in my wounds. But like a heartbroken girl following her ex on Facebook, I just couldn’t stop myself.
In the absence of an oven, I have tried to console myself with other types of kitchen projects. Making ice cream has turned out to be my go-to, no-oven summer dessert project. My husband loves homemade fruit ice cream. I made some chocolate cherry ice cream earlier in the summer and when the shipment of peaches from the Washington State Stone Fruit Growers arrived, I could not resist making a batch of peach ice cream, which is my husband’s all-time favorite flavor.
Ice cream, for our family, is a sensitive subject. My daughter, Zuzu, has an egg allergy. She can tolerate baked egg, so, for example cakes and cookies made with egg in the batter do not cause her to react. But she can’t eat scrambled eggs or anything like that. The line between what she can and cannot tolerate is not entirely clear. For example, she can eat pancakes but she will react if she eats crepes. How is that for confusing? It’s a question of how long the food is cooked and how much the egg proteins have broken down. Finiding that line has meant a lot of trial and error and, sadly, a few too many cases of hives.
Ice cream is another matter. Many ice creams contain egg yolk and can cause Zuzu to have an allergic reaction. It can be a bummer for her when her friends decide to go out for ice cream and she goes along only to learn that she can’t actually have any ice cream. She can always have sorbet, I guess, but I think we all know that sorbet just isn’t the same!
So when making ice cream at home, I often look for recipes that don’t contain egg yolk. Eggs make ice cream, especially homemade ice cream, taste rich and creamy and help keep it from getting freezer burn. So, there are a lot of reasons you might want to make an egg yolk custard as the base for your homemade ice cream.
But sometimes you are looking for a less labor-intensive project or, like us, you have a reason for avoiding egg. In those cases, you can make a really delicious, fresh-tasting ice cream with just milk and cream — no egg and no making a custard needed.
If you are making homemade ice cream without egg yolks, I do recommend eating it pretty much right away. The longer you keep it in the freezer, the more likely it is to develop ice crystals. You will also notice that I include some alcohol in the recipe. That will help prevent ice crystals as well as adding some nice flavor. (You can still serve this to your kids though. I promise.)
If you love peaches like we do, this is the peach ice cream recipe for you. So much fresh peach flavor and almost no cooking!
Ingredients
- 2 lbs ripe peaches, peeled and finely chopped
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1 TB bourbon, Grand Marnier or other spirit
- 1 tsp lemon juice
- Pinch salt
- 2 cups heavy cream
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
- Make sure the bowl of your ice cream maker is fully frozen. This can take as long as 24 hours.
- Combine the peaches, half the sugar, the bourbon, the lemon juice and the salt in a large bowl and allow to sit for thirty minutes.
- Meanwhile, heat the cream with the remaining sugar and the vanilla extract, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Remove from heat.
- Stir the cream mixture into the peaches until combined. Cover and refrigerate until chilled -- at least several hours and preferably overnight.
- Once the mixture has chilled, prepare ice cream according to your ice cream maker's instructions.
- Pack into a bowl or freezer-safe container and allow to harden further before eating.
- Best if eaten with a few days.
Looks amazing!
Thank you! This is definitely for the peach lovers in the room!