Peach Ice Cream

This recipe is for use in an old-fashioned churn-style ice cream freezer.

  • 4 eggs
  • 2 Cups sugar, plus 2 teaspoons more
  • dash salt
  • 2 heaping Tablespoons flour
  • 1 can Pet evaporated milk
  • 1 can Eagle Brand sweetened condensed milk
  • 1-2 teaspoons vanilla
  • 1/2 to 1 Cup whole milk (perhaps less)
  • 6 cups peeled and quartered fresh peaches
  • 1/2 to 1 pound frozen peach slices
  • 1 lime, juice only

If a household refrigerator-freezer or deep freeze is available, place the churn’s dasher and the metal canister inside the freezer compartment to chill.

Peel the fresh peaches and cut into quarters or chunks about the size of a tablespoon. sprinkle with 2 teaspoons sugar and juice from 1 lime. Toss to begin the maceration process.

Partially thaw the frozen peach slices and chop fine in a food processor. Move peach chips to a bowl to clear the food processor.

Roughly chop the macerated peaches in small batches (2 cups at most per batch) in the food processor. Don’t chop as fine as the partially thawed peaches; leave some large chunks. Move a chopped batch to the frozen peach bowl and process the next batch. Repeat until all the fresh peaches have been roughly chopped and added to frozen peaches. Store peaches in refrigerator while making the ice cream base.

Beat the eggs until fluffy and continue beating while adding sugar, salt and flour.  Add Pet evaporated milk and Eagle Brand condensed milk.

Add vanilla and mix well. This is the ice cream base.

Remove canister and dasher from household freezer. Insert dasher into canister and pour ice cream base into the canister.

Add peaches to top of base, then add enough whole milk to bring contents to “fill line” marked on the canister; the canister will be about 2/3 full.

Place lid over dasher, place canister in churn-freezer bucket, and attach motor, locking in place. Plug in the freezer or begin to crank. If you are hand-cranking, you need a second person to manage the ice and rock salt.

While the motor is running, add about 3 cups of ice to the bucket, then rock salt in a solid layer over ice. Add second layer of ice – 2-3 cups- and another layer of rock salt, and so forth until the top of the ice cream freezer is reached.

Continue hand-cranking or churning  by electric motor, adding more ice and rock salt as needed.  You should use at least ¾ box of rock salt.  It should take at least 15 minutes for your ice cream to freeze, and possibly as long as 30 minutes.  The freezer will stop when the ice cream is frozen.

For a smooth consistency, eat immediately.

For a more solid consistency, remove the motor, carefully brush away any rock salt or ice, and remove canister from bucket. Open the canister and transfer ice cream to a freezer-proof container. The thinner the layer of ice cream, the more quickly it will harden. Freeze in a household deep freeze or refrigerator’s freezer for 2 hours.

Makes about 4-5 quarts of ice cream.

Recipe adapted from James and Gladys Foshee*

*By the time she was a teenager, Carlyn Foshee Chatfield was tired of eating her family’s locally famous Chocolate Chip Ice Cream. It was her Granny’s recipe and the only kind of ice cream her own mother ever made. So when her father’s parents – James and Gladys Foshee – joined George’s family for Garner vacations, Carlyn was delighted to see them making Peach Ice Cream. Finally, something besides Chocolate Chip!  On a side note, James and Gladys would harvest everything in their garden before setting off for the camping trip. In the hot afternoons, Gladys would sit in the shade and hull peas and beans. She was always up for company, and was happy to share the meal she would be preparing with the results.