I scream, you scream, we all scream for PEACH ice cream!

Nothing says "summer" to me quite like a big bowl of my grandma Helen's peach ice cream. She would make this frozen deliciousness from sweet, ripe, Southern Illinois peaches, and the whole family would wait, rather impatiently, for it to freeze so we could devour it. More often than not, we wouldn't let it freeze all the way and would just dive right on in. It was so, so good. It was one of the highlights of our summer. All of us loved it, and we waited all year to taste it. And, although I know that I will never quite get it to taste exactly the way Grandma Helen did, I am going to try (especially now that I live in the Peach State)!

I made this yesterday morning and we ate it for dessert last night - it was sweet and delicious!


As one of our wedding gifts, Patrick and I received a Cuisinart 1.5 quart electric ice cream maker. I chose it for one purpose and one purpose only - to make Grandma's peach ice cream. I think Patrick just wanted ice cream, period. Any flavor, any time. Point being, if I had one of those old-school ice-cream makers that requires salt and ice and all that jazz (like my Grandma Helen used), there would be no peach ice cream being made in the Witherow house. Y'all have learned by now my love for the quick and the easy. This, my friends, still fits the bill (that is, if you have a handy-dandy Cuisinart ice-cream maker. If you don't, give me a call and 30 minutes notice, and I'll prepare you your very own bowl of goodness).

Grandma Helen's peach ice cream
Modified to fit a 1.5 quart ice-cream machine
5 ripe peaches, peeled and mashed
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon lemon juice
Pinch of salt (less than 1/8 teaspoon)
Between 1/4 & 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/8 teaspoon almond extract (optional)
2 cups half and half

Mix together the peaches, sugar and lemon juice and let stand for a while. Add the salt, vanilla, almond and half and half to the peach mixture and mix together. Add to your ice-cream maker freezer and follow its instructions.

I used these exact measurements and since the ice cream does expand during the freezing process, it did get really full in the ice cream freezer. Next time I might use only 4 peaches and a little less cream, but I really liked the taste of this combination and I didn't make a mess, so maybe I won't. Tweak as needed for your machine.

Leave a comment if you want the one-gallon recipe; I'll email it to anyone who wants it.

Sweet summertime!

PS - thanks to my mom for the conversions; I did not inherit her talents in math, so I had to turn to her for help!