Buttermilk Peach Ice Cream

Last weekend I shared with you a recipe for some scrumptious hushpuppies.  And for that recipe I had to use buttermilk, which I have never been able to find sold in anything less than a quart in the store. Hmmm, what to do then with all that leftover buttermilk...

How about some ice cream?  When I started thinking about making buttermilk ice cream, I remembered seeing a booth at the Farmer's Market last weekend selling baskets of gorgous peaches.  Because buttermilk is a bold flavor I thought the peaches would make a nice sweet addition to help soften it.

This was all very exiting because I've never made homemade ice cream before.  It was an adventure and I learned a couple of things that I put down in the notes.  But it was all worth the effort.

I highly recommend a scoop or two of buttermilk peach ice cream topped with some Kirsch, Creme de Cassis or homemade raspberry cordial.

Buttermilk Peach Ice Cream

6 egg yolks, room temp
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup heavy cream
2 cups buttermilk, cold
1 large peach, peeled and small chopped (approx 1 cup)

In a medium size bowl, blend the sugar and egg yolks.  Set aside.

In a saucepan, over low heat, scald the heavy cream.  Once warmed, slowly whisk the heated cream into the sugar-egg yolk mixture.

Pour the mixture back into the saucepan and heat until the back of a spoon is coated when you dip it in.  You do not want the mixture to boil.

Remove saucepan from heat and stir in the cold buttermilk.

Either ice down the mixture (using an ice bath) or pour into a non-reactive container and refrigerate until completely cooled.

Using an ice cream maker, follow product directions.

Important to note that peaches should only be added in 5 minutes before ice cream should be ready.

Once it's done doing it's spin-n-freeze thing, transfer it to a freezerable container and enjoy.

NOTES

Despite the fact I was using an ice cream maker, I did not let my mixture cool down enough so even after 40 minutes of spinning in the container, my ice cream didn't freeze up properly.  I resorted to finishing up with a non-ice cream maker method.

not quite there

If you do not have any ice cream maker, you can make this recipe but plan to make it the day before you want to eat it so it can be left in the freezer overnight.

Put your mixture in a freezer-safe container, best to find one that is shallow so that you have more freezing surface.  About 30-40 minutes after you put the mixture in the freezer, take it out and spoon it around.  The edges will have started freezing but spooning it around incorporates the not-yet frozen parts.  Do this 2 or 3 times before leaving overnight and it will be ready to serve the next day.

quite there