Tuesdays With Dorie: Honey-Peach Ice Cream

This week’s TWD recipe, chosen for us by Tommi of Brown Interior, was Honey-Peach Ice Cream. Yum.

Unfortunately, it’s about a month too early for local peaches here in the lovely mid-Atlantic, so I had to buy some California imports at Whole Foods. They were not Jersey peaches, let me tell you.

I cut up half the not-terribly-ripe alien peaches and threw them into a pot, then discovered that the local farmers market honey was gone. I threw a little tantrum and then left for a doctor’s appointment. While I was gone, #1 Son rode to the rescue and made the custard with agave instead of the honey.

I love #1 Son.

I came home to discover custard chilling in the fridge (with lots of little egg bits in it; he didn’t know the strainer trick). I left again to take #2 Son into the city for an art class.

I came home to delicious ice cream, strained and churned and stuck in the freezer to harden. (And it did harden; we had to let it sit out for about 10 minutes before we could scoop it.)

I love #1 Son.

I make a lot of ice cream in the summer; I’m partial to Philadelphia-style recipes because they’re so much easier, but I’ve been using David Liebovitz‘s Perfect Scoop a lot too. Homemade ice cream is something of a staple around here.

I say this so you’ll trust me when I say that this stuff was good. Once the peach bits softened up a little, it was excellent. Try it. You’ll like it. But wait till the peaches are in season.

As a starter (everything’s a starter; dessert is the important course), #1 Son made a Vietnamese-Creole fusion dinner of gumbo served pho-style with add-ins of curried peas, toasted walnuts and pecans, sauteed mushrooms, black olives, coriander chutney, and a dill-roasted garlic tomato sauce. He’s creative, I’ll say that for him.

We wound up with less than a quart of ice cream, and we could have eaten more. And you know what’s really good? Slivered toasted almonds on top. Perfect combination.

(Not very photogenic, though. Here’s a shot in #1 Son’s Marine Corps mug.)

Herewith, the reviews:

Husband: I was disappointed in the texture — it didn’t look or feel like ice cream in the bowl. But in the mouth it had a wonderful peach flavor, especially as the peach bits warmed up a bit, and I wish there had been more. The agave worked perfectly.

#1 Son: Flavor was good. Texture was a little grainy, more like a granita than an ice cream. But that could have been more my fault than the recipe’s; this was the first time I’ve ever made custard-style ice cream. I was worried about the agave, but it turned out really well. I think it let the peach shine more than honey would have. It was also pretty good with toasted almonds, I gotta say.

#2 Son: Flavor was good. Texture was kind of hard. I didn’t get very many actual peach bits, but it was creamy if you let it sit out for a second. I had it in a bowl of bread, which was too salty, but it was good with toasted almonds. I would eat that again, without the bread bowl.

Check out the variations created by the other TWD bloggers, and get the recipe either from Baking: From My Home to Yours or from Brown Interior. Then make the ice cream already!