Have a Happy National Peach Ice Cream Day with Peach Ice Cream!

I love the idea of fresh-fruit-flavored ice creams, but they're not as easy as you think.  Fruit contains a lot of water.  If you put chunks of fruit in the ice cream, you end up with hard, icy fruit blocks in the ice cream.  And that's not nice.

Pureeing the fruit solves the problem of icy chunks, but for some fruits, the flavor is pretty darned mild.  Peaches aren't particularly strong flavored, that's for sure.  If I had a peach extract, I might have used that to enhance the flavor.  But, oddly enough, I didn't have any peach flavoring.

So instead, I chose similar flavors that I knew would enhance the peach.  First, I added a bit of pineapple extract.  Then I added just a touch of fiore di sicilia, which has a citrus-vanilla-floral flavor.  And then a little bit of rum.

Since this isn't peach season, I used canned peaches.  When fresh peaches are in season, I'm sure I'll come up with another recipe.


Peach Ice Cream
by Donna

1 15-ounce can peaches in juice
1/2 cup sugar
2 Tablespoons rum
Pinch of sugar
2 cups half-and-half
1/2 teaspoon pineapple extract (optional)
3 drops fiore di sicilia (optional)

Blend everything in your blender until smooth.  Refrigerate until thoroughly chilled - give it about an hour, since those canned peaches were room temperature, right?

Churn in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's directions.  Transfer to a storage container and freeze until firm.