Thursday, July 15, 2010

creme fraiche peach cinnamon ice cream


I've decided that everything extra that I have in my fridge is going into ice cream.
I don't care if my ice creams have long names--I like a good combination. Screw simplicity.

This one comes from a taste memory that goes a way back. It turns out, I actually went to boarding school. Remind me to tell you the story about that one another time- it's different than you might think. But the food there was just awful, and awful for three meals a day. Honestly, I remember nothing other than wilted broccoli and Lucky Charms. And one other thing.
Someone in the kitchen must have had an inspiration one day, and they started mixing canned peaches, plain yogurt and cinnamon. They would scoop it into those little green school plastic bowls and lay out maybe forty bowls of it on the counter at breakfast. No one took it except me. And I would take three. Brilliant combination.

So like the glamour girl I am, I had too much creme fraiche in the fridge. And lovely local peaches going all compost-y on me. Time for ice cream.

Who knows what will be next. Zucchini? Leftover chicken? Cheddar? Oh watch out...I'm on fire here!

Creme Fraiche Peach Cinnamon Ice Cream
(totally fabulous, by the way)

1 cup whole milk
2 cups creme fraiche
1/2 cup sugar
5 egg yolks
pinch of salt
4 medium peaches, peeled and cut into bite sized pieces
1/2 cup water
1 tablespoon cinnamon

In a medium saucepan, combine the peaches and the water. Cook until tender and releasing juice, about 20 minutes. Stir in the cinnamon. It will form something of a syrup. Transfer to the refrigerator to cool completely.
Warm the milk, sugar and salt in a medium saucepan. In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg yolks. Slowly pour the warm milk mixture into the egg yolks, whisking constantly. Pour the mixture back into the saucepan and cook on med low heat, stirring fairly constantly. When the mixture coats the back of the spoon, remove from heat.
Set up a strainer over a medium mixing bowl. Pour the mixture through the strainer and refrigerate. When it is chilled, whisk in the creme fraiche. Then stir in the cooled peach mixture. Freeze in an ice cream maker. Freeze for at least 2 hours before serving.

3 comments:

  1. Alana, this looks amazing. As it happens I finally got the 'ice cream maker' attachment the other week for my Kitchen Aid stand mixer (a freezable bowl and a 'beater' arm), so I'm going to have to try this, provided I can find peaches at the farmers' market tomorrow. Thank you for posting this.

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  2. A word of warning before you go one step too far...asparagus does not make good ice-cream. I speak from experience.

    However, stale chocolate cake is a perfect addition to almost any flavour (with the exception of the above).

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  3. If only I had too much asparagus! Stale chocolate cake, though- I seem to have around more often. Next time!

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