Peaches and Cream

For me, the first true sign of summer is the day the ice cream maker trades places with the crock pot, which is what happened last weekend. Recently, I've been eating peaches like they're going out of style, so I opted for peach ice cream for the first go-round. I turned to my ice cream Bible, David Lebovitz's The Perfect Scoop, for a recipe and found a peach ice cream that was tart yet sweet, subtle and made even more delicious by amaretti cookie crumbles.

Peach Ice Cream
Recipe courtesy of The Perfect Scoop

1 1/3 pounds ripe peaches (about 4 large peaches)
1/2 cup water
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup sour cream
1 cup heavy cream
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
A few drops freshly squeezed lemon juice

Peel the peaches, slice them in half, and remove the pits. Cut the peaches into chunks and cook them with the water in a medium, nonreactive saucepan over medium heat, covered, stirring once or twice, until soft and cooked through, about 10 minutes.

Remove from the heat, stir in the sugar, then cool to room temperature. Puree the cooked peaches and any liquid in a blender or food processor with the sour cream, heavy cream, vanilla, and lemon juice until almost smooth but slightly chunky. (I pureed mine completely as I'm not a big fan of frozen chunks of fruit.)

Chill the mixture thoroughly in the refrigerator, then freeze it in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions.