Grandma’s Old Fashioned Peach Ice Cream

This homemade peach ice cream recipe has been in our family for three generations. When my mom was a kid, her mom (my grandma) would always make it for church ice cream socials, where everyone would scrape the container clean!

Besides using peaches to flavor the ice cream, you could instead use a bag of frozen strawberries, or a couple cups of fresh strawberries instead. Grandma also made banana or pineapple flavor ice cream variations back in the day too.

Or, you can leave it fruit-free for a yummy vanilla ice cream!

This is a custard style ice cream recipe which means you’ll first make a custard base using eggs and milk, then let it chill overnight before churning. As with all old-fashioned good things, custard style ice cream is well worth the wait!

Peach Ice Cream Recipe Instructions:

An ice cream machine is required to churn this ice cream. We use a Cuisinart 2-quart capacity machine.

If your machine needs to have a part of it frozen to work, like ours does, make certain it is frozen solid and ready to use before you begin.

Ingredients You’ll Need:

This recipe can be doubled or tripled if needed.

• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 tbsp cornstarch
• 1 cup sugar (reduced from the original recipe’s 1 1/2 cups sugar)
• 4 cups whole milk + 1/2 additional cup of whole milk, divided (4 1/2 cups total)
• 1/2 tbsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 1/2 cups chopped peaches, which will be pureed
• Large pot
• Food processor (for processing the peaches finer)
• Large lidded refrigerator-safe storage container (a half-gallon mason jar does nicely, or a glass pitcher with a lid)

Directions to Make:

There are two parts to this recipe: creating the ice cream custard base, and adding the fruit + churning the ice cream. While this might seem intimidating, it’s really not as complicated as it appears!

Part 1: Making the Custard Style Base

Begin by cracking your eggs into a bowl, and beat thoroughly. Add the cornstarch to the beaten eggs, and mix until combined. Set this egg/cornstarch mixture aside.

In a large unheated pot, pour 4 cups of whole milk. Reserve the remaining half cup of milk from the recipe and put it back in the refrigerator to wait for a little longer. There should only be 4 cups of milk in your pot.

Add the sugar to the pot of milk and stir well. Place the pot of milk and sugar on a burner and turn to medium heat so it starts heating up. Next, add the egg and cornstarch mixture to the pot, and stir to combine everything together.

Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly. It will take about 8 to 10 minutes for the mixture to start steaming, 10 to 12 minutes to start thickening as you stir, and it will be boiling about 15 to 20 minutes after you started heating. Times will vary depending on what heat level your burner naturally falls to.

You only need the custard mixture to reach a slow boil. Keep a sharp eye on it and stir constantly so nothing sticks to the bottom of your pot!

As soon as a slow boil has been achieved, immediately remove custard from heat. Let the custard sit for 20 to 30 minutes in the pot, off the stovetop, to cool down. Cover lightly with a couple of paper towels or a clean dishtowel to keep the contents of the pot nice and clean while it cools.

Once cooled enough, add the reserved 1/2 cup of milk from earlier, as well as the vanilla and salt. Mix until thoroughly combined. Transfer to storage container or half gallon mason jar. Secure lid and place in your refrigerator to chill for the next 12 hours or overnight, up to 24 hours.

Part 2: Adding the Peaches & Churning

Preparing the Peaches

The next day, when you’re ready to make your ice cream, pull out your peaches. Peel and chop them until you have a loose 2 1/2 cups of chopped peaches. This might take around 6 large peaches or 8 to 9 small peaches.

Next, run the chopped peach pieces through a mini food processor to puree them. Turning them into a puree helps spread the peach flavor all throughout the ice cream and makes the ice cream nice and smooth, and pleasing to eat.

Mixing and Churning Your Homemade Peach Ice Cream

Once the peaches are pureed, set up your ice cream machine, and pull out your chilled custard base.

Add the peaches to the base, then make ice cream according to your machine’s directions.

Churning times vary depending on what type of ice cream maker you have. For our Cuisinart 2 quart machine, it takes about 20 to 25 minutes.

Once churned, serve immediately.

You can freeze leftovers, but be aware that the texture is a lot harder once it’s been through the freezer. Still tasty though!

I hope you enjoy your homemade, old-fashioned, custard-style peach ice cream as much as our family does!