Spicy Peach Chocolate Chunk Ice Cream

Sometimes the best place to get ice cream recipes is from other ice cream enthusiasts. This week I made a flavor I found on the Ice Cream Geek's blog.

Spicy Peach Chocolate Chunk Ice Cream

Ingredients:

2 cups heavy whipping cream
1 cup whole milk
2 large eggs ( I used 4 large egg yolks instead)
3/4 cup sugar
1 3/4 cup peaches
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1/2 to 3/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup dark chocolate, coarsely chopped

(makes about one quart)

Preparation:

Combine the cream and milk in a pot and bring them to a slight boil over medium heat

As the milk and cream are boiling, whisk the egg yolks and sugar together for two minutes.

Slowly add the cream mixture to the egg mixture a little bit at a time to temper the eggs.

Once you have tempered the eggs, transfer the mixture back to the pot and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly.

Set the cream mixture to the side to focus on the peach mixture. According to the Ice Cream Geek, "Peaches are one of those 'problematic' ingredients, because they contain so much water.  Peach chunks are great if you eat the ice cream right out of the machine, but they turn into frozen, teeth-cracking, ice chunks after sitting in the freezer for a while." I learned this the hard way when I made my Strawberries and Cream ice cream. 

The Ice Cream Geek has a good solution to this conundrum, which is to blend the frozen peaches in a blender, adding in the lemon juice and cayenne pepper, as well as some of the cream mixture to make the blending easier. Also add the additional 1/2 cup of sugar. Blend all the ingredients together well, so that it resembles a puree.

I used this 10oz bag of frozen peaches for my peach puree.

Add in the cream mixture, so that the peach and cream mixture become one.

Strain the mixture through a strainer into a clean bowl. The strainer should not catch much, as the mixture should have been well blended and smooth.

Cool the mixture in the refrigerator.

When the mixture is sufficiently chilled, churn the ice cream in your cream churner. Add in the chocolate pieces as the ice cream is churning. The Ice Cream Geek recommends waiting to the very end to add the chocolate pieces, but I added them right away.

Texture: The texture on this was pretty good and better than I was expecting. It was not as creamy as some of my other ice creams, I think because of all the water from the peach, but it wasn't icy either (as can sometimes happen with ice creams that have fruit in them). I think pureeing the peach, as well as the extra egg yolks, helped prevent too many ice crystals from forming.

Flavor: The cayenne pepper packs a big punch. I liked the heat and thought it complimented the chocolate well. My husband, however, was not a fan of the spice.

Overall: I enjoy this ice cream. In addition to the flavor, the ice cream is a pretty, peach color decorated with dots of cocoa nibs.