Wednesday, July 18, 2012-Guest Post

Peaches & Cream Ice Cream with Salted Pecans (A Guest Post by Courtney of The Fig Tree Blog)

Good morning everyone! I am super excited for today's post-my friend Courtney from The Fig Tree is featuring on the blog today, and I'm featuring on hers! Courtney is a super talented photographer/baker/cook/writer and she's such a supportive and wonderful friend. I love that we have so much in common and as she mentions bellow, we babble back and forth often-it leads to some great reads! *hehe* Now, let me introduce you to the one, the only, the amazing Courtney!

Hello! My name is Courtney and I'm the writer + photographer behind the blog The Fig Tree. It's a blog that celebrates the best in vegetarian cuisine focusing on whole, natural foods. However, as I also have a terrible sweet tooth, I like to post yummy desserts every so often too! Cookies....cookies are my weakness! Ice cream is a close second. Mmmmm...

I am so thrilled and honoured to be sharing a post on Peaches & Cream today! A few months back, I stumbled upon Helena's fantastic blog and I was immediately smitten. I loved the photos and the selection of recipes. Even though Peaches & Cream is not a vegetarian blog, I find the content and photography incredibly inspiring. Helena is one talented photographer - even if she does not believe me :) I also fell for Helena's writing style - she writes like she is talking to a good friend. I sent her a message on Facebook after I found out she was also a Canadian food blogger. We started emailing one another back and forth and I was thrilled to see we had so much in common. We both love to babble! I have a feeling, if we were to meet, we'd spend hours chatting and coming up with new recipes to try. Helena has been a treat to get to know. A dear friend indeed :) And she has great taste in TV shows ;)

A few weeks back, we decided it would be fun to do guest posts on one another's blogs. I was excited to come up with something special for my post. I stumbled upon this recipe for Peaches + Cream ice cream and thought....what could be more perfect!? *hehe* I decided to whip up a batch of this fresh peach ice cream and give it to my grandma for her birthday this past Friday. Peaches are so fresh and flavourful this time of year. They cannot be beat! Before handing the ice cream over to my grandma, I did manage to sample some and take some photos. The salted pecans combined with the sweet peaches and creamy ice cream base make this truly fantastic. I'm a sucker for sweet and salty treats!

I want to thank Helena for having me on her blog today! It has been a lot of fun coming up with a recipe to share and I hope you enjoy it. If you don't have an ice cream maker, please go out and get one! It's so much fun to make homemade ice cream. It's so easy and the creative possibilities for flavour combinations are endless! Fresh homemade ice cream cannot be beat. Ice cream makers are not too expensive. I got mine for about $50.00 at William Sonoma. I highly recommend the Cuisinart brand or an attachment for your Kitchen Aid mixer.

So, without further ado....Peaches & Cream ice Cream for the fabulous Peaches & Cream blog :)

Peaches & Cream Ice Cream with Salted Pecans
Yield: about 1 quart

Ingredients

•  3/4 cup of granulated white sugar
• 2 tablespoons of cornstarch
• 1/8 teaspoon of salt
• 2 cups of whole milk
• 1 cup of heavy whipping cream (35% M.F)
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon of white granulated sugar
• 1 tablespoon of water
• 1 cup of peeled + coarsely chopped peaches
• 1 tablespoon of unsalted butter
• 1 cup of coarsely chopped pecans
• 1/4 teaspoon of kosher salt

Method

1. Whisk together the first 3 ingredients in a large heavy saucepan. Gradually whisk in the milk and whipping cream. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, 10 to 12 minutes or until the mixture thickens slightly. Remove from heat.

2. Whisk the egg yolk until slightly thickened. Gradually whisk about 1 cup of hot cream mixture into the yolk. Add the yolk mixture to the remaining cream mixture, whisking constantly. Whisk in vanilla. Cool 1 hour, stirring occasionally.

3. Meanwhile, cook the peaches, 1 tablespoon of sugar and 1 tablespoon of water in a small saucepan over medium heat, stirring often. Cook for about 4 minutes and then coarsely mash peaches. Allow peaches to cool for 30 minutes. Stir peach mixture into cooled cream mixture.

4. Place plastic wrap directly onto cream mixture and chill for 8 to 24 hours.

5. Meanwhile, melt the butter in a small skillet over medium heat. Add the pecans and cook, stirring constantly, for about 8 minutes (or until they are toasted and fragrant). Remove from heat and sprinkle with kosher salt. Cool completely (at least 30 minutes).

6. Pour the chilled cream mixture into an electric ice cream maker and freeze according to manufacturer's instructions. Before transferring the ice cream to an airtight container for further freezing, stir in the salted pecan mixture.

Please feel free to stop by The Fig Tree and leave a note. I love and appreciate your comments! Also, please feel free to check The Fig Tree on Facebook and Twitter. Thanks for reading. xoxo

Source: Southern Living - July 2010