White Chocolate & Peach Swirl Ice Cream

Haagen Dazs is the brand we reach for when we buy store bought ice cream, and it was Haagen Dazs that inspired our flavor combination of sweet, buttery white chocolate and tangy peach.

Haagen Dazs is expensive and sold in disappointingly tiny pints; however, it is truly superb ice cream.

They can charge more for their ice cream because they incorporate egg yolks into their ice cream base. This lends to an incredibly rich, dense, custard-like ice cream. Follow the easy steps below to create an outstanding Get Cheffy ice cream.

FOR THE WHITE CHOCOLATE ICE CREAM BASE:

1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 cups whole milk
- Try different combinations of dairy from heavy cream to half&half
6 large egg yolks
1/4 teaspoon table salt
2 tablespoons sugar
3 tablespoons finely chopped dark chocolate (optional)
4 oz White Chocolate
- We use Ghirardelli, but reach for your favorite brand. White chocolate in a bar is a better option than white chocolate chips (which have stabilizers in them to maintain their shape while they bake). If you’re in doubt, flip the white chocolate over, and read those ingredients….you want the first two ingredients to be sugar and cocoa butter. If that’s not at the top, put it back.

FOR THE PEACH SWIRL:

6-8 very ripe/overripe peaches
1-2 tablespoons sugar

Our recipe uses a standard, canister style ice cream maker. Begin by placing your canister in your freezer for at least 24 hours before you begin (we store ours in our freezer at all times so it’s always ready to go).
Before you begin making your ice cream base, place a metal pie plate, or 9X9 pyrex in the freezer. When your ice cream is done churning, and you move your ice cream from the canister to the freezer, you want to minimize thawing and liquifying as much as possible.
Pour your three cups milk, one teaspoon vanilla, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and your white chocolate into a medium saucepan. Heat the mixture over medium/medium-low heat gently whisking occasionally to prevent scorching, until the mixture reaches 170 degrees (this will take 4-12 minutes depending on the strength of your oven). Do not allow your mixture to simmer, or boil. Once your mixture is at temperature, remove it from the heat.
In a separate bowl, whisk your six egg yolks and the two tablespoons sugar together until the sugar melts, and the mixture is smooth. Take a ladle full of your heated ice cream base, and slowly whisk this mixture into your yolks to slowly bring them up to temperature (this process is called “tempering”). Take an additional ladle full of your milk base, and whisk this into your egg mixture. At this point, your yolks will have had their temperature slowly brought up, and will be properly tempered to prevent curdled eggs in your ice cream.
Pour your heated egg mixture into your remaining milk base, and return to low/medium heat, whisking constantly, until your mixture thickens and is heated to 180 (another 6-12 minutes depending on your oven strength).
Once your whole mixture is brought up to temperature, pour back into your bowl that held the yolks, and place in the fridge, covered in plastic wrap. This mixture will need to cool completely before placing into your ice cream canister (at least 1-2 hours). While you’re at it, pat yourself on the back; you didn’t know it, but you just made a classic french dessert sauce called Crème Anglaise; tell your friends…they’ll be fascinated (trust).
While your ice cream base cools, begin to break down your peaches. Chop your peaches and add to the bowl of a food processor fitted with a metal blade. Puree your peaches, on high, for 30 seconds, to 1 minute, until you have a smooth mixture. Strain your mixture through a fine mesh strainer into a separate bowl. Taste your peach mixture at this point. Does it need more sugar? We used very ripe peaches, and didn’t add any additional sugar to our mixture. If you feel additional sugar is needed, add 1-2 tablespoons sugar to your mixture, and taste. Place this mixture into your fridge to cool.

GET CHEFFY TIP!– We made this ice cream in late Summer, in Missouri, and peach season is upon us here. If peaches aren’t your thing, plums, pineapples, or mangos make an excellent substitute.

“I’m not making that peach swirl thing…”, you say? Is creating a peach puree a non starter? We get it. Instead of making your own mixture to swirl into the ice cream, try swirling in store bought lemon curd, raspberry jam, strawberry jam, chocolate sauce, caramel sauce, etc. Get as creative, and as cheffy, as your heart desires.

After your ice cream base has chilled, remove the custard base from the fridge. If you need to, you can strain this mixture but, since you followed our directions on tempering, you won’t need to do this. If your mixture does have some egg curds in it, don’t despair, strain it through a strainer. Transfer your mixture to the frozen canister of your ice cream maker. Churn until the mixture resembles soft-serve ice cream; roughly 20-30 minutes. If adding dark chocolate, chop your dark chocolate into fine pieces and add to your mixer towards the end. Allow the chocolate to churn and combine into the ice cream for at least 3 minutes.
Once churned, pour your base into your prepared, chilled pan. Take your peach mixture out of the fridge and, working one tablespoonful at a time, gently depress the back of your spoon into your ice cream until you feel the back of the spoon hit the bottom of your dish. Tilt the spoon gently to pour the peach mixture into the depression you made in your ice cream base. Make as many depressions in your ice cream as you’d like (we did three rows of three for a total of 9). Using your spoon, or a butter knife, quickly swirl your peach mixture into your base to create a marbling effect. Return the ice cream mixture to the fridge to chill completely; 2-3 hours before serving.