Georgia peaches sure to please

If you’ve stopped by your favorite farmers market, Kroger, Publix or Whole Foods, you may have noticed that one of summer’s greatest assets has arrived on produce shelves: Georgia peaches.

I shopped for some last week and ate the half-dozen I bought in two days. This year’s crop offers big, full-size peaches with lots of juicy flesh.

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JOHNNY CRAWFORD/jcrawford@ajc.com

Does anything say summer more than a juicy Georgia peach? Staff 2002 photo

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And if you don’t eat all of them out of hand, you may want to use them to make one of summer’s other greatest assets — ice cream.

I make ice cream with a simple, classic custard sauce called crème anglaise. It’s one of the first things a pastry chef learns to make because it is the basis of so many other desserts, from ice cream to Bavarian cream.

Once the sauce is made, I add peaches (or other fruit and ingredients, depending on what flavor I’m craving). The sauce keeps for a week if covered tightly in the refrigerator.

One way to add even more flavor to your ice cream is to roast the peaches before adding them to the sauce base (roasted peaches also make a great spread for biscuits, pancakes and waffles or a filling for fried pies).

It’s simple to roast a peach (you can use this method for other stone fruits, figs, apples and pears, too): Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Halve and pit the peaches (leave the skins on), then sprinkle them with a light covering of brown sugar. Place the peaches on a baking sheet and roast them for about 40 minutes (other fruits’ times will vary), until they are really soft and begin to brown. Remove from the heat and set aside to cool. After they’ve cooled, remove the skins and chop coarsely. Reserve in a container; the peaches will keep covered in the fridge for up to three weeks.

CRÈME ANGLAISE FOR PEACH ICE CREAM

Hands on: 15 minutes Total time: 30 minutes Makes: 21/2 cups

Ice cubes
1 cup whole milk
1 cup heavy cream
6 large egg yolks
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 vanilla bean or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
11/2 cups roasted peaches

Fill a large bowl halfway with ice cubes. Set aside.

In a heavy saucepan, bring milk and cream almost to a simmer.

In another medium saucepan, whisk together yolks and sugar until thick and pale. Temper the yolk mixture by whisking in half the hot milk and then the egg mixture into the remaining milk. Add the vanilla extract, or if using a vanilla bean, split the bean in half lengthwise and place in the mixture to infuse.

Heat gently over low to medium heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon. Continue stirring the custard until thick enough to coat the back of a spoon, or until the mixture reaches 175 degrees. Do not overcook or the yolks will cook and break the sauce.

Remove the saucepan from the heat and place it in the ice bath to stop the cooking process. Set a sieve over a large clean bowl and pass the custard through the sieve.

Add the peaches. Follow manufactuer’s directions to freeze in an ice cream freezer.

Per serving: 236 calories (percent of calories from fat, 60), 4 grams protein, 20 grams carbohydrates, 1 gram fiber, 16 grams fat (9 grams saturated), 284 milligrams cholesterol, 34 milligrams sodium.