in season: white peach gelato
I am obsessed with white peaches. When the season comes around, I pretty much eat one every day. But I'm a strange fruit eater, I like most fruit a little underripe. So if I somehow neglect a peach or two and they get quite ripe, I'm not that into it anymore. Enter white peach gelato.
I found this recipe in Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking. I was a little confused by the proportions, though. It called for so little cream - only half a cup - and so much water - 1 cup. Considering how much water content your typical ripe peach has, I wondered how this gelato could turn out creamy. 
It turns out that I was actually right, for a change, and this turned out quite icy. It was still delicious, as the peach flavor really came through and was so fresh and light. The addition of the lemon zest set off the sweetness well. But the texture really fell more in the sherbet range. I may try this again replacing the water with whole milk. Recipe after the jump:
WHITE PEACH GELATO WITH LEMON ZEST
From Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking by Marcella Hazan
1 1/4 pounds ripe white peaches
2/3 cup sugar
1 cup water
zest of 1/2 large lemon or 1 small lemon
1/2 cup heavy cream
Peel and pit the peaches, then cut into chunks and place in a food processor with the sugar, water, and lemon zest. Puree until there are no large chunks of fruit left. Whip the cream with a whisk or electric beater until the consistency of buttermilk. Add the peach puree to the cream and mix well to combine. Churn in the ice cream maker according to manufacturer's instructions. Remove to a pre-chilled container and freeze for about 3 hours before serving.
4 comments:
Alex likes his fruit a bit underripe too. Strange, but I understand in a way. I'm going to make him this gelato--he's been asking for some sort of frozen peach treat since he got me the Kitchen-Aid ice cream attachment for the holidays this year...
Beautiful!
p.s. hope some of the stress is over?
Yes, the stress is mostly over, thankfully. It was the stress+aggravation at incompetents that really put me over the edge.
This gelato will be great on this hot hot weekend coming up. It has that particularly icy feel to it. This weekend I'm going to try a blueberry gelato.
It is peach season here - and I am going to try this but wondering how to replace the cream in a vegan version! Any ideas?
Sunshinemom - This is what I would try, but I've never done it so I'm not sure what kind of texture you might end up with. I would get the creamiest, fullest fat soy milk available and replace all the liquid - both the water and cream - with it. So don't add any water, just use soymilk.
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