I am writing this on a coach wedged between a backpack, a suitcase and I’ll admit it, a bag of Dominique Ansel pastries. Have you ever noticed, as you get older, how much more crap you need to carry around with you? It’s not even like I have kids. The basic amount of stuff I need to get by each day is growing and growing until eventually, I’ll be a one-woman band but with notebooks, Apple products and keys hanging off me instead of instruments.
I constantly feel like I’m playing catch up, which is how I found myself stirring the custard for this ice cream at midnight, alone, cats snoring gently in the corner. Maybe everyone else has their ducks in a row, their laundry done and their inbox cleared. If that’s the case, I hate you. You don’t deserve ice cream and you probably wouldn’t eat it anyway since you started eating clean and Instagramming smoothie bowls.
I collapsed into bed, custard in the fridge, only to rise at 6 am to churn it because when I want peach iced tea ice cream I’m darn well gonna have it, even if it does mean losing out on sleep. The ups and downs of working for yourself. There’s no off button, no respite, no chilling in a hammock with one leg hanging off the side, idly swishing your coral painted toes through the sand.
You could eat this ice cream while doing that, though. It would make a great downtime treat, or perhaps more of a reward. A reward for hanging in there, spinning those plates, trying to cling onto your sanity.
Peach Iced Tea Ice Cream
150ml strong English breakfast tea
150ml full-fat milk
150ml single cream
150ml double cream
3 egg yolks
110g caster sugar
500g peaches
Put the tea, single cream and milk into a pan and bring to a simmer, then whisk the egg yolks and sugar together until they thicken and pale. Remove the milk mixture from the heat, then whisk it into the egg mix, adding a little bit at a time.
Put the whole lot back into a clean pan on a gentle heat and add the cream. Stir this in an S motion until it thickens and coats the back of a spoon (around 80C if you have a thermometer). Don’t let it get hotter because the eggs will start to cook. Set it aside to cool with a dampened circle of greaseproof paper on the top, to stop a skin forming. Chill this in the fridge until completely cold, or leave overnight.
Peel the peaches and remove the stones then chop the flesh roughly and pulse in a blender until roughly pureed.
Churn in an ice cream maker, adding the peach puree towards the end of churning.
