Something unexpected always happens when we visit family. This last time was no exception in several ways. I’ll share the first one with you now. Another later in the week. But for today – peaches!!
We stopped by my sister’s house on the way to my parents. Her peach trees did really well this year so she wanted to send more peaches to my mom. The girls helped her pick some from the tree and the rest had fallen on the ground. They found out just how much good is left on a peach after a bird decided to peck at it. Some washing and cutting and there was a lot of good left.
E did most of the cooking help at my parents this time. She just really enjoyed it! Working together my mom and E cleaned, cut, and pureed the peaches. Then, E learned how a dehydrator works and how to prepare it to make fruit leather. She watched all day long, rotating the trays every hour and a half until the fruit leather was finished.
It came out really good. Pretty addicting, somewhat like candy! But it was just peaches and a tiny bit of sugar. They put a scant half cup of sugar in the food processor and filled it up with peaches. Then pureed. That’s it!
Once they had all the trays filled for the fruit leather, there was about a cup and a half of the puree left. So, they made ice cream! Fresh peach ice cream is my absolute favorite, I think! It was so good. E got a wonderful experience cooking with her grandma and learning about a couple of kitchen machines that we don’t have (dehydrator and electric ice cream maker).
Fruit Leather:
1/2 C sugar
3-4 C fresh peaches (skin can be left on), enough to fill up your food processor
parchment paper circles cut the size of your dehydrator trays – if you don’t have trays designed for this
Place the sugar and peaches together and puree. Put a parchment paper circle on the dehydrator tray. Carefully spread 1 to 1 1/2 cups fruit puree on the paper and spread thinly. You don’t want it too thick or it won’t dry and if it isn’t an even thinness, it won’t dry evenly. Plug in the dehydrator and let it work. Rotate the trays every 1 1/2 hours, checking the fruit leather after about 6 hours. If it is a humid day, it may take 8-10 hours to dry.
Peach Ice Cream:
1-2 C fresh fruit, finely diced or pureed (I leave the skins on)
1 C whipping cream
1 1/2 – 2 C whole milk (do whatever kind of milk you like in ice cream)
1 tsp vanilla
Mix this up and then turn it into ice cream with your preferred method. My mom used an electric ice cream maker. We have a cylinder that stays in the freezer that we pour it into and then stir it often with the paddle until it is frozen. We have also put it into a freezer safe container and just frozen it, taking it out every 15 minutes or so to stir until it is ice cream consistency.
I hope you enjoy making these with some fresh fruit that you have. Peach is my preference but I think we might try some other kind of fruit in ice cream soon. Anyway you make it, homemade is best!
At Home.
At Home 
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