Peel and slice peaches. Combine them with a 1/2 cup of sugar and a few squeezes of fresh lemon juice. Let them sit at room temperature for about an hour or until the peaches are soft and have released their juices to create a syrup.

Once the peaches are soft and syrupy, you’ll need to mash them. You can pulse a few times with a submersion blender or mash with the back of a fork or potato masher. You don’t want large chunks of peach because they freeze rock hard in the ice cream.

Strain the mashed peaches through a fine-mesh strainer, reserving the liquid to add to the ice cream base. Refrigerate the mashed peaches until ready to use.

Meanwhile, heat the milk, cream, and 1/2 cup of sugar in a medium saucepan over medium-low heat. You don’t want to boil the mixture, but you want it to get very hot.

While the milk mixture is heating up, whisk together the egg yolks and remaining 1/4 cup of sugar until they are fluffy and light in color (about 2 minutes).

While continually whisking, very slowly pour in 1/2 cup of the hot milk mixture to temper the eggs. Then, slowly whisk the egg mixture back into the hot cream in the saucepan. Continue to cook over medium-low heat, stirring gently, until the custard is hot and just thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla.

To ensure that your Peach Ice Cream is creamy and smooth, pour the custard mixture through a fine-mesh strainer into a clean bowl. This will ensure that no bits of egg white or any other lumps make their way into your ice cream.

Stir in the liquid from the mashed peaches, cover with plastic wrap, and then refrigerate for at least 4 hours until the ice cream base is thoroughly chilled.

When the custard is completely chilled, you’ll pour it into your ice cream maker (normally, this has a bowl component that has also been chilled in the freezer before use) and follow the manufacturer’s instructions for churning and freezing. This normally takes about 30 minutes, but you’ll want to add the mashed peaches about halfway through when the ice cream begins to thicken.

Once it’s churned, you can eat it, but I tend to want it a little more frozen than the ice cream maker can usually achieve on its own, so I transfer it to an air-tight container and freeze it for another 4 hours before serving.