Bourbon Peach Ice Cream with Sweet & Salty Pecans

Ok, this might be my favorite ice cream of all time. The peach ice cream base is spiked with bourbon and vanilla, with a jammy peach swirl and crunchy candied pecans strewn throughout. The flavor is super summery and bright, yet indulgent.

I love the sweet and salty balance of flavors and delightful texture that the candied nuts bring to this ice cream. It’s reminiscent of butter pecan, but with a summer glow-up.

Of course, the next best thing about this homemade peach ice cream is that you don’t need an ice cream maker! That’s right, you can make this at home with just some electric beaters and a loaf pan. Let’s do this!

Recipe highlights

• Fresh peach flavor. The ice cream gets its peachy flavor in two ways – we’ll infuse the ice cream base with peach skins, then swirl everything together with a homemade fresh peach jam.
• Not overly sweet. Our sweet & salty pecans plus a pinch of salt in the ice cream base help balance out the sweetness.
• All the textures. Creamy ice cream, jammy fruit swirl, and super crunchy nuts make this ice cream a texture-lover’s dream.
• Stovetop candied pecans. No need to turn on the oven for this recipe. We’ll make the nuts on the stove, with just 4 ingredients and about 5 minutes!
• No ice cream machine required! This is a no-churn ice cream recipe, so it’s pretty dang easy to make.

Tips for making this peach ice cream

To pack our homemade ice cream with real peach flavor, we’ll make a fresh peach swirl and a lightly peachy ice cream base. The key here is saving the peach skins from making the jam, as that’s what we’ll use to flavor our ice cream.

Here are my top tips for making the different components of this ice cream:

Making the peach swirl

Peel the peaches, but save the skins. We don’t want peels in our jam swirl because it will be an unpleasant texture. However, we can use those skins to flavor our ice cream base!

Add ingredients to elevate the flavor. That little bit of salt, lemon juice, and cinnamon go a long way to complement the natural flavor of the peaches. The goal is not to overpower the fruit’s flavor, but to heighten it.

Cook it well. It will take a while to cook the peaches down. You want to cook out most of the moisture so you end up with a thick, jam-like consistency. Cooking the water out gives the swirl a silkier feel in our final ice cream. Excessive water in a fruit swirl can cause ice crystals, which is not a fun texture in ice cream.

Blend to your liking. Hey, if you like it chunky, leave it chunky. You can choose to puree the peach jam as smooth as you like.

Use bourbon for more than flavor. A little bit of booze actually helps the texture, not just the flavor. To learn more about how certain ingredients affect the texture of no-churn ice cream, check out my Raspberry Cheesecake Ice Cream post.

Making the peach ice cream base

Use the peach skins. There’s tons of flavor in those peach skins! Add them to slightly warmed heavy cream and let them infuse for at least 20 minutes. After infusing, squeeze the peach skins to release as much flavor as possible.

Chill the peach-infused cream thoroughly. After removing the peach skins, chill the cream well. It should be very cold when you add it to the rest of the cream in this recipe. You’ll whip the remaining cream to soft peaks and then slowly add in the cold peach-infused cream. Once added in, continue whipping the cream until it reaches stiff peaks.

Fold everything together gently. Use a spatula to gently fold the whipped cream into a mixture of sweetened condensed milk, bourbon, vanilla, and salt. Be careful not to deflate all the air you’ve created while whipping the cream.

Layering the ice cream

Once you have your three components made (and cooled), it’s time to layer the ice cream. Have your peach ice cream base, peach swirl, and candied pecans at the ready.

Start by pouring about half of the ice cream base into a 9×5 inch loaf pan. Then, sprinkle it with roughly half of the candied pecans. Dollop spoonfuls of peach swirl evenly on top, again using about half of the mixture. Repeat with the remaining ice cream base, pecans, and peach swirl.

Use a butter knife to swirl all the ingredients together lightly in a marbled pattern. Cover the loaf pan with plastic wrap and freeze until the ice cream is completely firm. This should take about four hours.

Simplify this recipe

This recipe can easily be simplified if you want to save some time and effort. Here are two ideas to carve off some time:

Option 1: Skip candying the pecans. They may not be quite as delicious and crunchy, but you could totally add in regular ol’ chopped nuts instead of the sweet & salty pecans.

Option 2: Use store-bought peach jam/butter. Instead of making the peach swirl, you could choose to use something store-bought instead. Add a tablespoon or two of this to the ice cream base to give it some peach flavor, and swirl it into the loaf pan when you’re layering the ice cream.

If you opt not to make the homemade fruit swirl, note that this peach ice cream will be a bit sweeter than the recipe is intended here.

Serving & storing

Be patient and let the ice cream chill for at least four hours before serving! It needs this time to set up properly.

No-churn ice cream typically takes a few minutes to warm up when you’re ready to serve it. Let it sit at room temperature for about ten minutes, then scoop and serve. Dipping your ice cream scoop or spoon in warm water will help as well. 

This ice cream will keep, tightly wrapped, in the freezer for up to a month.

Looking for more no-churn ice cream recipes? Try my Fresh Mint Chocolate Chunk and Raspberry Cheesecake Ice Cream recipes.