Fried Peaches Are Made To Be Paired With Ice Cream

You can enjoy them a million different ways, but peaches are perfect for frying. When cooked in a hot skillet with butter and sugar, they caramelize, leaving the peaches soft and swimming in their own fruity caramel sauce. It's why fried peaches are a perfect candidate for an ice cream topping (their true calling). You can give them their signature syrupy consistency by using a pan that's large and wide enough so the peaches don't get overcrowded and can fry evenly. 

Sure, you can devour them straight out of the skillet, but pair them with ice cream and you'll see that this match is built to last. Peaches are naturally acidic and a little tart, and ice cream is, well, creamy (because of its high butterfat content). When eating them together, you can really taste how these two flavors complement one another. The sweet acid cuts through the creamy fat, and fried peaches are now engaged to ice cream forever (opposites attract). That's because acid plus fat equals love.

When it comes to ice cream flavors to try with your peachy-perfect ice cream topping, vanilla is a great introduction. Start by trying one of these grocery store vanilla ice cream brands we ranked to see which one has just the right ratio of cream to vanilla for you. Then, you can step outside of your comfort cone and try some unique ice cream flavors to pair with your peaches. 

Even though it's not technically ice cream, this super easy raspberry vanilla sorbet would be amazing with fried peaches and vanilla ice cream. It's a fun way to put a fresh twist on an old school classic called Peach Melba, a dessert from 1893 made by Chef Auguste Escoffier. It combines poached peaches, raspberry sauce, and vanilla ice cream. Or, you could try making this brown butter and pecan ice cream because this is the way for nut lovers. 

The crunch of the savory pecans and the buttery ice cream work like a dream underneath a dollop of fried peaches. Nut lovers take heed, because there are also black walnut, pistachio, and white chocolate macadamia nut ice creams — all popular flavors that you can easily find at a grocery store or ice cream shop. If you really want to stick with a prominent vanilla flavor, try this no-churn version of dulce de leche ice cream. It's the peaches and ice cream dream team.

Don't forget that you can use fried peaches with other ice cream toppings, too. We're nuts (and a whole lot more) for our ultimate sundae with its pistachio-cardamom brittle and caramel made with coconut milk. Fried peaches would fit right in with these unconventionally delicious toppings. And for our true sweet tooths, try fried peaches on top of cake batter or cotton candy ice cream. It's an explosion of sweetness with a peachy punch.