If you’ve stopped by your favorite farmer’s market, Kroger, Publix or Whole Foods, you may have noticed that one of summer’s greatest assets has arrived on produce shelves: Georgia peaches.

I shopped on Monday and have already eaten all but one of the half-dozen peaches I bought. This year’s crop offers big, full-sized peaches with lots of juicy flesh.

And if you don’t eat all of them out of hand, you may want to make one of summer’s other greatest assets with them: Ice cream.

I make ice cream with a simple, classic custard sauce called creme Anglaise — this sauce is one of the first things a pastry chef learns to make because it is the basis of so many other desserts, from ice cream to Bavarian cream. Once the sauce is made, I add peaches (or other fruit and ingredients, depending on what flavor I’m craving). The sauce keeps for a week if covered tightly in the refrigerator.

One way to add even more flavor to your ice cream is to roast the peaches prior to adding them to the sauce base (roasted peaches also make a great spread for biscuits, pancakes and waffles, as a sweet contrast to cheeses, or as a filling for fried pies).

It’s simple to roast a peach (you can use this method for other stone fruits, figs, apples and pears, too): Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Pit and halve the peaches (leave the skins on), then sprinkle them with a light covering of brown sugar.  Place the peaches on a baking sheet and roast them for about forty minutes (other fruits’ times will vary), until they are really soft and begin to brown. Remove from the heat, and set aside to cool. After they’ve cooled, remove the skins and chop coarsely. Reserve in a container — the peaches will keep covered in the fridge for up to three weeks.

Creme Anglaise for peach ice cream:

Makes 2 1/2 cups

Hands on: 15 minutes

Total time: 30 minutes

Ice cubes

1 cup whole milk

1 cup heavy cream

1 vanilla bean or one teaspoon vanilla extract

6 large egg yolks

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1 and 1/2 cups roasted peaches (see above)

Fill a large bowl halfway with ice cubes. Set aside.

In a heavy sauce pan, bring the milk and cream almost to a simmer.

In another medium saucepan, whisk together yolks and sugar until thick and pale. Temper the yolk mixture by whisking in half the hot milk, then whisking the egg mixture back into the remaining milk.

Heat gently over low to medium heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon. Continue stirring the custard until thick enough to coat the back of a spoon, or until the mixture reaches 175 degrees. Do not over cook, or the yolks will cook and break the sauce. Remove the saucepan from the heat and place it in the ice bath to stop the cooking process. Set a sieve over a large clean bowl, and pass the custard through the sieve.

Add the peaches. Freeze in an ice cream freezer until ready, using the manufacturer’s instructions.