When someone has a birthday at the office, I make dessert. Not just any dessert, but I try to do some undercover research on what my coworkers’ favorite desserts are long before their birthdays so that when I happen to bring in exactly what they love, they are pleasantly surprised.
All this to say, my boss’s birthday was this past week and his favorite dessert is Rum Raisin Ice Cream, but since our team is growing, and I get a little over-excited about things like this, of course I made four different kinds of ice cream to share: Rum Raisin, Lemon Buttermilk Sorbet, Honey Walnut, and an absolutely incredible Chocolate Peanut Butter Ice Cream that I’ll share with you today.
This recipe is taken from Joy the Baker’s cookbook and was surprisingly dense and creamy, considering it isn’t an egg-based custard. Which also means you need to make sure you have cornstarch in your kitchen. (For those of you who are still lost, it’s a white powder usually in the spice/baking aisle of the grocery store. Just ask someone and save yourself the headache.)
Back to the ice cream – It’s super chocolatey and has a healthy dose of salt. It’s everything you want right now. Trust me.
Chocolate Peanut Butter Ice Cream
yields 1 quart of ice cream
For the chocolate Ice Cream~
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon salt (but who ever measures salt? just eyeball it. Small amount if you have pungent salt, a little more if you don’t. It’s really up to you)
3 tablespoons cornstarch (THE PLAN-AHEAD INGREDIENT)
2 1/2 cups whole milk
3/4 cup heavy cream
3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips
For the peanut butter swirl –
1/2 cup smooth salted peanut butter
1 tablespoon heavy cream – or a little more
Pinch of salt
To make the chocolate ice cream – In a small bowl, whisk together sugar, cocoa powder, salt and cornstarch.
In a medium saucepan (pot), warm milk over medium heat. Add the sugar mixture and whisk any lumps out as the milk heats to as it just starts to boil. The cornstarch will thicken the mixture right around that time to a pudding-like consistency. It’s about done when the mixture will coat the back of your stirring utensil – spoon or spatula. Remove from heat and pour through fine-mesh strainer into a medium bowl. Stir in the cream and the chocolate chips until they’re melted and the mixture is smooth. Next you should put plastic wrap over the mixture and pop it in the fridge until it cools completely – however, I never have plastic wrap and I was a little short on time, so I put it in the freezer for a little bit without anything covering it. This just means that it won’t take as long to cool completely, but you’ll need to stir it all together after cooling as there will be a thin layer on top that will need to be mixed back in.
To make the peanut butter mixture – While the custard is cooling or churning, simply mix the peanut butter, heavy cream, and salt and leave at room temperature.
Churn the custard in your ice cream maker according to manufacturer’s instructions. When completely churned, put into the container you will freeze it in and swirl in the peanut butter mixture. Joy’s recipe says to “drizzle and gently swirl” but my peanut butter did not drizzle, so it was more “mix in.” Store in the freezer for several hours before serving.
It will keep in an airtight container for about a week – but good luck with that.
consciously creating 