One of my favorite flavor combinations is chocolate and peanut butter. And when it comes to Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups my favorite is when they have the Easter eggs, Christmas Trees, or Halloween Pumpkins because those ones have more peanut butter in them and let’s face it the peanut butter is the best part. So when I got around the turning these flavors into an ice-cream, I knew I had to start with a peanut butter ice-cream and add the chocolate as an accent as a fudgy swirl.
I started with a Philadelphia ice cream base – which is a base without any eggs. I thought the higher fat content in the peanut butter stand in for the richness you get from the egg yolks in a custard base.
Here’s what you need:
I like to use a commercial stabilizer (#EarnsCommission) in my ice-creams which helps to prevent ice crystals from forming. As I learned in my favorite ice-cream book, Hello, My Name Is Ice Cream (#EarnsCommission) there are several different types of stabilizers you can use besides a commercial stabilizer such as dry milk powder. If you’re into customizing your ice-cream and playing with the ratios and science, I highly recommend the book. It’s also a great book if you just want to follow her recipes too.
Start by whisking the sugar and stabilizer together in a heavy bottom pan.
Then whisk in milk, cream and glucose syrup. Bring to a full rolling boil over medium-high heat, whisking occasionally.
Remove from heat and quickly whisk in the peanut butter.
Pour the ice cream base into a bowl and nest into an ice-bath. Stir periodically until it cools to 50 degrees.
Once the ice cream base is cool, strain it through a fine mesh strainer (optional) and place in the fridge to cure overnight.
If you have an ice-cream maker where the canister needs to freeze before churning, now is a good time to remember to put it in the freezer.
Move on to making your fudge ribbon. I’m making the version from Hello, My Name is Ice-Cream.
Sift cocoa powder into a bowl.
Whisk together cocoa powder, sugar and salt.
In a medium sauce pan, over medium heat bring some glucose and heavy cream to a rolling bowl. Whisk occasionally as it comes to a boil.
Add the hot cream mixture to the dry ingredients in thirds, whisking between easy addition.
Whisk until smooth and fully incorporated.
Transfer the mixture back to your pan and cook over medium heat until the fudge starts to bubble and is smooth.
Strain through a fine mesh strainer into a bowl (optional).
Store in the fridge until ready to churn ice-cream.
Chill a container for your ice-cream in the freezer
Churn ice-cream in your ice-cream maker per the manufacturer’s instructions.
Layer your ice-cream with fudge in your chilled container. I put 2 layers of fudge between 3 layers of ice-cream.
Use a butter knife of a wooden skewer to swirl the ice-cream and fudge together.
Freeze the ice-cream for at least 2 hours to allow it to firm up. Scoop and enjoy.
This ice-cream will be pretty hard out of the freezer if you’ve left it in for longer than a couple hours, just take it out 5-10 minutes (depending on the temperature of your kitchen) before you want to enjoy it to allow it to become scoopable again.
- ICE CREAM:
- ¾ c granulated sugar
- 1 t commercial stabilizer
- 1 ¼ c heavy cream
- 2 c whole milk
- ¼ c glucose syrup
- ¾ c creamy peanut butter
- FUDGE RIBBON:
- 1 c cocoa powder
- ¼ c + 2 T granulated sugar
- 1 t salt
- ½ c glucose syrup
- 1 c heavy cream
- If using an ice-cream machine with a base that needs to be frozen, put the base in the freezer.
- Whisk sugar and stabilizer in a heavy bottom saucepan.
- Add milk, cream and glucose, whisk to combine.
- Cook over medium-heat, whisking occasionally until the mixture comes to a full rolling boil.
- Remove from heat and quickly whisk in peanut butter.
- Transfer to a bowl. Set bowl into an ice-bath.
- Cool ice cream base, stirring periodically until it reaches 50 degrees. Optional: Strain through a fine mesh strainer. Transfer to the fridge and allow to cure overnight.
- In a medium bowl whisk together the cocoa powder, sugar and salt for the fudge.
- Add glucose syrup and cream to a medium saucepan. Heat over medium heat, whisking until the mixture comes to a full rolling boil.
- Add cream to dry ingredients one third at a time, whisking to incorporate between each addition. Transfer back to pan.
- Cook over medium-low heat until fudge starts to bubble and is smooth. Optional strain through a fine mesh strainer.
- Chill in the fridge overnight before using in ice-cream to ensure it’s cold.
- Churn the peanut butter ice-cream base according to manufacturer’s instructions.
- Layer ice-cream and fudge in alternating layers in a freezer container. Use a butter knife or wooden skewer to swirl the fudge. Add fudge to your taste – you likely will not use all of the fudge.
- Freeze ice-cream for 2 hours to allow it to firm up enough to form scoops.
- If frozen overnight or longer allow to sit on the counter for 5-10 minutes before scooping.
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