Peanut Butter Ice Cream

Years ago, a bright eyed girl went off to college, had a roommate, lived away from home, and was truly in control of what was stocked in her fridge for the first time. At 18 I received a bit of a wake up call. Firstly, I had not considered that I would have to share the fridge with my roommate, and secondly, it had never occurred to me that there would be yogurt in it, many types of yogurt, and that she would eat yogurt daily. Yogurt had never taken up more than two seconds of my time thus far in my life.

Opening my shared fridge for the first time and finding yogurt was a bit of a wake up call. Perhaps that sounds dramatic, but I was an 18 year old who had no living memory of having ever tried yogurt, or seeing a person eat yogurt. That's just.....weird. It gets worse. I also realized I had never tried mustard. HOW does an American girl make it that far in life without eating mustard? On a hot dog? That's just not right. I mean, at least I have had apple pie, but no mustard? Not okay.

Through the years there have been concerted efforts to right these deviances from the normal American life experiences. I  tried yogurt for the first time in my dorm room. My roommate was stunned and gave me a yogurt to try. I was not a fan, but at least I now knew I was not a yogurt person and could move on in my life one step closer to normalcy. Mustard took more effort for me. I mustered (bad pun) up the courage one day in the Student Union building, and bought a ham sandwich with mustard and an old fashioned donut to reward myself for good behavior. I truly enjoy mustard. To be fair to my family, mustard is my own fault. We probably had mustard in a little yellow bottle that I just never thought to try. Most likely it's a holdover from being a stubborn four year old who says "no" about foods they've never tried for no intelligible reason. Yogurt however....well, Mama didn't grow up in a yogurt home either. It's a multi-generational problem I hope to correct for my own children down the road.

With all this thought about childhood foods peanut butter ice cream just had to happen, along with homemade peanut butter cups. *sigh* I also did not enjoy peanut butter until college either. Judge away. 

Peanut Butter Ice Cream

1 cup milk

1 cup sugar

2 tsp. vanilla

5 egg yolks

1 1/3 cup heavy cream

1 1/2 cup peanut butter (smooth or chunky, but I recommend organic either way) 

Scald milk and cream.

Lightly whisk eggs in a stand mixer along with the sugar, and then add the scalded mixture in a slow stream running down the side of the bowl on a low speed. Pour back into saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon add 1 cup of peanut butter. Pour custard through a fine-mesh sieve into a large bowl. If you’re making chunky reserve the peanut pieces to add in later.

Chill custard, stirring occasionally, until cooled. Freeze custard in ice cream maker according to manufacturer’s instructions. When nearly finished, add in the last half cup of peanut butter and the peanut pieces.  Allow to integrate and then transfer to a suitable freezing container and put in freezer to firm up. 

Enjoy!

Homemade Peanut Butter Cups

It's a slow and lazy rainy day in DC  which makes it always feel good to go back to childhood favorites. Chocolate and peanut butter seem meant for each other. Salty peanuts and sweet chocolate are the perfect combination! The perfect pick me up for this weather! As seen on Photograzing. 

white chocolate peanut butter cups

It's been VERY busy around my house lately. I've taken trips the last few weekends and my mother is coming into town this weekend...which makes me very aware of how much cleaning I need to do. But it also reminded me of chocolate making with my mother. 

My mother, Renee, owns an extensive collection of chocolate molds. I'm. Not. Kidding. Extensive. I'm fairly certain her chocolate molds outnumber all of her dishes, flatware, and stemware combined. Growing up I remember making Turtles, and lollipops that looked like the Care Bears, and of course a peanut butter cup. 

Most people don't own peanut butter cup molds, but they are easy to find online should you decide to invest. You actually don't need them. You can use mini baking cups and they turn out just the same. For this post I even decided to see how a  peanut butter cup would turn out in little brioche pans. They're lovely! And a beautiful switch, with elegantly smooth sides. In all reality you can use just about anything to make a peanut butter cup. Some people even choose to do a bar concept instead.

Personally I like home made peanut butter cups better than a store bought variety. I mix powdered sugar into the peanut butter! I’m a sweet tooth and I am all about the extra sugar! It also makes the peanut butter much easier to work with and closer in consistency to be dough-like, and I like being able to identify all my ingredients instead of eating a barrage of chemicals I can’t pronounce. 

There are so many cute ways to make peanut butter cups also for a little twist. Here I have some with the peanut butter exposed, as well as traditionally with the sides of chocolate. I love the exposed peanut butter. It’s adorable and really stands out compared to the entirely chocolate variety.  

homemade peanut butter cups

Peanut Butter Cups

Candy Melts or Almond Bark Chocolate

Peanut Butter (preferably organic)

Powdered Sugar to taste

All the amounts are up to you! Based on how much you want to make! For a miniature sized peanut butter cup you’ll use about 1 teaspoon of peanut butter.

Line a mini muffin tin with miniature baking liners.

Mix together peanut butter and powdered sugar to taste. I personally prefer a more dough like consistency.

Melt chocolate in the microwave in 30 second intervals until melted and smooth. Stir in-between each interval.

Dollop about half a teaspoon full of chocolate into the bottom on a baking liner and spread around the bottom (and sides if you want to the more traditional look). Repeat this process for all the baking molds and place the entire pan in the freezer.

While the chocolate is freezing start to pink off teaspoon sized balls of the peanut butter mixture. Set aside until ready to fill.

Take a peanut butter ball and push it into the baking liner. Press down with your thumb to fill and even out the tops of each peanut butter cup. Repeat for all the peanut butter cups.

You’re chocolate will most likely have re-hardened. If you need more melting chocolate add it to the bowl and repeat the 30 second microwave melting process.

When the chocolate is ready dollop another half teaspoon on top and spread the chocolate across the entire surface of the peanut butter. Repeat to the remaining chocolate cups, occasionally tapping to tray on the counter to get the tops of the chocolate to smooth out.

Place in the freezer for a final few minutes to harden up the chocolate. When ready pull the peanut butter cups out of the freezer and serve wrapped or unwrapped. Store any uneaten peanut butter cups in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

Enjoy!