Chocolate ice cream with peanut butter swirl recipe

When I purchased my first ice cream machine for my home, this was the first recipe that I wanted to replicate. I found a ton of recipes for peanut butter ice cream. Also a bunch for chocolate ice cream with peanuts, or with peanut butter cups. So, I had to improvise. The recipe here is a take on Ben & Jerry’s Chocolate ice cream (from their book: Ben & Jerry’s Homemade Ice Cream & Dessert Book) and a peanut butter cream made from peanut butter and, well, cream. I hope you enjoy it – I know I sure have… multiple times!

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Dark chocolate ice cream with a frozen swirl of peanut butter – timing is everything!

• Prep Time: 10 minutes
• Cook Time: 40 minutes
• Total Time: 50 minutes
• Yield: 3 cups ice cream 1x
• Category: Ice Cream
• Cuisine: Desert

Scale

Ingredients

Ice Cream Base

• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 3 TBS cornstarch
• 1/3 cup unsweetened dark cocoa powder
• 2 1/2 cups whole milk
• 1 cup heavy whipping cream
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Peanut butter swirl

• 3/4 cup smooth peanut butter
• 1 1/2 TBS heavy whipping cream
• Pinch of salt

Instructions

Whisk together the sugar, cocoa powder and cornstarch in a small bowl.

Warm milk over medium heat in a medium saucepan, until warm (not boiling).

Whisk the sugar/cocoa/cornstartch mixture to the warm milk and whisk out any lumps.

Continue to heat over a medium flame until the mixture just starts to boil.

It will be thick, close to the consistency of chocolate pudding.

Pour the chocolate mixture through a fine-mesh strainer into a large bowl.

Add the heavy cream and chocolate chips to the bowl.

Stir the cream and chips into the chocolate mixture until everything melts and is a smooth consistency.

Put plastic wrap directly over the chocolate mixture – making sure it touches the mix. This keeps a thick skin from forming on your ice-cream base.

Refrigerate at least two hours, overnight if possible.

While the chocolate base is cooling, make your peanut butter swirl. You want to make the peanut butter swirl the same day you will be churning your ice cream.

In a small bowl, whisk together the peanut butter, heavy cream and salt. I like to put the peanut butter mixture in a pastry bag with a wide tip – makes it easier to swirl it in the ice cream later.

When your chocolate mixture is completely cool, churn it according to your ice cream makers instructions.

When completely churned, pipe the peanut butter mixture by squeezing it in the ice cream maker as it churns the chocolate ice cream.

Be careful not to let it churn too much so you don’t completely incorporate the peanut butter, but have thick swirls of it running through the ice cream.

Cover and freeze for several hours before serving.

Notes

I use dark cocoa powder in this because I love, love, love dark chocolate.  You can use regular cocoa powder if you don’t like it quite as dark.

Keywords: ice cream, chocolate, peanut butter, frozen desert

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