I have a serious addiction to peanut butter and lately it’s been rearing its head in a crazy way. I’m chocking it up to the baby in my belly.
The problem with most commercial peanut butter ice creams is that they always taste like vanilla with some peanut butter globs thrown in. Which is fine, but it’s sort of like ordering a S’mores donut only to find the cake part of the donut is not S’mores at all, but a plain chocolate cake donut with S’mores flavored frosting. When what you really wanted was the cake itself to be made from S’mores bits. (And, yes, I speak from experience on that one. Clearly, I’ve never gotten over it.)
So I wanted to make an ice cream in which the peanut butter was evenly blended into the ice cream itself, so it tastes like you’re eating actual peanut butter ice cream, not vanilla with chunks of PB.
This recipe calls for cooking the egg yolks prior to mixing them into the ice cream. From a culinary perspective, I don’t think it’s necessary to cook eggs. I’m pretty sure the only reason recipes include this step is to prevent Salmonella. Eggs are considered “safe” — bacteria dies — once heated to 160 degrees F.
But I don’t worry about salmonella. My chickens and their coop are very clean. It’s a closed flock — they’ve never come into contact with other chickens. I collect eggs 2-3 times a day so the eggs don’t have a chance to sit around. I’m comfortable adding raw eggs to uncooked recipes. If you buy eggs from me, you can feel comfortable too.
Still, I’ve never made ice cream using cooked eggs so I wanted to give it a go to see if there’s any difference in taste. Conclusion: There’s not.
This ice cream was so well blended it was like eating peanut butter gelato — there were no massive, gooey PB chunks to contend with —with little flecks of semisweet chocolate thrown in at the very end. Enjoy.
The recipe, using cooked eggs:
• Place 6 egg yolks in a small bowl. Whisk together and set aside.
• In a medium saucepan, heat 3 cups heavy cream, 1 cup whole milk, 1 tablespoon vanilla extract and 1 cup light brown sugar over low heat until the sugar is dissolved.
• Remove the pan from the heat and stir 2 tablespoons of the warm cream mixture, stirring constantly into the beaten egg yolks. Slowly add the yolk mixture to the warm cream mixture, stirring constantly so the eggs don’t cook.
• Return the cream mixture to the stove and cook over low heat for about 5 minutes, stirring constantly (very important or the yolks might scramble). Remove from the heat. Pour the ice cream mixture into a large bowl and refrigerate until completely cool.
• Pour the chilled ice cream into an ice cream maker. Turn it on and add 1 cup smooth peanut butter in globby little fingerfuls. (If you add the PB in one mass it won’t blend properly; you end up with vanilla ice cream featuring PB chunks, which we’re trying to avoid.) Process for 25 minutes.
• Just before the machine is finished, add 1/2 cup grated semisweet chocolate.
• Transfer the ice cream to a freezer-safe container and freeze an additional 2 hours before serving.
