Peanut Butter & Chocolate Ice Cream

With the temperature starting to rise, it's difficult to resist the lure of ice cream! It has always been a soft spot for me. This flavour is one of my (home made) favourites. Combining a lightly salted peanut taste with that of a good dark chocolate is sublime. You won't be able to stop at one scoop, I can assure you.

Like most ice creams, this is reasonably straight forward. I even made this without an ice cream machine so there really are no excuses. I like to enjoy mine with a good helping of crushed toasted peanuts, a drizzle of chocolate sauce and a sprinkle of chocolate.

Recipe

Ingredients:

355g milk
355g double cream
4 egg yolks
170g sugar
85g smooth peanut butter
150g strong plain chocolate
2 tbsp cocoa powder
Pinch of salt

Method:

• Mix the cocoa powder with some of the milk to form a paste. Bring the rest of the milk and the chocolate to the boil in a large pan.
• Whisk the egg yolks and the sugar together till pale in a large mixing bowl. 
• Add the peanut butter, the salt and cocoa powder to the almost boiling milk. 
• Once the milk mix is brought to the boil, pour into large mixing bowl whisking to incorporate the pale eggs. 
• Pour the mixture back into the pan and cook out. 
• Constantly stir with a heatproof spatula until the base thickens (it should coat the back of a spoon) or reaches 84 degrees.
• Pour in the double cream the stop the cooking then pour into a container to chill.
• Once the ice cream base is chilled pour into an ice cream machine and follow the machine's instructions.
• Alternatively, pour the chilled mixture into a container and place in the freezer. Every 15 minutes stir the ice cream well until thick and almost set.
• Leave in the freezer, covered for 2-3 hours to fully set before serving.
• Serve with chopped peanuts, chocolate sauce and chocolate bits. You could even add some fruit if you dare.