Homemade Chocolate Peanut Butter Ice Cream

Hey everyone!

I got an ice cream maker as a gift from my future in-laws quite a while ago, and could never get around to getting the core in the freezer and actually using it! So, finally, the other weekend, my fiancé J and I made this together- and it was killer. And so easy!! I don't have too much experience making homemade ice cream except lots of memories of endless cranking and ice and rock salt as a child! So this ice cream was easy to make, amazing to watch freeze up in the maker and change, and was so rich, creamy, and absolutely incredible. I can't share the exact recipe, but you might be able to find a copycat one somewhere- I used the first chocolate ice cream recipe in the Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream & Desserts Recipe Book, so I can't just go writing it here. But I will also recommend the book- my fiancé's Aunt gave it to me as a gift after I got the maker and it has all the explanations and ideas and recipes, perfect to start with, easy to understand, and honestly a must-have in the end- Ben and Jerry's is among the best mass produced ice creams in the country. OK, enough babbling, let's get to some pictures!!

Melting some chocolate over a double boiler...

And making our dairy mixture in another bowl.

Once cooled, pour the chocolate mixture into the dairy mixture, and stir well...

Until it's nice and smooth like this. Chill several hours.

Right before making, take the ice cream mix out of the freezer, and add your peanut butter to  about 1 cup of the ice cream mix and mix well.

Then add the rest of your ice cream mix and blend together well.

The finished ice cream mix and the maker! (It's a Cuisinart, the kind with a core that you freeze and then it just turns automatically- no churning involved!)

The ice cream right after being poured in and turned on- pretty liquidy.

The ice cream starting to freeze up- you can see the ice crystals forming on the paddle there.

Then pretty quick you're dealing with some firm looking stuff!

And this is about what it looked like right before I turned it off.

The finished ice cream right out of the maker!

The ice cream an hour or two later- I set a timer for every 20 minutes and got it out of the freezer and stirred it well so it would freeze firmer but not get icy.

Our finished creating station- ice cream on the left, whipped cream on the right, and balls of PB cookie dough (J's idea!)  and chocolate chips in the middle.

So we made parfaits with layers of ice cream, cookie dough, chocolate chips, and whipped cream- YUM!

This stuff was out of this world good. Seriously, look for a good priced ice cream maker online or on craigslist and give it a whirl, or get yours out if you haven't used it in a while- it was so, so much easier than I thought. Hopefully soon I'll have recipes all my own of ice cream to share!


Savor it!
love, rue (and thanks for the help, J!)