Chocolate Peanut Butter Swirl Ice Cream

Nothing beats ice cream on a hot  summer day and lately the past few days have been scorchers. If I'm being really honest I don't need hot weather as an excuse to eat ice cream, I will eat it in the dead of the winter in the middle of a snowstorm. Pair it with a brownie and some whipped cream and I'm in heaven and homemade ice cream to boot? Now we're talking.

If you were to do a search on ice cream recipes I'm willing to bet that you'll find hundreds if not thousands of variations. When I got my ice cream maker a few years ago I got right to work to find the perfect ice cream recipe of all. It took a little tweaking but I managed to come up with one that is simply amazing. It is loosely based on Chef Richard Blais's chocolate ice cream recipe from Top Chef from the episode when he made the Banana Scallops and Banana Guacamole but I altered it based on other recipes I found and made it a little more waistline friendly so I wouldn't feel so guilty going back for seconds!



This recipe is my favorite by far, it's thick and creamy and full of rich chocolate flavor. It's a fairly simple recipe but you will have to do some multi-tasking in the beginning parts of it, but I promise you it's not hard at all.You'll notice that this recipe does contain eggs and for some reason I have found when I tell people that sometimes people react negatively to this. The eggs get cooked in a pot just like they would if you were making pudding from scratch. As long as you heat the mixture to the proper temperature there is no cause for concern, so cast your doubts aside, break out your food thermometer and get to making some ice cream!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Swirl Ice Cream
Yield:
Active Prep Time: 20 minutes     I     Cook Time: 10 Minutes     I     Inactive Prep Time: 1 hour

Ingredients

• 8 oz chocolate any kind chopped (I prefer Hershey's Symphony Milk Chocolate)
• 2 cups light cream
• 1 cup milk (I use 1%)
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 3 egg yolks

In a double boiler or the microwave melt the chocolate. Next in a medium saucepan bring the cream, milk and half of the sugar to a boil, stirring occasionally. 

Then whisk in the eggs and remaining sugar in a separate bowl until they become light yellow in color. Add the chocolate to the egg mixture slowly while continuing to whisk the ingredients. This will ensure that the eggs will not curdle from the heat. 

When the chocolate and eggs are fully incorporated add this to the cream mixture on the stove whisking constantly until everything is incorporated. Heat the mixture until it reaches 170 degrees and until it begins to appear custard like and coats the back of a spoon.

Move the custard into the refrigerator and chill for approximately one hours. As a side note, I will admit sometimes I cheat on this step and just wait until the mixture is no longer hot, which is usually about 30 minutes, it just means more time in the ice cream machine.

When the custard is cooled spoon into your ice cream machine and follow the manufacturers instructions. I have a Cuisine Art Ice Cream Maker so all I have to do is pour the mixture into the bowl and turn it on. I usually let it run about 30 minutes and add any mix-ins around the 20 minute mark. You can also add them in when the ice cream is done before you store it.

The peanut butter swirl part of this ice cream comes from the leftover peanut butter from my peanut butter cups post. I set aside about half of the peanut butter mixture, rolled it out and cut it into ribbons that I stirred into the ice cream. You can add just about anything into ice cream or you can enjoy it just as it is, chocolate ice cream at its best.