Chocolate Ice Cream with Peanut Butter Swirl

I came home from work after a long, long day and was seriously not in the mood for dinner. I ate some refried beans - you know, for the nutritional value - and whipped up some of this ice cream. I can say with 100% confidence that it was a very, very good decision.




Double Chocolate Ice Cream with Peanut Butter Swirl

Adapted from here

1 1/2 cups whole milk
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
pinch of salt
1 1/2 cup heavy cream
1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup smooth salted peanut butter

In a sauce pan over medium heat, stir together cream, milk, sugar, cocoa powder and salt. Heat until the milk and boil until thickened. The mixture will look the consistency of chocolate pudding. Remove from flame and stir in the the chocolate chips. 

Place mix in a bowl, covered with plastic wrap or a lid, and put in the fridge until cool.

Once cool, follow the manufacturers instructions on the ice cream maker to churn ice cream. Once the mixture has chilled and thickened in the ice cream maker, slowly drizzle in 1/4 cup of peanut butter. Don’t over mix. You want a nice ribbon of peanut butter running through the ice cream.

Transfer the ice cream into a freezer safe container and fold in the remaining 1/4 cup of peanut butter. Cover and freeze until solid.

Peach Ice Cream

I love the dollar store. I could walk around for hours, browsing all the knick knacks and random goodies you can find. And I inevitably end up spending a lot more money than I planned because - oh my gosh! They have frozen peaches here for a dollar!

So, there I was. Home from the dollar store with two bags of frozen peaches. I had big plans for each - the first went toward my morning smoothie, the second, to this ice cream.

Peach Ice Cream

Adapted from here

2 1/2 cups ripe peaches
3 eggs, lightly beaten, at room temperature
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
dash of salt
2 cups whole milk
1 1/2 cups heavy cream (whipping cream)

In a blender, purée half of the peaches. Mash the remaining peaches with a potato masher. Set aside.

Whisk together the eggs, sugar, vanilla and salt until blended. 

In a large saucepan over low heat, warm the milk and cream until it just begins to steam. Temper the egg mixture with the cream, then pour the everything back into the heavy saucepan. Continue to cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until mixture is thick and smooth. Remove from heat, and refrigerate the mixture for several hours or until well chilled.

Add the peaches to the chilled mixture, stir well, and pour into a 5-quart ice cream freezer can. Freeze according to your ice cream maker's directions.

Dulce de Leche Ice Cream

I'm not kidding when I tell you I'm on a serious ice cream binge. Since I got the ice cream maker, every flavor I come across is made into mental ice cream on the spot. Unfortunately for my waistline, many of these are also being made into real-life ice cream as well.

I made dulce de leche brownies a few weeks ago for a coworker's going away potluck and I've had some extra dulce de leche sitting in my fridge since then. Rather than attack it with a spoon (like I have been) I found a way to turn it into a caramelly, soft, delicious ice cream. Which I promptly attacked with a spoon. I can't win.


Dulce de Leche Ice Cream

Adapted from here

2 cups whole milk
1 cup heavy cream
1 pound dulce de leche (about 1 2/3 cups)
1/8 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Bring milk and cream just to a boil in a 3-quart heavy saucepan over moderate heat, then remove from heat and whisk in dulce de leche until dissolved. Whisk in vanilla and transfer to a metal bowl.

Chill mixture well, then freeze in ice cream maker until almost firm. Transfer ice cream to an airtight container and put in freezer to harden, at least 1 hour.

Strawberry Frozen Yogurt

I recently came into possesion of an ice cream maker, and I'm pretty sure its going to change my life. My manager at work used to work in the food service industry, doing baking and catering and the like. Since then she has been diagnosed with some pretty severe food allergies and had to give up wheat, eggs, dairy... pretty much all the things she used to cook with.

While unfortunate for her, I've certainly benefitted from her bad luck. She has been going through her kitchen and garage, cleaning out her old supplies, and donating to my, "I'm teaching myself how to cook" charity. So far I've gotten cookie cutters, pie weights, silicone baking cups, thermometers, cooling racks, and now, an ice cream maker. Its an older model but I can tell you one thing - it still works.

I've had this bad boy for about a week and I've been using it a LOT; pretty much every time that bowl is frozen I'm taking it out to whip something up. I've made strawberry granita, which didn't come out very well, chocolate ice cream, and my favorite so far: strawberry frozen yogurt.

The Mister and I picked up a huge crate of strawberries at Costco on Saturday. Random tangent: I LOVE California produce. That night we were sitting at home, recharging after a day of house shopping (and gearing up for more on Sunday) and were trying to decide what to eat for dinner when we realized that dessert would be much better. We had an unopened plain yogurt in the fridge and thus, strawberry froyo was born.

We love chains like Pinkberry, so we decided to go easy on the sugar to keep things nice and tart. We wanted chunks of strawberries so we didn't puree the mixture, and cooked the strawberries in phases so that some broke down completely and some stayed in larger bits. This was delicious that night, but even better the next day after a chance to solidify in the freezer.

I have a feeling this ice cream maker is going to be very, very well used.


Strawberry Frozen Yogurt Recipe


Adapted from here

3 cups sliced fresh strawberries
3 Tbsp lemon juice
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup whole milk
1 1/2 cups full fat yogurt (if use low or non fat, then add 2 Tbsp cream)


Place half the strawberries, lemon juice, salt, and sugar in a medium saucepan. Heat on medium heat, stirring, until the sugar has completely dissolved. Add the rest of the strawberries and continue to stir. Use a potato masher to mash up the strawberries as the mixture is heating. As soon as all of the sugar has completely dissolved, remove from heat and let sit for 10 minutes.

Whisk in the milk and yogurt, until completely incorporated. Place the mixture in the refrigerator and chill for at least an hour until completely cold.

Process the mixture in your ice cream maker 20 to 25 minutes. Eat immediately or keep in freezer until served.

Makes about 1 quart.