Peanut butter ice cream

Combining rich cream, eggs, and peanut butter into a fun ice cream optionally topped with nut brittle will go down a treat with all your family and friends, unless they have a nut allergy, of course. But this is easy to make, well-worth doing and great fun to eat. This recipe makes about 1¾ pints / 950ml of ice cream.

Ingredients

• 12 fluid ounces / 350ml whole milk
• 12 fluid ounces / 350ml double cream
• salt
• 6 large egg yolks
• 5½ ounces / 150g caster sugar
• 5 ounces / 145g smooth peanut butter
• nut brittle (optional) for garnishing

Method

Put the milk, double cream, and salt into a large saucepan and bring to a light simmer over a medium heat.

Put the egg yolks and caster sugar into a bowl or free-standing mixer and beat, either using the mixer’s paddle attachment or an electric hand whisk. Beat until the yolks are thicker and lighter in colour.

Pour half the heated milk and cream into the egg yolks and whisk to thoroughly mix and warm the eggs.

Then, pour the egg mixture back into milk and cream saucepan, still on its medium heat, stirring all the time with a wooden spoon. Continue stirring for 3-5 minutes until you have a thick custard that coats the spoon. If you draw a line with your finger through the custard on the spoon it should leave a clean line.

Now, mix in the peanut butter and whisk, briskly.

Take the saucepan off the heat and cool it quickly by plunging it into a basin or large bowl of iced water. Do not let any water get into the pan.

As soon as possible, push a sheet of clingfilm down into saucepan so that it sits right across the mixture, pushing it well around the sides of the pan. This will stop a skin forming.

Put the saucepan in the fridge for at least two hours.

Then, pour the mixture into your ice cream maker and freeze, according to the equipment’s instructions.

Tips

As an optional extra, you can buy or make bars of peanut brittle. Put some in a plastic bag and bash with a rolling pin to reduce it to smaller nuggets which you can then sprinkle on top of the ice cream when serving on a plate or in a bowl or in ice cream cones. You can of course just garnish with plain or salted chopped peanuts, or something like a fudge sauce which also goes well.

Trivia

Peanuts have more protein than any other nut and are naturally cholesterol-free. It takes approximately 540 peanuts to make a 12-ounce jar of peanut butter.