This Peanut Butter Ice Cream Packs A Wallop Of Sweet And Savory Flavor

I Melt With You is a new ice cream column from The Takeout. I'll be here all summer with new ice cream recipes, unique ingredients, equipment recommendations, and ways to make your home ice cream experience as easy and fun as possible. I am always up for a challenge, so feel free to send flavor requests to hello@thetakeout.com. If you want to see some of the flavors I have been developing for you, feel free to pop over to my IG @stacey.ballis and scroll back for some serious ice cream content.

Peanut butter in ice cream can be a little bit tricky. Often it's just a swirl of peanut butter in a vanilla base, which is not ever peanut buttery enough—plus the frozen peanut butter can be a little tough to sink your spoon into. That's not the peanut butter ice cream I want. I want a peanut butter ice cream that brings a wallop of peanut butter flavor via different textures. How do I get it? By creating a rich peanutty ice cream base and using it to support fun and exciting combinations of peanut mix-ins.

For me, the ideal combo is either roasted or honey roasted peanuts for crunch and miniature Reese's peanut butter cups for little pops of chocolate and intense peanut butter. (Nestlé also now makes a bag of milk chocolate and peanut butter chips conveniently mixed together.) If you want to go Next Level, make peanut butter flakes by melting peanut butter baking chips and coconut oil and drizzling it in at the end of churning. Then add chocolate covered peanuts. But however you choose mix it up, you're sure to make all the peanut butter fans happy.

Makes about 1½ quarts

• 1 ½ cups (360 g) heavy cream
• 1 cup (168 g) caramelized white chocolate like Valrhona Dulcey, or white chocolate chopped
• ½ cup (86 g) creamy peanut butter (I like Skippy or Jif)
• ¾ cup (180 g) buttermilk (full-fat, if you can get it) or whole milk
• 2 Tbsp. (45 g) sugar
• 2 Tbsp. (45 g) honey
• 2 Tbsp. (12 g) malted milk powder
• 2 Tbsp. (30 g) vodka (Note: this helps keep the ice cream from freezing too hard. If you prefer to not include any alcohol, you will want to let the frozen ice cream sit out an extra 15 minutes before scooping for optimal texture.)
• ¾ tsp. vanilla extract or paste
• ½ tsp. fine sea salt

• 1/2 cup (80 g) roasted peanuts or honey roasted peanuts
• 1/2 cup (80 g) Reese's unwrapped mini peanut butter cups or 1 cup Nestlé Milk Chocolate and Peanut Butter Flavored morsels

• ¾ cup Reese's peanut butter baking chips melted with 2 Tablespoons coconut oil
• 1 cup chocolate covered peanuts

Make a fast ganache by mixing the cream with the chocolate and heating in the microwave for about 2 minutes. Blend with immersion blender or in regular blender to perfect smoothness. Add the rest of the ice cream ingredients and blend again. The milk powder will want to clump on you, so keep a lookout for that. Mix with the blender until well combined and smooth.

Once the mixture is well blended, taste it to be sure you like the balance of flavors. If it doesn't feel sweet enough to you, add up to a tablespoon more sugar. If any other flavor is not coming through well, add more of what you need. The mixture should be sweet because flavors mute on freezing. When it tastes right to you, pour into a sealed container and chill to cure the flavor, 6-24 hours. It should be very chilled before you start churning.

Churn according to machine directions and fold in any mix-ins if using. (If you're making the Next Level peanut butter flakes, melt the peanut butter chips and coconut oil together until smooth, let cool slightly, transfer to a squeeze bottle, and squeeze in at the end of churning.) Transfer to storage containers and freeze for a minimum of 8 hours or overnight for best texture.