Happy Chocolate-Peanut Butter First Post

I never expected to like my ice cream maker as much as I do.

I got it last summer. I had idly mentioned to my mom that I wanted one, because sometimes, when I do that, she just turns up with things. And that’s exactly how I got my Cuisinart ICE-20.

I’m not sure when it went from a hobby to a full-blown obsession. But I recently discovered that I’ve gotten so used to the taste of real ice cream, that my old stand-byes of whatever non-fat frozen dessert is on sale have a weird aftertaste that comes from being made mostly of ingredients I can’t name and probably can’t pronounce (none of which are cream or sugar).

And now, when I have some unrelated food I like, I think about whether it can be made into ice cream. Bacon? Signs point to yes. Red wine? Outlook good. I find myself googling one ice cream recipe or another all the time.

Which is how I found David Lebovitz, former pastry chef and ice-cream cookbook author’s blog. And lo! He lives in Paris, but was at a NY Borders signing cookbooks last week. I had to go.

The only question then was which to try first. I decided to go with Chocolate-Peanut Butter. Which means I spent my weekend going into every supermarket that looked higher-end than my crapy little FoodTown looking for unsweetened, Dutch processed, cocoa powder. A scant three supermarkets and $10 later, I found my imported-from-Holland chocolate.

Sunday night, as I was finally watching the Chocolate-Peanut Butter churn, I realized this was no longer a mere hobby. It was a full blown love affair. I consider boiling water for pasta cooking. Yet here I was, traipsing across the city for cocoa powder that’s had it’s pH fiddled with.

And who better to share that obsession with (other than the people I see on a regular basis that can partake in eating the ice cream with me) than the internet. No one, that’s who. So welcome to my ice cream blog.

Now, the Chocolate-Peanut Butter ice cream you’ve all been waiting for:

Ice cream makes Monday in the office just a little bit better.

Choclate-Peanut Butter Ice Cream
From The Perfect Scoop
Makes about 1 quart

Ingredients:
2 cups half and half
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup unsweetened, Dutch-processed cocoa powder
12 cup creamy peanut butter
Pinch of salt

1. Whisk half and half, sugar, cocoa powder together in a saucepan. Watch out for flying cocoa powder when you start.
2. Put the saucepan on medium-high heat, whisking until it reaches a rapid boil (bubbles!).
3. Take off the heat and whisk in peanut butter.
4. Chill.
5. Freeze as directed.
6. Eat!

The ice cream froze up really thick, rich and dense. If I make it again, I’d probably add a cup of milk because instead of having a little bit of very rich ice cream, I’d rather have more of a lighter ice cream. Or I’d make vanilla to go along with it, and have a scoop of each.