Peanut Butter Bombshell Ice Cream!

Oh MY.

Peanut Butter Bombshell Ice Cream

This is Hannah Kaminsky's recipe from Vegan A La Mode, the dream vegan ice cream cookbook I've been waiting for since I started making vegan desserts.  Seriously, the recipes are astonishing, the photos crisp, clean and gorgeous, and it's BIG, providing hundreds of innovative ice cream recipes of all genres.  

It's a STEAL at about $12 on amazon, but since I won Hannah's giveaway in April (yeay!!) it was free for me! Thanks, Hannah! 

Hannah gave me permission to blog the recipe, thus sharing a little taste of heaven with you guys.  This recipe tastes as creamy, rich and decadent as the most premium dairy ice creams. Thanks, Hannah! 

PB Bombshell Ice Cream

1 Cup Creamy PB 

*Trader Joe's for me!They have a great organic one, too, made from Valencia peanuts*

1/3 cup Brown Sugar, firmly packed

                          1/3 cup White Sugar I used 2/3 c. for a little added sweetness

2 cups Non-Dairy Milk (unsweetened almond or full-fat soy)

OR, what I used: 1 can of Organic Coconut Milk OR combo of both

(Combo would be like 1/2 can coconut milk + 1 cup soy or almond milk, etc.)

1 Tablespoon of Cornstarch 

1/2 tsp Salt

1 tsp vanilla extract

4 ounces finely chopped semi-sweet chocolate (I used Sharffen Berger 62%) or

1/2 cup chopped roasted peanuts (kiddo doesn't like nuts in things, so none for us) and

Hannah calls for 10 chopped sandwich cookies, which would be great, but I didn't have any.

Note: You guys know I try to use organic ingredients whenever possible, so mine was made with organic PB (TJ's Organic Valencia PB), and organic sugars (TJ's organic white & brown), and organic coconut milk (Native Forest, which is also BPA free).  Only things not organic were the cornstarch, salt and chocolate.

Method: 

In a medium saucepan, whisk peanut butter through salt and heat over medium heat until bubble begin to break on the surface and the liquid is thickened.  Whisk and scrape sides & bottom of pan frequently until the mixture comes up to temperature.  Remove from heat and transfer to a bowl and let cool to room temperature (stirring every so often to quicken the cooling if you want).  Chill in the fridge for at least three hours.  Then churn in your ice cream maker following the directions of your particular machine.  Add cookies or chopped chocolate or nuts in the last few minutes of churning to incorporate.  Also, I add my vanilla at the very end because when I have added it at the beginning, I have had it totally prevent my ice cream from freezing (it's the alcohol, but alcohol-free vanilla tastes yucky to me, so just add it at the very end or skip it altogether).  Transfer to an airtight container, tupperware, etc. and freeze in the freezer for about three hours or until solid.  If you used coconut milk it will be VERY firm, so I take mine out and let it sit on the counter for about ten minutes before scooping.

Enjoy!

My husband wants me to make this into an ice cream pie :-)

Stay cool, everyone, gonna be hot for a while longer.  Gonna run out and check my zucchini now.

XOXO

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups

I had never made homemade peanut butter cups before, but really wanted some on Valentine's Day, so, I made a batch.

These are really tasty and not too much mess to make, so if you are having a craving for a  rich, delicious peanut butter cup made with whole ingredients, give these a go.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups

Adapted from Alicia Silverstone's recipe in The Kind Diet

Ingredients

4-6 tablespoons of Earth Balance butter or other vegan baking butter, see my note below

3/4 cup peanut butter

3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs or cereal crumbs like Puffins

1/4 cup organic brown sugar

1 cup nondairy chocolate chips (or carob, but I hate carob and it's made with palm oil)

1/4 cup coconut milk (aseptic box or refrigerated kind, not canned) or other non-dairy milk

Method 

1. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners. (If You Care makes unbleached liners made from recycled paper.) Set aside.

2. Melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. I used Alicia's recipe's full 1/2 cup (1 stick) of EB and that was WAY too greasy and tasted too much like EB (which I only use in baked goods) so I had to keep adding cereal to it to make it a drier consistency.  I recommend using only 4-6 tablespoons (1/4 to 1/3 cup) of EB and keeping the rest of the ingredients the same. I don't really like EB, but the consistency works very well in baked goods and desserts, if you use the lesser amount (4-6 tablespoons) it should be fine and not taste like EB once you add all the other ingredients :-)  

3. Stir in the peanut butter, graham cracker or cereal crumbs, and sugar and mix well.  Note: I didn't have graham crackers (because we ate them all), so I just processed Original Puffins in the food processor until they were fine crumbs, and measured out 3/4 of a cup of the crumbs.  It was a fine substitution!

4. Remove the mixture from the heat. Evenly divide the mixture, approximately 2 tablespoons per cup, among the muffin cups. I used an Oxo medium scoop to do this task.

5. Combine the chocolate and milk in a 4 cup Pyrex measuring cup. Heat in microwave, covered, a minute at a time, whisking each minute, until the chocolate has melted and is combined well with the milk.

6. Carefully pour the chocolate evenly over each cup of the peanut butter mixture. 

7. Place in the refrigerator to set for at least 2 hours before serving.

I couldn't resist using my Silverstone muffin tin!  These were just poured and had not yet set in the fridge.

Enjoy!

This makes 12 large (!) cupcake sized peanut butter cups.  You can cut them into quarters and arrange prettily on a platter for smaller dessert "bites," or you can just go for it and eat a whole one per person.

Pantry Permanents

I do not need help using up the following items:

Cat and Starbucks bag.  I love my cat and I love my Starbucks!

Starbucks French Roast: I cannot live without it (especially once I entered parenthood) and you can see it tucked into various places in my pantry shelves if you look closely.  

By the way, don't be fooled into trying this stuff:

It's Starbucks "via," their line of instant coffee.  I really really wanted to like it since I don't always feel like brewing coffee when I want just one cup.  Unfortunately, it was the worst "coffee" I have ever had. Way worse than the old instants of yesteryear.  I got it when we weren't supposed to have power for 2+ weeks due to Hurricane Irene.  I returned the unopened packages I had.  YUCK.

And, if you have any of this left, don't rush to use it up!

Trader Joe's Organic Peanut Butter (made with Valencia peanuts) is NOT being made/bought anymore by TJ's!!

I spoke with store staff and emailed TJ's a few weeks ago on a standard TJ's run when I went to pick up several jars of this, my all time favorite peanut butter.  It has 9 grams of protein and only 2 grams of sugar for the standard two tablespoon serving and it tastes amazing with the perfect texture and amount of moisture (the consistency is very smooth and creamy, akin to a commercial, sugar infused, non-organic peanut butter). 

They said, basically, that they cannot get the Valencia peanuts anymore.

The solution may be Arrowhead Mills peanut butter, though not organic, is still made with Valencia peanuts and is the favorite of the laziest vegan, John McDevitt (Isa Moskowitz's boyfriend :-)

What are your pantry permanents? I have others...