Peanut Butter Cup Ice Cream

At a family gathering back in May, my cousin J. oohed and aahed over the remarkable fact that the blueberry cheesecake ice cream I brought could be served straight from the freezer--no softening necessary!  She then challenged me to produce a peanut butter ice cream that would be perfectly scoopable right out of the freezer, something her brother (an avid ice cream making adventurer) could not (at that point) do.  Okay, so she didn't really "challenge" me so much as mention the fact that cousin P.'s last attempt at peanut butter ice cream--though tasty--was hard, hard, hard.  Mr. Koala and I took it upon ourselves to try and remedy that situation, and here is our result:

FAIL.

This peanut butter ice cream is insanely rich, peanut buttery, and decadent, yet suffers from the "I'm so hard I'll break your spoons if you try and dig into me right away" Syndrome.  No one was complaining, as the taste more than made up for the counter top wait time.  But that didn't solve the original "problem" we were trying to address.  Looks like some further experimentation is in order...  :)


Peanut Butter Cup Ice Cream  (Yield: about 1 quart)
Slightly modifed from Erin Cooks

2 eggs
¾ cup sugar
2 cups heavy cream
1 cup whole milk
1 cup creamy peanut butter
1 tsp. vanilla extract
9 peanut butter cups, chopped (it helps to refigerate them first)

Whisk the eggs in a mixing bowl until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Whisk in the sugar, a little at a time, then continue to whisk until completely blended, about 1 minute more. Pour in the heavy cream, milk, peanut butter, and vanilla.  Whisk to blend.  Refrigerate ice cream base until cold.  Churn according to your ice cream maker’s manufacturer instructions.  Meanwhile, place the chopped peanut butter cups in the freezer (this will keep them from breaking up too much when adding to the finished ice cream). When ice cream is almost ready, add peanut butter cups and allow the machine to mix them in.