My husband came home with a package of peanut butter cups and said, “I thought maybe you could use these for something… like ice cream.” Subtle 😉 But I couldn’t deny peanut butter cups make a great ice cream mix-in. I could have just chopped them up and folded them into a vanilla ice cream base and it would have been a tasty treat, but I wanted to amp it up a little bit. So I started thinking about base flavors that would go well with peanut butter cups, and finally landed on salted caramel. It took me a few tries before I developed a good salted caramel base, but oh man was it worth the effort.
Guessipe
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 4 TBSP butter
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 cups heavy cream
- 1 cup whole milk
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 2 cups peanut butter cups, chopped
Melt the sugar in a large pan over medium heat, stirring occasionally until all the sugar is dissolved and the caramel starts to smoke. Turn the heat down to low, then stir in the butter and salt. Very gradually whisk in 1 cup of the heavy cream, continuing to whisk over low heat until any hardened bits of caramel melt. Remove from heat and allow to cool.
Once cool, whisk in the remaining 1 cup heavy cream, milk, and vanilla until smooth. Refrigerate for a few hours.
Churn the chilled cream mixture in an ice cream maker until the ice cream crawls up the sides of the bowl (about 20 minutes). Fold in the peanut butter cup pieces.
Transfer the ice cream to a chilled glass container. Press plastic wrap onto the surface of the ice cream, and freeze for at least 4 hours before serving.
