This salted peanut butter ice cream with chocolate flecks from Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams flaunts the well-known romance between peanut butter and chocolate. We heard a rumor it’s one of Joe Biden’s most-liked flavors from the eminently spectacular line of Jeni’s ice creams, but whatever your political affiliation, this ice cream itself is nonpartisan and will never let you down.–Renee Schettler Rossi
Salted Peanut Butter Ice Cream with Chocolate Flecks
Equipment
- Ice cream maker
Ingredients
- 2 cups whole milk
- 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon cornstarch
- 1/2 cup natural peanut butter
- 3 tablespoons full fat cream cheese, softened
- 1/2 teaspoon table salt
- 1 1/4 cups heavy cream
- 2/3 cup granulated sugar
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 2 tablespoons light corn syrup
- 4 ounces dark chocolate
Instructions
- In a small bowl, stir together 1 tablespoon of milk and the cornstarch until smooth.
- In a large bowl, use a spatula to mix together the cream cheese, peanut butter, and salt until smooth.
☞ TESTER TIP: Make certain you stir the peanut butter in the jar to recombine any oil that separated out. If your peanut butter is chunky, you obviously won’t achieve a completely smooth texture after mixing it into the cream cheese and that’s perfectly fine.
- In a saucepan over medium-high heat, combine the remaining milk, heavy cream, sugar, corn syrup, and honey and bring to a boil. Cook for about 4 minutes.
- Take the saucepan off the heat and whisk in the cornstarch slurry.
- Return the saucepan to the heat and bring to a boil, stirring frequently, until the mixture thickens slightly and coats the back of a spoon, about 1 minute.
- Slowly whisk the hot cream mixture into the peanut butter mixture until smooth. Be careful to start with a small amount and thoroughly combine them, and then slowly add more. The finished mixture should have the consistency of thick custard.
- Place the bowl in a larger bowl filled halfway with ice water and refrigerate for at least 4 hours and preferably overnight.
- When ready to churn, pour the custard into the ice cream maker and churn according to the manufacturer's instructions.
- While the custard is churning, in a double boiler or a heatproof bowl set over but not touching a pan of simmering water, melt the chocolate. (Alternatively, you can microwave the chocolate and let it cool slightly.)
- About 5 minutes before the ice cream is finished churning, slowly drizzle the melted chocolate into ice cream maker and allow it to churn a couple more minutes to break into flecks and be completely incorporated throughout the ice cream.
☞ TESTER TIP: Take care not to be rushed when adding the chocolate or it may get stuck in the ice cream maker paddles.
- Transfer to a storage container and store in the freezer.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Recipe Testers’ Reviews
In all fairness, I did know exactly who this recipe was from when I saw the cream cheese on the ingredients list, since I own both of Jeni’s cookbooks and have been to the mothership in Columbus, Ohio. I’ve even ordered her ice cream to be shipped across the country because it’s that good. However, knowing all of this, I do think I came to it more critically than if I didn’t know its providence.
This recipe exceeded all my expectations and is easily up there with the best ice creams I’ve ever made at home. It tastes just like you’re biting into the best peanut butter cup you’ve ever had, except cold and creamy. The honey is faint, but present, and the drizzled chocolate left crunchy little speckles throughout the ice cream. The corn syrup helped prevent crystallization and I didn’t lose any ice cream to that hard layer that sometimes sticks to the side of the churning canister: it all came out beautifully.
I used O Organics Creamy Natural Peanut Butter (it only contains peanuts and salt). This is one of those peanut butters where the oil separates, so I ensured it was blended together before I measured it out. I also used Savannah Bee Company Tupelo honey and Guittard 64% Dark Chocolate.
I will never buy another peanut butter ice cream again, because it has never tasted this good. We are already reaching the bottom of our container and I’m seriously contemplating getting a bigger ice cream maker (or a second freezer canister) so I can make more at a time. 10/10.
Tip: Drizzle your chocolate in slowly, because otherwise the chocolate will form a big clump that will get caught in your churning paddle. Not to worry, you can break it up with a spoon or spatula as the machine is running if need be.
Peanut butter and chocolate are among my favorite flavor combinations so when I saw this recipe I KNEW I had to test it. Add in cream cheese and the combination is dynamite! This ice cream is very rich and creamy with bites of dark chocolate in varying amounts throughout and will definitely be on my ice cream recipe favorites list.
I chose to use Skippy Natural Super Chunk in this recipe as we are “chunky” peanut butter lovers in this house and I knew I could use the remainder regardless of how the recipe turned out. I refrigerated the mixture overnight and it was the consistency of a thick custard the next day when I went to churn it. I scooped the churned ice cream into a lidded plastic container and put it in the deep freeze to finish setting up.
This ice cream is fantastic! The chunks of peanuts from the chunky peanut butter, the little fractured pieces of dark chocolate (I melted dark chocolate chips and used those) and the smooth, slightly tangy taste of the cream cheese together are a delight. I believe this recipe will continue to be one of our favorites.
This made very delicious ice cream! I was skeptical at first because the freshly made, warm custard tasted very sweet and not at al peanut-y to me. I then left it in the fridge for two days, and even the cold base was very good, and the final ice cream was simply superb.
I had to change and substitute some stuff (I know everyone hates those types of comments) on account of not being from the US. Cream cheese and heavy cream have less fat here than their US-equivalent, so I used slightly more of the and less of the milk. Corn syrup is not available here at all, so I used glucose syrup. And finally I used agave nectar instead of honey because I dislike the taste of the latter.
So on account of all the changes I would not have commented if it didn’t turn out, but it very much did. So thank you for the recipe, and especially for offering the ingredient list in metric.
Thank you, Cathy. It’s wonderful to hear that you were able to adjust the recipe to what was available and that it worked out so well. This information is incredibly valuable for us and for all of our readers.