Buckeyes are actually nuts that grow on trees that are related to the chestnut. Many of these trees grow in Ohio and that is how Ohio got to be tagged as the buckeye state.
Even though the nuts are considered poisonous, Ohio is also home to the candy confections called buckeyes. These are basically a fudge-like ball made up of peanut butter and honey, then dipped in dark chocolate. If you are a fan of Reese's, you will love this candy as well as this ice cream.
An ice cold mouthful of smooth peanut buttery ice cream with the occasional crunch of chocolate does hit the spot on a hot humid day. In order to insure the best flavor, stick with the natural peanut butter and quality dark chocolate in this recipe. You will be glad you did.
Why not break out some homemade ice cream this Memorial Day? This peanut butter and chocolate combination is sure to get everyone's approval.
Buckeye State Ice Cream
adapted from Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream at Home
Ingredients
2 tbs light corn syrup
2 tbs honey
1 1/4 cups cream
2 cups whole milk
1 1/2 oz or 3 tbs cream cheese
2/3 cup of sugar
1/2 cup natural peanut butter
4 oz chopped chocolate ( preferably dark chocolate 55-70% cocoa)
1 tbs plus 1 tsp cornstarch
In a medium size bowl, mix together the cream cheese and peanut butter. Set aside. In another bowl, combine the cornstarch with 2 tbs of milk (taken out of the original 2 cup measurement), stirring until smooth.
Fill a saucepan with the cream, milk, sugar, honey and corn syrup. Place over medium high heat and stir. Continue to stir as the mixture comes to a boil. Set the timer for 4 minutes and let the cream cook, mixing constantly. Remove from the heat. Stir the cornstarch mixture one last time and then pour into the cream in a small stream while mixing. Transfer saucepan back to the heat and let cook for about a minute until thickened, then remove.
Place ice in kitchen sink and fill with water.
Put the cream cheese/peanut butter mixture in the cream and stir until smooth. Then pour ice cream into a zip lock bag and seal. Place the sealed bag in ice bath. Let mixture cool for about 30 - 45 minutes. While this is cooling, melt dark chocolate in top of a double boiler. After melting, remove top pot from boiler pot and set aside. Let chocolate cool until just warm, but not solid.
Once cooling time is complete for the ice cream, pour into an ice cream maker and follow manufacturer's instructions. Right before you reach the stage of transferring the ice cream to another container, pour in the chocolate and spin or mix the ice cream. After all chocolate is mixed in, then put ice cream in another container and press a piece of parchment on the surface. Then seal with a tight lid and place in freezer. Ice cream should be firm in about 4 hours.
Tips and notes:
1. The peanut butter/cream cheese mixture is thick. In order to mix it in after it was added to the cream, I placed the saucepan once again over medium heat. Using the back of the smooth, smash the large clumps against the side of the saucepan and swish from side to side. Then scrape down with the spoon. Continue until there are no lumps that float to the top. Once the process is complete, pour into zip lock bag.
2. Drizzling is the best method to insure even distribution of the chocolate in the ice cream. On my second round of making this ice cream, I used a squirt bottle and drizzled thin lines on top. Once the chocolate got hard, I used a butter knife to break it up and mix it into the cream.
3. The recipe stated use unsalted, natural peanut butter but also listed 1/2 tsp of sea salt as an ingredient to add to the cream cheese. I skipped the salt ingredient by using regular, natural peanut butter, not the unsalted kind.
**LAST YEAR: Midnight Delights**