homemade chocolate ice cream + peanut butter cups

It’s another busy weekend for the VH’s again, but I love busy weekends when they involve family and a trip to the wineries.  Oh wait… that’s right.  No alcohol for me.  Luckily, alcohol has been one of the last things I have wanted.  I’ve more missed the act of being social over a glass of wine or a bottle of good Schlafly beer than actually drinking it.  But, I still love the wineries and I especially love being able to spend time with both of our families.

But, since I can’t drink for several more months, I figured what better way to indulge than by making some ice cream!  Mostly for me since I deserve some sort of award for being DD for the weekend, but also for our families to enjoy.  Can you believe I haven’t made an ice cream recipe since before the big pregnancy announcement?!  Man, I am slacking on my job… sorry, ya’ll.  Only 3 weeks of school left and I’ll be able to indulge you in photos of all my delicious recipes.

I also realized that I have yet to make a good chocolate ice cream!  I have talked about how much I LOVE Fritz’s chocolate ice cream, but it really didn’t cross my mind much until today that maybe I should try to make my own.

HOMEMADE CHOCOLATE ICE CREAM
Makes about 3 cups of ice cream.

1 (13.5 ounce) can lite coconut milk
1/2 cup skim milk (or if you want to make it vegan, soy or almond milk)
1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Pinch of salt

Combine all ingredients into a medium bowl and whisk to combine.  If you are having trouble getting rid of clumps of cocoa powder, dump the mixture into a blender and blend for about 30 seconds until all the clumps are gone.  This makes it much easier.

Freeze according to the manufacturer’s instructions for your ice cream maker.  Takes about 20-25 minutes to freeze completely.  Put all ice cream into a tupperware container and place in the freezer for at least 2 hours or overnight to ripen.

This isn’t nearly as good as Fritz’s since it is ice cream and not frozen custard, but still darn tasty.  In fact, one of my favorite combinations at Fritz’s is Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups mixed into their chocolate ice cream.  This was dubbed the ROC (Reese’s out of Chocolate; pronounced “rock”) when we worked there.  (If you know anything about St. Louisans, we like to use the initials of things and form words out of them.  We are strange like that.)

Of course, I only had one mini Reese’s left in my Easter candy stash (of which I ate none of… hmmm, Matt????), but I did have all the ingredients to make an adapted version of Alicia Silverstone’s peanut butter cups.  My mom cut the recipe out of Parade magazine a couple of weeks ago and I stumbled across it last night.  Perfect timing?  I think so…

HOMEMADE PEANUT BUTTER CUPS
Adapted from The Kind Diet Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups.  Makes 12 large cups.

1/2 cup Earth Balance buttery spread
3/4 cup peanut butter (the recipe suggests crunchy, but I only eat creamy, so that’s what I used)
3/4 cup vanilla wafer crumbs
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/4 cup skim milk (mine obviously are not vegan like hers are)

Line a 12-cup muffin tine with paper liners.  Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat.  Stir in peanut butter, vanilla wafer crumbs, and brown sugar and mix well.  Remove from heat and spoon evenly into muffin cups.

Combine chocolate and milk in another saucepan (or you can just rinse the other one and use that again to save dishes).  Stir over medium heat until the chocolate is completely melted.  Stir frequently as it will burn!  Spoon evenly over peanut butter mixture.  Refrigerate until set, about 2 hours.

Holy cow… these were delicious, and perfect when combined with the velvety chocolate ice cream.  I’m not sure I can make one without the other, or go back to eating REAL Reese’s again.  Thank goodness I always have peanut butter and chocolate in my pantry!

Hopefully Matt’s family will enjoy them tomorrow, as I am trying to restrain myself from going back to the fridge to eat the entire tray!  Well, at least they have wine…