Scooped: Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Ice Cream

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Ice Cream

The base of this ice cream is a creamy peanut butter, kissed with enough salt to recall the candy original. It gets real peanut butter cups strewn in, of course—just keep them frozen once you chop them up to keep them from softening your ice cream. To make things really interesting, and to give this ice cream that extra umph it needs to propel you into your county's Halloween dessert hall of fame, there's a deep, dark fudge swirl that's way more rich than actual Reese's chocolate, and a far more satisfying chocolate experience.

Get the recipe!

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Max Falkowitz

If there's one thing I love about making ice cream, it's how much the creamy custard acts as a blank canvas for whatever flavors you throw its way. Sometimes that means creating something entirely new. But other times it's an open opportunity to capture the taste of something you love—and to make it even more intensely delicious.

Last year I wrote a long rant about my love for frozen Snickers bars and my battles with mother dearest for my Halloween loot (the tl;dr: she'd steal it all unless I hid it). It was all a rambly preamble to a peanut buttery ice cream loaded with all the elements of a Snickers bar, but with the awesomeness knob turned up to 11.

"where candy treads, ice cream should follow"

I'll skip the ramble this time to get to the point. After Snickers, Reese's peanut butter cups are my Halloween candy of choice, and where candy treads, ice cream should follow.

The base of this ice cream is a creamy peanut butter, kissed with enough salt to recall the candy original. It gets real peanut butter cups strewn in, of course—just keep them frozen once you chop them up to keep them from softening your ice cream. To make things really interesting, and to give this ice cream that extra umph it needs to propel you into your county's Halloween dessert hall of fame, there's a deep, dark fudge swirl that's way more rich than actual Reese's chocolate, and a far more satisfying chocolate experience.

Fold, don't stir, the swirl into your ice cream while it's still a little warm, just enough so it flows and folds in easily. When it and the ice cream firm up, it's creamy peanut butter bliss all the way down, with a ribbon of chewy, not-too-sweet fudge and chunks of peanut butter cups to savor, or crunch, at your will.