Peanut Butter Cup Chocolate Chunk Gelato

Living in San Diego has its benefits.  Take for example the sunshine, the beaches, and the lack of freezing winters.  Living on my particular street in sunny San Diego, however, comes with even more benefits.

Having a recently retired neighbor with extra time on his hands occasionally brings freshly made treats to my door.  Last week it was creamy, fresh guacamole and today I was the extraordinarily lucky recipient of this frozen gelato-like confection filled with surprises in every bite.

Chunks of frozen ganache contrast with little pieces of chopped peanut butter cups, and are all wrapped up in a frozen peanut butter gelato/ice cream custard.

Oh My.  Oh MY!  OH MY!!  Delicious beyond words, I give you Captain Greg bringing us his 2nd Liv Life Guest Post (be sure to check out his first post, Lemon Lime Gelato, from last May).

Bet you wish you lived on my street.

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Ask any scientist or 6 year old what's essential for life:  Oxygen.  Chocolate.  Peanut Butter.   If you can hold your breath long enough, you might even do without Oxygen.  Not so for chocolate and peanut butter.

Fortunately, Harry Burnett Reese understood the universal truth that chocolate and peanut butter were meant to be together like Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.  So in the 1920's, Mr. Reese marketed a small confectionery cup of Hershey's Chocolate filled with a smooth peanut butter blend and the rest is history.   Kids gobble 'em up at Halloween, lunchtime, in fact any time they can sneak a treat.  And like you don't pull a few out of their Halloween loot when they're not looking...

So it's time to legitimize the larceny with a deliciously decadent dessert that any kid or adult kid would die for - Captain Greg's Peanut Butter Cup Chocolate Chunk Mortal Sin Gelato.  This is one you need.  It's primal.  It's the perfect capture of smooth and sinewy peanut butter with the sweet, seductive indulgences of fine crafted chocolate.  Throw in a handful of Mr. Reese's brilliance and swirl in an extra bounty of chocolate and peanut butter and this gelato blows away anything you've ever imagined gelato could be.

 My neighbor and dessert muse, Claudine, asked me to "amp up your classic Peanut Butter and Chocolate Gelato recipe".  When I suggested, "Chunking it", she flipped, and said "You've taken it from a Venial Sin to a Mortal Sin!"  So that's the story.  It will take more than a few "Our Fathers" to be forgiven for this sinfully delicious treat!

Sweet peanut butter gelato infused with handcrafted Ghirardelli chocolate, chunked peanut-butter cups, and swirls of more of the same...  I should be arrested for this one.

Captain Greg's Peanut Butter Cup Chocolate Chunk Mortal Sin Gelato  
Greg Dowell - San Diego

Ingredients:
4 cups whole milk
3 cup heavy whipping cream
8 large egg yolks
2 cup sugar
1 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
8-Ounce Ghirardelli Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips
8 Reese's Peanut Butter Cups (.55 oz size, chilled)
Makes 2 Quarts
 

Directions:
In small saucepan, heat 1 cup cream over medium heat until steaming.  Add the chocolate chips to the warm cream and whisk until blended into a smooth chocolate ganache. Remove and allow to return to room temperature. 

Separate the egg yolks into a medium bowl and lightly beat with a wooden spoon.  Add the sugar, stirring until the mixture is creamy, pale yellow and very thick. 

Heat the milk until steaming, then whisk it into the yolk and sugar mixture.  Cook over a low heat stirring constantly until thick enough to lightly coat the back of a wooden spoon. 

Strain the mixture into a large bowl through a fine mesh strainer.  Cool completely in the refrigerator (at least two hours). 

Pour half of the mixture into a blender.  Add 1 cup of peanut butter and blend until smooth.  Whisk the peanut butter mixture and 2 cups heavy whipping cream back into the remainder of the sugar/yolk custard. 

Process in an ice cream maker 

Using a chilled, sharp knife, cut the peanut butter cups into small pieces (1/4" to 1/2"). 

Turn half of the gelato into medium Tupperwear with lids, add the remaining 1/2 cup of peanut butter and half of the peanut butter cups. 

Turn the remainder of the gelato into the Tupperwear and add the remainder of the peanut butter cups.  Swirl in chocolate ganache using a bread knife, stirring as little as possible to preserve the swirl pattern.

Cover and freeze at least 24 hours.

Liv Life Note:  No way I'd be able to wait 24 hours...

Thank you Mr. Reese.