Friday, March 23, 2012

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.


30 comments:

  1. You really should be arrested - this is sin and a half! What a fantastic guest post :D
    I could eat this all day everyday!

    Cheers
    Choc Chip Uru
    Latest: Colossal Caramel Peanut Monster Cookies

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  2. Oh, dear, I can feel my pants getting tighter. What the heck, for this I'll buy bigger pants :)

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  3. Holy moly does this look delicious!

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  4. YUMMMM!!!! I wish I had a bowl of this right now!

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  5. Gosh.. I can eat all of them! they are looks fabulous and major sinfully delicious

    cheers

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  6. wow I want them for the breakfast! They look so dang tempting with all the real stuff you used.

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  7. I wish captain greg is my neighbor too. I need a scoop of his gelato creations especially now that Im here in the Philippines where it's hot and humid and the summer has just started! i miss my San Diego now that you mentioned its benefits. I can't believe it's been 5 months since I left the beautiful city!
    xo,
    Malou

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  8. Whoa-I would definitely say that Captain Greg knows a thing or two about frozen treats. This one may have Ben and Jerry's worried about the competition! Love that picture-undeniably a heavenly treat. Also, I am going to pop in and see that link to the Lemon lime gelato. Delicious guest post!

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  9. Oh. my. Lord. I need a bowl of that...pronto!! Pinning for when I get my ice cream maker out of the cupboard for the summer!!

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  10. Oh boy! I'm so jealous of your neighborhood, for sure! All I've got are some conspiracy theorist neighbors (who are paranoid about EVERYTHING!) and one's that don't even talk to us! This gelato sounds like the perfect treat to share =)

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  11. Holy cow! This is absolutely amazing! I love chocolate and peanut butter - wow!

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  12. Wow!! This is fantastic! I love those big chunks of pb chunks! Heavenly!

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  13. Hi Kim, WOW - you really know how to spark my sweettoothies, lol! I wanted to let you now that I nominated you for the Versatile Blogger Award, hope you don't mind ;-) You can read more about it on my blog and I'm looking forward to your response =)) Enjoy the rest of your weekend !!!

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  14. Oh man - this will cloud my mind for days on end! To die for :) I'll just stare a bit longer....

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  15. Oh man, that looks amazing! I think I need to move in next door, so I can received yummy treats for your neighbor as well!

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  16. That looks heavenly! I have been on an ice cream kick and made 8 flavors in the last few weeks. After Lent (Easter) I will be making this one...I can hardly wait!

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  17. Oh. My. Goodness. This recipe just jumped to the top of my to-make list. I guess it's what I have to do since I don't live on your street! :)

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  18. I remember his lemon-lime gelato!!! This recipe sounds and looks insanely good... I don't think I could stop eating it if I started! Love the chunks... Thanks for sharing this, Kim & Captain Greg :)

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  19. Oh my, I would love to have a neighbor like Captain Greg, looks unbelievably delicious!

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  20. I seriously wish I lived on your street! This gelato looks fantastic...how did your neighbor know that peanut butter and chocolate are totally my weakness? :)

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  21. I seriously wish I lived on your street! This gelato looks fantastic...how did your neighbor know that peanut butter and chocolate are totally my weakness? :)

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  22. This look amazing!! I could go for a least three scoops, yummy!!

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  23. More peanut butter?!?!?! I love it!

    Also, please stop by Eliot’s Eats tomorrow. I have a surprise for you. http://eliotseats.com/?p=8871 (It won’t post until around 5:00 a.m.)

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  24. I'll take two pints of this, please. This looks absolutely spectacular! Thank you so much, Greg, for sharing this wonderful gelato with us. Thanks to you, too, Kim!

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  25. I made a basic gelato a week ago, but this is a supercharged gelato! So much deliciousness going on here. Buzzed!

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  26. This looks absolutely amazing. I wish I had my ice cream maker all frozen up.

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  27. This has got to be the best treat I've ever seen!! I can't wait to make this but need to make sure I have others around so I don't polish this off by myself. I'm sure I could do it. Lol

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  28. Just catching up and saw this on Pinterest...you outdid yourself! I would love a taste of this!

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