Caramelized Peanut Butter Ice Cream

May is the month for summers in India and summers have set in well in most parts of our country. While many parts of the country have been crippling in scorching heat, we are lucky to have an envious weather even in the month of May. Though mornings and mid-days do face the summer scorch, we have been fortunate enough to receive occasionally scant, pleasant showers in the evenings. But, this does not stop us from dwelling on juices, cool drinks and ice creams on almost everyday basis to soothe ourselves from the heat in the day.

Since my previous stint with Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream, I haven't posted any ice cream recipes. In fact, I haven't made much at home apart from a couple of flavors. Every time I make, it's gone much before I can capture it for this space! ;) With temperatures at peak this summer season, I have been whipping more ice creams, experimenting with different flavors that I hadn't done in the past.

I recently made this Caramelized Peanut Butter Ice Cream which turned out fabulous. We relished it thoroughly and I thought it's a must share recipe, coz I made it fat free, the gelato way. I made this ice cream from scratch, but I believe using a Peanut bar or Indian Chikki would be a cheat version of this Ice Cream. I haven't tried that yet, so if you have tried, do let me know how it turns out to be.

Caramelized Peanut Butter Ice Cream

INGREDIENTS

400 ml milk
1 tbsp corn flour
150 g damerara sugar
100 g roasted peanuts
1 tsp of vanilla essence
A pinch of salt

DIRECTIONS

Add the corn flour to the milk and heat it through till the milk thickens. Stir continuously. Once the milk becomes thick, remove from flame and keep aside to cool.

Roast the peanuts. Remove their skins. Grind them to powder in a mixer and keep aside.

Next caramelize the sugar. Heat the sugar on a medium low flame with a tsp of water and swirl around gently so that the sugar doesn't burn. Once the sugar has melted keep a close watch on it. Let it brown and caramelize. Turn off the flame and add the roasted, powdered peanuts and salt and mix well. Allow to cool.

Once cooled, grind the caramelized peanuts to a paste in a heavy duty grinder along with the vanilla and 1/4th of the thickened milk. Once the peanuts have released butter and are thoroughly fine, add in the remaining of the thickened milk and pulse again.

Chill thoroughly, then freeze in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions. In case you do not have an ice cream maker, then try this. Transfer to freezer proof air-tight container. Freeze for an hour or two until the edges have started setting in to ice. Remove and pulse again. Freeze again. Repeat for another 2-3 attempts to break the forming ice. Serve!

To frost the cone, melt some dark chocolate in a double-boiler. Dip the mouth (open end) of the cone into the melted chocolate and invert it. Allow the chocolate to drip down naturally. Before the chocolate sets, coat the chocolate with some crushed peanuts. Allow to set (may be in a fridge if u like). Scoop out the ice cream and serve a nice dollop on the frosted cone. Top it with chocolate chips.

The best part of this recipe is that I haven't used any cream. Being made with milk alone it's a guilt free indulgence. The corn flour worked wonders, making it creamier and giving it a good texture that an ice-cream needed. Without an ice-cream maker at hand, I was immensely glad with the final result. Not being too high on sweetness, it tasted great with bold flavors of peanut butter hinted mildly by caramel and vanilla flavors. I am sure to try various other flavors with ice creams this summer.

So if you are being severely reprimanded by the scorch of the day and if it's only cool treats like ice creams that helps you beat the heat, then you must give this a try!