I wax nostalgic about my days at JMU, if you haven't noticed already. Because my family was, oh, CRAZY, I didn't return home during the summers after sophomore year. Instead, I would stay in Harrisonburg in my big empty house, and I would do things like paint kitchen cabinets (orange and yellow!) and try to quilt (one patch!) and watch Family Ties. I couldn't cook anything but oatmeal and pasta at that point in my life, so I was a frequent visitor of the eateries around town. And because "being healthy" wasn't terribly high on my to-do list when I was twenty-one, sometimes I would just go to Kline's.
Ohmahgod, Kline's.
Kline's is a staple of life in Harrisonburg. It's just this old-fashioned little ice cream stand, but it's so good and so fun, and for that reason it's one of the first things you hear that you must do when you go to JMU. I don't know if it's changed or not, but Kline's always had three flavors: chocolate, vanilla, and the flavor of the week. The ice cream was f'ing amazing. Hell, there were times that Caitie and I would roller skate to Kline's to get some ice cream. (How very 1950's of us. Also, is there anything more fun than roller skating?) And when I worked at BW3 during the summer, if the shift was slow, then we would allow a server to get off early, only if they agreed to take Kline's orders for the entire staff, wait in the long line, and deliver them to us. It was basically win/win.
And we'd all go apeshit for Kline's on the weeks that Chocolate Peanut Butter was the flavor of the week. (Also, imagine how difficult it is to carry and drive with six ice cream cones. It's hard.)
So when I saw this recipe on Annie's Eats for Chocolate Peanut Butter (a flavor combination sent down to earth from the gods) ice cream, I knew it was something I absolutely had to try.
And I'm happy I did. It takes me back to those lazy summer days where I had nothing better to do than to sit on my porch and drink gin and tonics and talk to crazy Tex across the street. (Tex = old crank across the street who had a terrible life. He and his twin brother, Rex, had been in the rodeo but then his brother got killed in the rodeo when he got smushed by a cow or something. His life only got worse from that point, and he was more than willing to tell you about it when he was yelling at you for parking on the street in front of his house.)
Now, I'm not as happy about the fact that I might need to go invest in an entire new wardrobe because of how much of this stuff I'll be eating. Did I have it for breakfast today? Yep. Sure did. Will I have it for lunch? Perhaps.
Anyway, here it is. The only change I made was that I used two cups of heavy cream instead of two cups of half and half, because that's what I had in the house and because I, apparently, want to die young. (I'm sure that half and half is fine, if not better.)
Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm.
Chocolate Peanut Butter Ice Cream (Adapted from Annie's Eats, who adapted it from David Lebovitz's The Perfect Scoop)
Ingredients
2 cups heavy cream
¼ cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
½ cup sugar
pinch of salt
½ cup creamy peanut butter
Directions
Whisk together the cream, cocoa powder, sugar and salt in a large saucepan. Heat the mixture, whisking frequently, until it comes to a full, rolling boil (it will start to foam up). Remove from the heat and whisk in the peanut butter, stirring until thoroughly blended.
Chill the mixture thoroughly, then freeze it in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions.
(Note: This ice cream is very peanut buttery, which I like because I like peanut butter more than I like chocolate. If you're more of a chocolate lover, than you may want to use less peanut butter.)
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