Happy Canada Day! Peanut Butter Ice Cream

Happy Canada Day to my fellow Canadians, where-ever you are.  Hope you'e doing something special today, whether it's watching fireworks, getting together with friends or simply raising a glass or lifting a fork.

A few weeks ago, Jen, my friend who's half the team behind The Smile Epidemic put together the #CanadaSmiles Twitter Campaign, to highlight what distinctly Canadian things make people smile.  I turned it into a 30-day mission, looking at innovation, music, people, writers, and of course, food, and posting my thoughts onto my @PckBlue account, and retweeting to @cardamomaddict.

All in all, it was a great little exercise.  Half the fun was winnowing down my list to 30 tweets--no small feat, I tell you.

One of the more interesting things I found out was the process to make modern peanut butter was patented by a Canadian, Marcellus Gilmore Edson.   He was a chemist (pharmacist) who developed this as a way to feed people who had problems eating solid or hard food.

Good gravy.  That's simply awesome.

Quite honestly, this put a little spring in my step.  I can't explain why.  I do like peanut butter, but I don't really eat a lot of it.  Regardless, this little find got my brain thinking about my Canada Day post (yes I've been remiss in keeping this space regularly updated).

One of my favourite ice creams is peanut butter ice cream but I never thought of making my own.  Until I learned the above tidbit.  After a little research, I found this Saveur recipe.  The only modification I made was to not do the swirl--I'm just not a swirly person.  Oh...and I didn't include chopped nuts in the final product--mostly because I find most of the nuts available are old and beginning to think of possibly turning.  Apparently I've got great set of tastebuds...

The recipe is custard-based and super easy to make.  The final product is good, but a little rich for me...not that it's a bad thing.  When I make this again I probably won't use heavy cream, but instead 18%.

My favourite way of having peanut butter ice cream is with fudge and salted caramels sauces...it kind of makes like a Wunderbar (Starbar, for those in the UK and in Scandinavia)...but without the crunchy bits.   Maybe that will be my next stage of peanut butter ice cream making...Wunderbar ice cream...hmmmm

Regardless...Happy Canada Day!

Recipe link: Saveur.com ~ Peanut Butter Swirl Ice Cream


cheers!
jasmine
  I'm a quill for hire!