Peanut Butter Oreo Ice Cream

This week marked the beginning of both student teaching AND my last semester of grad school, which means I’ve been having meltdowns left and right. For starters, the first week of the semester/student teaching = new. New people, new school, new experiences.

And Melanie ≠ good at new.

I am that girl who would happily stay within her comfort zone and routine for the rest of her live-long days – if only that didn’t mean I would likely have stopped experiencing new things around age 7. You do NOT want to know how long it took my parents to get me to call and order pizza over the phone, because that would mean UM, TALKING TO A STRANGER.

I like to know what to expect. I like my schedule. I like things to happen the way I plan them to. So it goes without saying that the night before I started my brand-new student teaching I got totally nervous and spent eighteen hours running through every possible scenario in my head: What if I wear the wrong thing? What if I forget my lunch? What if my bus breaks down? What if the kids don’t like me? What if I’m supposed to bring pencils but I only brought pens? What if I forget the teacher’s name? What if I forget my name? WHAT IF I DON’T HAVE ANY FRIIIIIEEEEENDS?

Thanks (!) but no thanks, I’d rather stay in my familiar apartment with my familiar experiences. I have plenty of cookies friends here.

BUT, alas. A girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do, and this girl’s gotta finish her master’s degree. So I put on my best I’m-not-scared-of-new-things-or-people face and marched to school and survived the day – and immediately came home and ate a giant chocolate peanut butter sundae, complete with homemade peanut butter oreo ice cream, brownies, and chocolate peanut butter ganache.

Thank you, Ben & Jerry’s, for helping this hermit get through yet another [SCARY AND UNFAMILIAR] new day.

Peanut Butter Oreo Ice Cream (based on Ben & Jerry’s recipe)

yield: ~one quart

Ingredients

• 2 large eggs
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 cups heavy cream
• 1 cup milk (I used 2%)
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup + 2 tablespoons creamy peanut butter
• 1 1/2 cups roughly chopped Oreos (I chopped mine into quarters, but you can make the chunks smaller if you’d like)

Directions

1. In a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whisk the eggs until light and fluffy, about 1 to 2 minutes. Slowly whisk in the sugar a little bit at a time, then whisk until fully incorporated, about another minute. Pour in the cream, milk, and vanilla extract, and whisk to combine. Place about one cup of the mixture in a separate bowl and whisk in the peanut butter. Add the peanut butter mixture to the rest of the ice cream base and stir until fully combined.
2. Pour the mixture into your ice cream maker/attachment and freeze according to maker/attachment directions. When the ice cream has frozen to soft serve, gently fold in the chopped Oreos. Place the ice cream in an airtight container and put it into the freezer until frozen to desired consistency (I like it best after it has hardened up in the freezer over night).

I served my ice cream with these brownies and chocolate peanut butter ganache (pour 1/4 cup hot [not boiling] heavy cream over 3/4 cup chocolate chips and 1 1/2 tablespoons peanut butter. Whisk to combine.)