It was 90 degrees here today. Finally, a hot summer day! The kind of day where there’s nothing to do but spend it in the pool. We did drag ourselves back inside late in the afternoon once our skin was sufficiently pruney and bronzed.
When I started scratching up something to make for this week’s edition of Summer Chillers, I knew that I did not want to turn on the oven or the stove top. So I called my mom to get this recipe. She informed me that this actually came from the school cafeteria where she taught before I was born. Don’t let that scare you though. It doesn’t taste anything like cafeteria food. That was back in the early 1970′s, and no one yet cared what their children were eating in school, so things still had sugar, fat and flavor in them.
Anyway, class, the only heat source you will need for today’s lesson is a microwave.
Chocolate Peanut Butter Bar Recipe
3/4 C of Butter or Margarine, melted plus a little more
3 Cups of Peanut Butter
3 3/4 Cups of Powdered Sugar
1 Tsp Vanilla
5 ounces of Chocolate Chips
Melt the butter in the microwave. Mix together the melted butter, peanut butter and powdered sugar. Press into the bottom of a 9×13 inch pan.
In the microwave melt the chocolate chips with a little bit of margarine. (This is how recipe was written. I used about a tablespoon.)
Spread the melted chocolate evenly over the peanut butter mixture. Refrigerate for two hours before cutting into squares and serving. And you must eat these things with milk. A LOT of milk. They’re good, but that’s a whole mess of peanut butter to wash down.
Melting Chocolate in the Microwave
Up until a few moths ago I melted chocolate the old fashioned way, in a double boiler. I got brave one day and decided to try it in the microwave. While it’s quicker and easier, it must be done very carefully. It takes only a few seconds too long to turn you chocolate into a hard, burned mess. How do I know? Let’s just say experience is the best teacher.
So put the chocolate in a heat proof bowl. Glass is better than plastic. Nuke it at 30 second intervals, stirring each time. Chocolate can deceive you by holding it’s shape even though it’s actually melting. When most of the chocolate is melted, take it out and stir until it’s smooth. A few remaining chunks will be dissolved by the chocolate that’s already hot and melted.
The same goes for melting butter in the microwave. It only takes about 30 seconds to a minute. You can melt it most of the way, then finish it up by taking it out and stirring. If you over cook the butter it will splatter, and you’ll have a nice greasy mess to clean up. I learned that hard way too.
I guess I’ve been on summer vacation for a few days. I never did get around to doing last Thursday’s Girl Talk. And I didn’t plan ahead for this week’s Summer Chiller. When I finally decided I should make something last night, I had to make due with ingredients on hand. I had all the things to make vanilla ice cream.
A lot of vanilla ice cream recipes call for raw eggs. I don’t want to give my family salmonella, so I found a recipe with a cooked egg base which technically makes this a frozen custard.
Vanilla Ice Cream (Frozen Custard) Recipe
6 eggs
2 cups milk
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups whipping cream
1 tablespoon vanilla
crushed ice (if required by manufacturer for your ice cream freezer)
rock salt (if required by manufacturer for your ice cream freezer)
1. In medium saucepan, beat together eggs, milk, sugar and salt. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until mixture is thick enough to coat a metal spoon with a thin film and reaches at least 160 degrees F.
2. Cool quickly by setting pan in ice or cold water and stirring for a few minutes.
3. Cover and refrigerate until thoroughly chilled, at least one hour.
4. When ready to freeze, pour chilled custard, whipping cream and vanilla into 1-gallon ice cream freezer can.
Freeze according to manufacturer’s directions using six parts ice to one part rock salt. Transfer to freezer containers and freeze until firm.
From the UNL Extension
I got this all cooked and cooled then realized I’d made an oversight. I have an electric ice cream maker that uses a frozen bowl instead of ice and rock salt to freeze the ice cream. The bowl is supposed to go in the freezer for 12 hours before making the ice cream. So although I had every intention of finishing this last night, I had to wait until this morning.
It took almost as long to find the other pieces to my ice cream maker, as it did for the ice cream to freeze. It was scattered all over the kitchen in different cupboards. But I finally got it put together. About 45 minutes later it was thick and creamy. It’s still pretty soft at this point, so it’s best to let it harden in the freezer for a few hours or overnight. But you can eat it right away too.
While the ice cream was churning, I made blueberry sauce for it.
Blueberry Sauce Recipe
1 C water
1 C sugar
1 C blueberries
Stir sugar and water together in a heavy-bottomed pot over medium heat until sugar is dissolved. Add blueberries. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until liquid thickens to a thin syrup. If you get distracted like I did, and the sauce gets too thick, just add some water back in.
Now if you have the time and an ice cream maker, this is one food that if you make it yourself, you can definitely save money. A premium gallon of ice cream in the store can be over $5 these days. It only cost about $2.50 cents to make this. And if you’re worried about what’s in your food, you can control that too by using organic ingredients, and this of course has no preservatives in it. You could even make it sugar-free by substituting Splenda.
