Back again: with grape's partner

Oh, has it really been a week? It feels like a month. I have never been away from this blog for this long, and I don't really think it would serve anyone's purpose for me to start ranting and raving about the "forces of evil" that have kept me away. Suffice it to say that while they are not gone, they are under control. Very little can keep Annalena from her appointed rounds.

It has been said that people who are anxious crave sweets. Perhaps it is a sign of anxiety that I am writing, over and over again, about sweet things. I am going to try to change that, in things to come, but one of the things you have to remember is that, regardless of who the cook is, s/he falls into patterns. If I am cooking the same things that I have cooked and written about before, I'm not going to write about them again. So that is why you are seeing less. The late summer/early fall is a time when , as we transition into "true" fall, cooks are trying to use their favorite summer things, over and over again, because we won't see them again until next year. As I see the berries diminish in quantity, feel myself craving pears instead of peaches, and so on, and so forth, I can see that there is a fundamental change going on, as I cook up the tomatoes, the green beans, and all the other things that won't be here for a while. So rather than repeat....

The last time I wrote was about concord grape sorbet. The response to it this year has been overwhelming , even though, to my palette, the grapes really haven't been ripe enough yet. There is a tartness to them that suggests they are being picked a bit too young, and I'm adding more sugar to the sorbet than I would like; however, as I say, people have enjoyed the sorbet immensely.

Some years ago, I began thinking "wouldn't a peanut butter ice cream be wonderful with grape pie?" My ice cream of choice for that luscious dessert had always been good quality homemade vanilla. I didn't have a peanut butter ice cream. Well, one day, while investigating other recipes for grape pie (I use Richard Sax's wonderful version), I found that the queen of pie, Rose Levy Berenbaum, had included a recipe for peanut butter ice cream in her book. Hmmmm. If she took the same care with ice cream as she did with pie... And she has. And it's wonderful.

The fact that I have actually MADE this has already garnered me a marriage proposal, from a sweet friend. A VERY sweet friend. I do not believe that bigamy is the right thing for me, but under the circumstances.....

Anyway, I want to present this to you. It's really good on its own, and dynamic with the grape sorbet. It is almost like having a frozen version of that wonderful comfort food, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

And, let's have a show of hands: how many of you out there are "closet" peanut butter lovers? How many of you have stopped eating it, because it's "just for kids?" I'm one of you and I've gotta get over it. Making this ice cream, and tasting the ingredient along the way, was like getting reacquainted with someone I haven't seen for many, many years.

You may find yourself thinking "I like crunchy peanut butter, I'm going to use that in the recipe." Please don't. In the cooking process, the nuts in crunch peanut butter get very soft and unappetizing. What you can do is crush some roasted peanuts and put them over the ice cream, and that will work better. You can also try putting them into the ice cream at the very last minute, but this is tricky.

Finally, don't leave out the salt. It does the trick. It's just a bit, but it is worth it.

You will need a heaping half cup of peanut butter, the smooth kind. The original recipe called for nine tablespoons. I'm not going to measure that out. Eight tablespoons is half a cup. So I just heap it up. You will also need six egg yolks, 2 cups of heavy cream, a cup of milk, a cup of sugar, and a quarter teaspoon of salt.

The order in which you make this ice cream differs from most. That is largely the result of the very fatty peanut butter. But I think that if you do the standard form of dissolving sugar into the dairy, and then adding the eggs, you could do that too.

In any event, here's what you do. Take the milk and cream, and scald it. That means just heat it until you have little bubbles around the edge of the pot. While that's happening, combine the salt, sugar and egg yolks and beat them all together, until you have a uniform mess. It's thick and ugly, but it's okay. Now, take about a quarter cup of your dairy and stir it into the egg mixture, before s tirring all of the egg mixture into the dairy. Cook it gently, until it thickens. You know the look. It's got to coat the back of the spoon. When that happens, take it off the heat and stir in the p eanut butter. Stir gently. It will dissolve, but it will take a few minutes. Then, let the whole thing cool until it's cool enough to chill in the fridge, before you use the ice cream maker.

I can't imagine making grape sorbet without making this as well. In the winter, when we start eating bananas again, I suspect that there may be a "banana split" concoction of some kind maybe with optional chocolate sauce on it.

I think you could probably work chocolate chips into this as well, and it would be good, if you like chocolate. I may offer some of them to one of our dear friends when we eat it this week.

Ok, my lovelies, back into the kitchen with all of us. Next one will be a savory. I promise.