Peanut and Chocolate, Wafer Ice Cream Cake
Calling this a “recipe” sounds unnecessarily complicated. Really, it’s a matter of crumbling, combining, mixing, and freezing. No cooking, no churning required! I love how you can whip up this ice cream cake in under 15 minutes, save for the freezing/ setting time, and have an impressive dessert that looks as if it requires skill and dexterity, which of course, it doesn’t. What it does require is store-bought vanilla ice cream, best-quality, unsweetened peanut butter, chocolate wafer biscuits, milk chocolate, and roasted nuts of your choice. That’s it.
For me, as is the case with all ice cream cakes, the texture is what really sets it apart: starting from the base up, you have the crunch of the wafer biscuits, the soft, creamy, richness of the ice cream and peanut butter, and the satisfying crack of the chocolate shell on top.
To further boost flavor and texture, I like to use chunky peanut butter with dark-roasted almonds. You may also wish to use hazelnuts and replace the vanilla ice cream with chocolate.
Easy Peanut and Chocolate, Wafer Ice Cream Cake
Ingredients
- 175 g chocolate wafer biscuits
- 60 ml butter melted
- 2 l good quality vanilla ice cream slightly softened
- 300 g best quality, unsweetened peanut butter smooth or chunky
- 150 g milk or dark chocolate
- 1 tbsp olive or coconut oil
- 60 g roasted almonds or nuts of your choice, roughly chopped
Instructions
- Remove the ice cream from the freezer and allow it to soften slightly for 20 minutes at room temperature. In the meanwhile, line and grease a 20 cm springform cake pan with parchment paper.
- To make the base, add the wafer biscuits to a food processor and pulse until it looks like fine crumb. Drizzle in the melted butter and continue to process until it has the consistency of wet sand. Firmly press the crumb into the prepared cake pan. Transfer to the freezer while you get on with the ice cream filling.
- To make the ice cream filling, tip the softened ice cream into a stand mixer along with the peanut butter and 30g of the roasted, chopped nuts. Gently allow the mixer to fold the ice cream and peanut butter together, leaving streaks and swirls of peanut butter, do not over-mix. You can also do this by hand using a spatula. Tip the filling onto the prepared wafer biscuit base and smooth out with a spatula. Cover with cling film and return to the freezer to set for 6 hours or overnight.
- An hour before serving, melt the chocolate and olive -or coconut oil together in a microwave or a double boiler, stirring and folding frequently to prevent overheating and burning the chocolate. Allow to cool slightly for 5 minutes. Remove the now set ice cream cake from the freezer and allow it to stand for 3 minutes. Unclip the pan and transfer the cake to a serving board. Drizzle over the melted chocolate and sprinkle over the remaining chopped nuts. Return to the freezer until ready to serve, allowing at least 20 minutes for the chocolate shell to set.
- Tip: Allowing the cake to stand for 5 minutes at room temperature before cutting into it, makes it easier to get neat slices.
Notes
- The vanilla ice cream may be replaced with chocolate or any other ice cream of your choice - the same goes for the nuts! Use whatever you have on hand.
- When softening the ice cream, do not completely melt the ice cream as this may result in the cake having an icy texture.
- When swirling in the peanut butter, I like to create "streaks" instead of completely mixing in the peanut butter - I think it looks absolutely stunning this way.
- Allowing the cake to stand for 5 minutes at room temperature before cutting into it, makes it easier to get neat slices.
