When Ben and Pete were kids, their typically American lunch boxes often contained peanut butter and jelly sandwiches—and they couldn’t get enough of them. While they still love a good PB&J, now that they’re older, they're finding themselves reaching for almond butter and jelly even more often. Almonds have a more delicate flavor than peanuts, and so the sandwiches feel a bit more sophisticated. Eager to weave their love of almond butter into ice cream, they thought it’d be great to do an ice cream riff on the sandwich. After some trial and error, they learned that tart jelly works better than sweet, so stick with something like red currant or lingonberry, or anything with some pucker.
MAKES ABOUT 1 QUART
SPECIAL EQUIPMENT
Immersion blender
2 cups heavy cream
1½ cups whole milk
¾ cup (150 grams) sugar
¼ teaspoon (1 gram) kosher salt
6 large egg yolks
6 tablespoons (120 grams) smooth unsalted almond butter
½ cup tart jelly, such as lingonberry, red currant, sour cherry
1. Pour the cream and milk into a double boiler or a heatproof bowl set over a saucepan of gently simmering water (the bottom of the bowl should not touch the water). Whisk in ½ cup (100 grams) of the sugar and the salt and stir until they have dissolved. Warm the mixture until you see steam rising from the top.
2. Meanwhile, prepare an ice bath in a large bowl. Set aside.
3. In a medium bowl, with a kitchen towel underneath it to prevent slipping, whisk together the egg yolks with the remaining ¼ cup (50 grams) sugar until uniform. While whisking, add a splash of the hot dairy mixture to the yolks. Continue to add the dairy mixture, whisking it in bit by bit, until you’ve added about half. Add the yolk mixture to the remaining dairy mixture in the double boiler. Set the heat under the double boiler to medium and cook the custard, stirring continuously with a wooden spoon and reducing the heat to medium-low as necessary, until steam begins to rise from the surface and the custard thickens enough to coat the back of the spoon. Hold the spoon horizontally and run your finger through the custard. If the trail left by your finger stays separated, the custard is ready to be cooled.
4. Strain the custard into a bowl and add the almond butter. Using an immersion blender, buzz the custard until emulsified. Set the bowl over the prepared ice bath and stir for 3 to 5 minutes, or until the custard has cooled. Transfer the custard to a quart-size container, cover, and refrigerate for at least 4 hours or, preferably, overnight.
5. Pour the chilled custard into an ice cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Place the container in which you refrigerated the custard in the freezer so you can use it to store the finished ice cream. Churn the ice cream until the texture resembles “soft serve.” In the last minute of churning, fold in the jelly until swirled in or incorporated, depending on your preference. Transfer the ice cream to the chilled storage container and freeze until hardened to your desired consistency. Alternatively, you can serve it immediately—it will be the consistency of gelato. The ice cream will keep, frozen, for up to 7 days.