Salt, fat and chilli belong in dessert more often than they turn up. Peanut butter ice cream carries the rayu without a fight, and the heat arrives late, after the cold has gone. The praline is there for the noise.
20 minutes, plus 6 hours in the freezer. Serves 6.
Ingredients
- 300ml thickened cream
- 1 tin sweetened condensed milk, 395g
- 200g smooth peanut butter
- 3 dessertspoons Plateit Japanese Peanut Rayu
- A good pinch of salt
- For the praline: 100g caster sugar, 60g roasted peanuts
Method
- Praline first. Melt the sugar in a dry pan over medium heat, no stirring, until it goes amber. Tip in the peanuts, swirl once, pour onto baking paper. Leave it to set hard, then smash it with the end of a rolling pin. You want shards, not dust.
- Warm the peanut butter for 20 seconds so it loosens. Beat it into the condensed milk with the salt.
- Whip the cream to soft peaks and fold it through. Do not beat it in or you lose the air.
- Pour half into a loaf tin. Spoon over half the rayu and drag a knife through it twice, no more. Repeat with the rest. Two passes gives you ribbons, ten gives you brown ice cream.
- Freeze 6 hours. Smash the praline over the top as you serve, not before, or it goes soft.
Brittle instead of praline: same caramel, but stir a quarter teaspoon of bicarb soda in with the peanuts. It foams up and sets thinner and snappier, so it shatters rather than cracks. Brittle is the better shout if you want shards you can see from across the table.
Tip: Take it out of the freezer 5 minutes before you serve it. The rayu is oil based, so it stays soft while the ice cream sets hard, and it runs properly once the whole thing loosens.
