It was my turn to pick this week’s project, which is in July/Aug Everyday Food: Peanut Butter Chocolate Semifreddo. Now I must confess something. My favorite thing in the entire world is Perry’s Peanut Butter Fudge ice cream. In high school, I worked at an ice cream parlor and one of the girls I worked with used to make us little hot fudge sundaes on the sly – a tiny scoop of Perry’s PBF in a plastic water dixie cup topped with a bit of hot fudge. Sometimes I would buy a sundae and eat it in the car on the way home after work. Heaven. Thankfully, Perry’s is a local company and still makes PBF, although they only make it in the summer. The rest of the year I am in PBF crisis mode. It can get pretty ugly. Do not even suggest to me that I should try peanut butter cup ice cream. It is not even close.
So, when I saw the recipe for PBF semifreddo, well, you can imagine my 
excitement. Semifreddo is not ice cream, but it is similar. I had semifreddo once before when my mom made it. It was ok, not great. I was willing to try this.
The recipe was a little confusing and involved halving and then halving again a peanut butter and whole milk and sugar mixture, which I found confusing. You whip some cream and mix in some of the PB mixture. You melt chocolate in water (which I think is nasty). Then you fill the pan halfway with the whipped cream/PB mix. Then you put in straight PB mix and choc in the center, cover with the rest of the whipped cream stuff and put PB and choc on top, then you swirl and freeze for 5 hours.
I had way too much for my loaf pan – I ended up dumping some and my loaf pan overflowed in the freezer. It was quite a mess. I also used a silicone loaf pan and then ended up cutting through it with a knife, trying to get this out!
The peanut butter/whipped cream part was pretty good. Semifreddo is not ice cream, but it isn’t bad – cool, creamy, and sweet. I thought the chocolate part was awful – mine was grainy. If I made this again, I would use hot fudge instead. So, with all of that being said, this wasn’t bad and was kind of fun. And in the winter if I’m desperate for Perry’s PBF, I think this might work as a poor man’s substitute.
I’m feeling tired and lazy this morning so I’m not going to retype the recipe. Those of you who requested it, got it by email. If you’re reading this blog and would like a copy of it, just let me know. As soon as the recipe is up on Martha’s site I’ll come back and stick the link in.
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Here’s my link and I LOVED IT! I also converted it to a low-sugar version. A printable copy of the recipe is also available on my site.
http://muminbloom.blogspot.com/2010/07/martha-mondays-peanut-butter-chocolate.html
Brette the ice cream from the parlour sounds divine. Isn’t it funny how you can remember food like that? My ice cream started to overflow while pouring it in the loaf pan so I called out to my 9 year old daughter who slide a bigger casserole dish under them we lifted the parchment out, and plopped it into the bigger dish. Yes, it made a mess on the counter and I sadly couldn’t lick it up ;oP
Brette, I haven’t really tried it yet, just a bite, but my husband had a slice last night and enjoyed it. I think hot fudge would be better than the chocolate sauce, you’re right. I halved the recipe and still have so much! Good pick though, I’m looking forward to having some tonight.
I don’t know why, but I don’t love semifreddo either – maybe it’s the grainy texture! Good for you for giving it a go. I do love peanut butter and chocolate together though:)
Thanks for posting the link. Low sugar is a great idea!
The peanut butter part wasn’t grainy at all, so I enjoyed that.
Maybe the chocolate needed to be tempered first. I made a hazelnut semifreddo, I think from an old Gourmet. It was divine!
I followed Martha’s instructions to the letter on this one.
I’m not chocolatier, but aren’t you supposed to keep chocolate far, far away from water to keep it from seizing? I’m guessing that is where the grainy texture is from, seized chocolate.
The whole thing just seemed weird to me with the chocolate. I don’t understand why it didn’t say to melt it in milk or cream.
I have found, I’m sorry to say, that Martha’s recipes don’t always work. Every once in awhile, I make a dud.
Oh, Alene, you have NO idea. I’ve been doing this blog for a year and 3/4 and I would say that many of them don’t work or are just BAD.
never had semifreddo so i do not know what the consistency is like nor what it tastes like. sounds good though the way you described it.
I have everything to make this but the instructions did sound confusing as not inspired me to do it…yet. After reading your review, maybe I should switch to a peanutbutter fudge ice cream! 🙂
I would ALWAYS pick PBF ice cream over this for sure. I think if you make it, just use hot fudge for the chocolate, then the recipe is actually not too hard.