My husband is a big fan of chocolate and peanut butter, so when we celebrated his birthday a couple weekends ago, I wanted to incorporate peanut butter cups into his cake. I also wanted something that would serve a crowd and that I could make a few days ahead of time. My family has always enjoyed an Oreo version of this, but this was our first time doing it peanut butter style!
So instead of an Oreo crust, I used Nutter Butters. And I used vanilla ice cream, but you could also change that out for chocolate.
A thick layer of homemade fudge covers the ice cream, followed by a whipped cream topping.
Last but not least, I added a heavy sprinkling of roughly chopped miniature peanut butter cups. Make this for the peanut butter cup lover in your life (you?) and I guarantee they’ll love you for it!
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Peanut Butter Cup Ice Cream Dessert
- Prep Time: 2 hours
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Total Time: 2 hours 10 minutes
- Yield: 16 1x
- Category: Dessert
- Cuisine: American
Description
If you love peanut butter cups, you’ll love this ice cream dessert. With a Nutter Butter crust and a thick layer of homemade fudge, you can’t go wrong!
Ingredients
- 25 Nutter Butter Cookies, finely crushed
- 7 tablespoons melted butter
- 2 cartons vanilla ice cream (1.5 quarts each)
- Fudge Topping (Recipe Below)
- 8 ounces whipped cream topping, thawed
- 35 miniature peanut butter cups roughly chopped
Fudge Topping
- 2/3 cup heavy whipping cream
- 1/2 cup light corn syrup
- 1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
- 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 6 ounces semisweet chocolate chips, divided
- 2 tablespoons butter
Instructions
- In a medium bowl combine crushed cookies and melted butter until well combined.
- Press the crushed cookies into the bottom of a 9 by 13 baking dish.
- Place the crust into the freezer for 1 hour to harden.
- Soften ice cream on the counter so that it is easy to spread.
- Remove cookie crust from the freezer, and spread both cartons of vanilla ice cream over the crust.
- Put it back into the freezer for an hour to refreeze the ice cream.
- In the meantime, make fudge topping according to the following recipe, and allow to cool slightly.
- Remove the ice cream from the freezer and spread fudge over the ice cream in an even layer. Return to freezer.
- Spread cool whip over fudge layer, and sprinkle with chopped peanut butter cups and return to freezer.
- When serving, allow the ice cream dessert to sit at room temperature for 10-15 minutes to make cutting easier.
Fudge Topping
- In a medium saucepan combine cream, corn syrup, brown sugar, cocoa powder, salt, and half of the chocolate and bring to a gentle boil stirring continuously over medium heat until chocolate is melted.
- Reduce heat to medium low and boil the chocolate gently for 5 minutes, stirring frequently.
- Remove the saucepan from the heat and stir in butter and remaining chocolate until smooth.
- Allow to cool slightly before pouring over ice cream layer.
Notes
Fudge Topping from Center Cut Cook.
Karen @ The Food Charlatan says
I love the nutter butter crust Julie! I’ve never tried that, it sounds amazing! You’re a genius.
Julie says
Well… I don’t know about GENIOUS, but thanks for thinking so! :0)
Chelsea @chelseasmessyapron says
Gorgeous photos! And what a fun dessert idea! pinned 🙂
Julie says
Thank you Chelsea!
sally @ sally's baking addiction says
My fiancé is a peanut butter/chocolate fiend, just like your husband Julie! I have got to try something like this. Love that it’s so simple and that there’s ice cream involved.
Julie says
Sally, this peanut butter cup version was definitely a hit, but I love that there are so many possibilities and fun combinations to try. Hope you get a chance to make this one :0)
Kristen says
I make a similar ice cream cake, but use the following layers:
oreo crust
peanut butter/frosting
thin layer of fudge/chocolate sauce
chocolate peanut butter ice cream
crushed peanut butter cups
thin layer of fudge/chocolate sauce
vanilla ice cream
whipped cream mixed with vanilla frosting with a little bit of peanut butter
the flood of compliments alone are enough to warrant making it
Julie says
Sounds amazing! Thanks for sharing.
twila says
I assume you mean 3/4 lb of chocolate chips?
Julie says
I’m sorry the recipe is not very clear, Twila. I looked at the original recipe that I got the hot fudge from, and it looks like it should be 6 ounces, total. Thank you for catching this error!
twila says
and what do you do with the other half of the chocolate chips?
twila says
never mind….I see it now. ☺️
Julie says
Hope you enjoy!