12 chocolate peanut butter cups,
unwrapped
6 ounces (about 3/4 cup) hot
fudge sauce
6 ounces (about 3/4 cup) smooth
peanut butter
1 quart vanilla ice cream
8 five-ounce paper cups
8 popsicle sticks
To make these ice cream pops, you
want the vanilla ice cream to be slightly softened but not melting. Leave it
out at room temperature for a few minutes while you prepare the rest of the
ingredients.
Chop the salted
peanuts into coarse pieces. Don't make them too small--you want their
crunchy texture in the pops!
Chop the peanut butter cups
roughly into eighths. They should be small enough to eat in one bite, but large
enough to give an identifiable flavor and texture to the final product.
Warm up the hot fudge sauce and
the peanut butter in separate bowls in the microwave. You don't actually want
them to be hot, you just want to warm them enough so that they're fluid and
easy to spread. About 15 or 20 seconds each should do the trick.
Now it's time to start layering!
Place a spoonful of chopped peanuts in the bottom of each of the eight paper
cups. Take a small scoop of slightly softened vanilla ice cream, about 2 inches
across, and place one in each cup.
Smooth the ice cream with the
back of a spoon until it's in an even layer. Nothing fancy, just flat enough to
let you build the rest of the layers on top.
Pour a spoonful of the hot fudge
sauce on top of the ice cream. If it doesn't spread out on its own, use the
spoon to nudge it toward the sides so it's an even layer.
Top the hot fudge sauce with a
generous spoonful of chopped peanuts, so that the sauce is mostly covered with
nuts.
It's time for another round of
ice cream, so add a softened scoop of vanilla on top of the peanuts and spread
it around.
