This has become my favorite ice cream. It's dark, complex and completely addictive.
Makes 1 pint
1/2 vanilla bean
11 ounces semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
3 3/4 cups half-and-half
3 large eggs
Scant 1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup smooth peanut butter
Halve vanilla bean lengthwise and scrape seeds into a 3-quart heavy saucepan. Add chocolate and half-and-half and bring to a boil over moderate heat, whisking. Remove from heat.
Lightly beat eggs with salt in a bowl, then add hot chocolate mixture in a slow stream, whisking. Transfer custard to cleaned saucepan and cook over moderately low heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, until custard registers 175 degrees on a candy thermometer, 1 to 5 minutes. Immediately pour through a fine-mesh sieve into a metal bowl. Put bowl in a larger bowl of ice and cold water and cool, stirring occasionally.
Stir in the peanut butter and transfer to an ice cream maker and freeze according to manufacturer's instructions. Put ice cream in an airtight container and freeze until hardened, about 1 hour.
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