Peanut Butter Ice Cream with Chocolate Covered Pretzels

After requesting a homemade, vegan version of Ben & Jerry's Chubby Hubby ice cream for his birthday, Aaron decided that all ice cream should have pretzels in it, especially if they are covered in chocolate. When we were deciding what ice cream flavor to make and peanut butter won, he naturally upped it to peanut butter with chocolate covered pretzels (!!!!)

*Note: The recipe itself is quick to make but refer to your ice cream maker's instructions for freezing time. We have this ice cream maker and are huge fans of it. Bed Bath and Beyond carries it so you can use those 20% off coupons that come in the mail every 5 minutes (not that I'm complaining...)

Peanut Butter Ice Cream with Chocolate-Covered Pretzels

1/2 cup smooth peanut butter
2 cups non-dairy creamer (Those pint-sized boxes of creamer? Yup, 2 cups exactly)
1/2 cup soy milk
1/3 cup turbinado sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 cup vegan chocolate chips
5 large pretzel rods, crushed

Over medium heat, whisk together the peanut butter, creamer, milk, and sugar until the peanut butter is fully melted and the sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat and add vanilla. Refrigerate until cool. (Tip: Leave your whisk in the pot as it cools, you will need it later)

Melt the chocolate chips and stir in the crushed pretzels. Evenly spread the mixture on half of a large sheet of parchment paper.

Fold the flap of parchment paper over the chocolate, then fold in half again. Wrap in plastic wrap or put in a Ziploc bag, and freeze.

When the batter is fully chilled, whisk it to dissolve any film on top. Pour into your ice cream maker and churn according to your maker's instructions. During the last few minutes of churning, crush your frozen chocolate and pretzels and add to the ice cream. If you've wrapped them in a plastic bag, this part is really easy (albeit not eco-friendly at all) because the chocolate slides right off the parchment paper so you just crush everything in the bag, remove the paper, and are left with a no-mess bag of chocolate pretzel bits.