Pineapple, Peanuts, Chocolate, Ice Cream & Kirsch

Sometimes I like to take a few random ingredients from around the house and make a concoction out of it. This time I chose fresh pineapple pieces, honey cinnamon roasted peanuts, milk chocolate candies, vanilla ice cream and kirsch cherry liquor. To tie all these ingredients together, I flambeed the pineapple in a little butter, brown sugar, and kirsch. I added the peanuts to some butter, honey, and oats to make a granola. I melted down the ice cream and melted some chocolate into half and made a quick caramel to add to the other half to make creme anglaise. So to compose the dish I had milk chocolate cinnamon and salted caramel creme anglaise with warm kirsch flambeed pineapple, and roasted peanut granola.

Banana Peanut Jam Muffins

Yummy, moist, healthy, delicious, vegan muffins that are a cinch to make!!

Banana Peanut Jam Muffins
1 1⁄3 cups whole wheat flour 
1⁄2 cup turbinado sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
3⁄4 cup wheat bran
1 cup salty seasoned cocktail peanuts (whatever your favorite kind are)
2 over-ripe mashed bananas
1/4 cup molasses
1 teaspoon lime juice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup non-dairy milk
6 teaspoons strawberry jam
4 teaspoon turbinado sugar

Preheat oven to 375◦F. Grease or line 12 muffin cups.
In a large bowl, mix together the first nine dry ingredients.
In a separate smaller bowl, mix together the next five wet ingredients.
Blend the wet into the dry.
Spoon half the batter into the muffin cups.
Place 1/2 teaspoon of strawberry jam into the center of each.
Top with remaining batter.
Sprinkle with turbinado sugar.
Bake for about 15 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Crispy Peanut Mallow Bars

I had four small amounts of slightly random ingredients in my cupboard that were staring me in the face and needed to be used up. Luckily, I came across a recipe that incorporated all four of them: graham cracker crumbs, marshmallows, peanuts, and crisp rice cereal. These bars are easy to make, and taste sort of like a type of chocolate bar - they are not too sweet and can be cut as big or as small as you wish. Just make sure they are chilled when you cut them, and they cut very easily. They will hold up at room temperature for serving. 

Crispy Peanut Mallow Bars
CRUST
1 1/4 cups all-purpose (plain) flour
3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs
1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup butter or hard margarine, melted
1 large egg, beaten
TOPPING
1 1/3 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
2/3 cup golden corn syrup
1/4 cup butter or hard margarine
2 cups crisp rice cereal
1 cup peanuts (I used whole, lightly salted)
1 1/2 cups miniature marshmallows

Line a 9x13 inch rectangular pan with foil and grease foil. Preheat oven to 350◦F.
CRUST: In a large bowl, stir together the flour, crumbs, sugar, and baking powder. Make a well in the center and add the butter and egg. Mix well until combined. Press mixture firmly into prepared pan. Bake for 12 minutes. 
TOPPING: While crust is baking, in a medium saucepan over medium heat, melt the chocolate chips, corn syrup, and butter until smooth. Stir in the cereal and nuts.
Sprinkle marshmallows over hot crust and return to oven for two minutes until puffed. Spread evenly with a knife to cover crust. Spoon topping over top and spread evenly. Cool squares, then chill for several hours until firm before cutting. 

Paré, Jean. "Chocolate Peanut Squares." Recipe. Chocolate Squared, Edmonton Alberta: Company's Coming Publishing Limited, 2009. 4.

Peanut Butter Bars

Peanut Butter Bars
1/2 cup butter or hard margarine, cut up
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup all-purpose (plain) flour
1 1/2 cups quick-cooking rolled oats
1/4 cup corn syrup
3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup smooth peanut butter
A handful of finely chopped peanuts for the top, optional

Preheat oven to 350◦F. Grease or line an 8x8 or 9x9 inch square baking pan.
In a medium saucepan over medium heat, stir the first five ingredients until melted and smooth. Press into prepared pan. Bake for 15 minutes until set and edges are golden. Cool.
In a small saucepan over medium heat, melt the chocolate chips with the peanut butter. Spread evenly over base. Sprinkle with peanuts, if desired.

These are some quick and easy bars I whipped up. Anyone who likes the classic combination of chocolate and peanut butter will love these. They are so quick and easy and keep well. Do not refrigerate them before cutting, or they will be too hard. Actually, don't bother refrigerating them at all, they are better at room temperature. This recipe may easily be doubled to fit a 9x13 inch pan. I didn't have any peanuts for the top, so I was trying to think of something else that might look nice, just to add a little more jazz to the bars. I thought of both toffee bits and shredded coconut, but I did not want to open either package just for a handful, and these flavors didn't really go with the chocolate and peanut butter. I settled on a simple dusting of icing sugar.

Peanut Butter

I absolutely adore peanut butter. It is one of my favourite foods in the world. I eat it on my toast almost every morning. However, some people consider me kind of a peanut butter snob, because I only eat natural peanut butter. Other people agree with me, and think I am making the right choice.

            Natural peanut butter is peanut butter containing only a single ingredient: peanuts. No salt, sugar, oil, fat, preservatives, or stabilizers were added. Fresh, raw peanuts were taken, ground up, and put in a jar. That’s it. Sometimes the peanuts are dry-roasted first, but this is actually a bad thing, because even though dry roasted means no oil or salt was added, roasting still ruins all of the good fats in peanuts, so you will not get any benefit from eating them. Natural peanut butter actually has the taste of real peanuts, and you do not miss the sugar or salt at all. You may think that other peanut butters taste like real peanuts, but they really do not, they contain too many additives.

            So what do I mean by “unnatural” peanut butter. Well, it is any peanut butter that contains more than just peanuts. Some brands manufacture both types of peanut butters. Unnatural peanut butters may contain added sugar, salt, oil, fat, preservatives, and stabilizers. None of these ingredients are beneficial to you. Because of the added preservatives, unnatural peanut butter can stand up at room temperature, even years past the best before date; while natural peanut butters should be kept in the refrigerator to preserve them. Some people argue that natural peanut butters become hard to spread, but stirring the oil that settles on top into the peanut butter before each use completely prevents this from occurring.

            So, as you know, I will only use natural peanut butter. Recently, I was a guest where an unnatural brand of peanut butter was used in the house, and I had some. I couldn’t get over how sweet it was, it was almost sickly to me, and the taste was certainly not of peanuts. The first time you try “real” peanut butter, you may not like it at first if you are so accustomed to the fake stuff. But believe me, soon enough, you will be just like me, and you won’t be able to stand that other stuff. By the way, this goes for all nut butters. There are so many others out there, they just aren’t as well known. Almond butter, walnut butter, hazelnut butter, cashew butter; give one of these a try!

PHOTO CREDIT:"peanut-butter-sandwich"   http://www.epicurean.com/articles/beyond-jelly-reinventing-the-peanut-butter-sandwich.html  .epicurean.com, n.d. Sunday, March 18, 2012.  

Candy Bar Squares

These are probably one of the quickest and easiest square recipes I have ever made. Only nine simple ingredients that are all mixed together and then pressed into a pan. Then they bake for 25 minutes, and are cut into squares while still warm. They cut very easily, and are quite neat bars that stay together well and hold up well at room temperature. They can be ready to serve in less than an hour. They also have a nice variety of flavors, that could easily be switched up, and are reminiscent of a candy bar. Try using a different type of chocolate chips or a different type of nuts. Instead of using butterscotch chips, I used miniature candy-coated chocolates, because that is what I had on hand. This seemed to have worked well. This recipe is from Company's Coming "Sweet Cravings", and I am sure it could easily be doubled to fit a 9x13 inch pan if this small pan just isn't enough. If you want to dress the bars up a little, a drizzle of melted chocolate or simple vanilla glaze would add a touch of decadence, although the bars don't really need anything.

Candy Bar Squares
1/4 cup hard margarine or butter, softened
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup butterscotch chips
1/2 cup coarsely chopped peanuts

Preheat oven to 350◦F. Grease or line an 8x8 inch square pan.
In a medium bowl, mix first four ingredients. Add remaining ingredients, mix well. Press into prepared pan. Bake for about 25 minutes or until lightly golden. Cut while still warm.

Paré, Jean. "Candy Bar Squares." Recipe. Sweet Cravings, Edmonton Alberta: Company's Coming Publishing Limited, 2002. 147. 

Shreddies Chocolatey Party Mix

The holiday season just would not be the same without my mother's delicious mix. It is a simple recipe composed of shreddies cereal and chopped peanuts, which is coated with a mixture of butter, brown sugar and corn syrup, that has been boiled for 5 minutes. It is then baked at a low temperature for 40 minutes, during which the enticing aroma is almost too much to handle. When cool, miniature semi-sweet chocolate chips are added. A handful of this mix is an ooey-gooey treat. It is both sweet and salty and crunchy and chewy all at the same time. This mix isn't really holiday-themed or anything, it could be made any time of the year. My mother just always happens to make it around Christmas time. It will keep well stored in an airtight container at room temperature for a few weeks. It is best to keep this mix hidden though, as it tends to disappear fairly quickly. It is a great sweeter alternative to the normal chip bowl. If this recipe does not seem to be to your liking, there are many many other cereal mix recipes. A lot of them use shreddies as well, but others use different cereals and mixtures of cereals. There are sweet, spicy, and savory mixes; some baked, some not; some complex, some simple. Check them out!
Thanks again Mom!