I originally found this recipe on The Detoxinista's website as a healthy(er) spin on the Reese's Easter Peanut Butter Eggs - a recipe not easy to blindly imitate due to the gritty texture of the peanut butter filling, and a flavor that I thought was impossible to recreate without a metric ton of confectionery sugar. Well, turns out you don't need a metric ton - or a cubic ton - or really anything close to a ton. Just a touch of real maple syrup, and the chocolate handles the rest of the sweetness for you.
I'm not a huge consumer of sweets, but I am a real lover of getting brownie points from sweet lovers - especially with recipes that seem like the result of a chemical process requiring hours spent slaving over peanut butter-filled beakers bubbling in a laboratory maintained by magical candy-producing elves.
Really - these are that good. And so easy to make that every sweet-lover in your life will start accepting these as a form of currency.
I would do this a LITTLE differently next time: Instead of using dark chocolate chips, I might get some less sweet, darker chocolate (because I'm a mutant and prefer less sweet over more), a candy thermometer, and try my hand at tempering the chocolate. As is, if you don't leave these delicious frozen balls in the freezer, you might find yourself leaving chocolate smudges all over your dog's back.
Not that I'm speaking from personal experience or anything.
Frozen Chocolate-Coated Peanut Butter Bites Recipe
Adapted from the Detoxinista's blog - go check her out!
1 cup natural peanut butter
6 tbs pure maple syrup
3 tbs tapioca flour (or similar substitute)
1 tsp salt
1.5 cups dark chocolate chips
Other ingredients as desired - like pretzels or banana - experiment!
1. Combine the peanut butter, syrup, flour and salt in a bowl and mix well
2. Now - get your hands dirty - grab small amounts of the peanut butter with your hands and roll into small, bite-sized balls. Place them on parchment paper on a cookie sheet or cutting board - something you can throw in the freezer
3. Have you guessed the next part yet? Yup - throw them in the freezer until they congeal nicely into firm little bundles of delicious
4. Melt the dark chocolate - just like we did for the macaroons. If you have a double-boiler or something of the sort, you already know how to do this - if not, find two pots: one you can place on the other without it falling in entirely. Fill the bottom pot 1/4 full with water, then put the other on top - boil the water, then place the dark chocolate chips in the top pot - stir gently until they melt into gooey chocolate goodness
5. I was really indelicate about this part - pull the peanut butter balls from the freezer and toss them into the chocolate one at time, scoop them out with a small spoon, and place them back on the parchment. If you want your balls to look nice, let the excess chocolate spool back into the pot once you pull the balls out, then smooth over with the bottom side of a spoon
6. Place the balls back in the freezer, and - this is the hardest part - wait. Wait, wait, and wait and wait for for about half a day, if not more. I waited a full 24 hours before the peanut butter and the chocolate reached the perfect consistency. And it drove me mad. Nuts. Loco. So I stole a few from myself while I was waiting...don't tell anyone.
And that's it!! Totally easy, absolutely delicious, and people actually believe I labored for hours to make them. Until now. Crap. I think I just called myself out...
If you make them, do me a favor and post a pic on www.facebook.com/cutseveryday!
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