Alex gave me this jar of yumminess for Christmas. It's called Peanut Butter & Co. Dark Chocolate Dreams. Think Nutella, but with dark chocolate and peanut butter. It's a little strange at first, because you almost expect it to taste like melted chocolate, since it has that appearance. But then you realize that it's more peanut buttery with chocolate undertones. I tried it on Ritz crackers and it made a damn good snack. It reminded me of how, in desperate times, I've been known to eat peanut butter crackers with chocolate chips. Only this is way more fun. The ultimate would be to spread this on a warm croissant. Holy cow. Maybe I'll do that for Valentine's Day!

I scream, you scream...

Let's talk about ice cream. PB and chocolate, of course. I think this is the one flavor where there is no consistency between brands. Sometimes the ice cream itself is chocolate, other times it's pb. Sometimes there are chunks of pb cups, sometimes it's a ribbon of flavor. You just never know what you're going to get.
The best PB & Chocolate ice cream, in my opinion, of course, is Baskin Robbins. Sweet ambrosia of the gods! It's chocolate ice cream with chunks of salty peanut butter. Heaven! It's the perfect balance of sweet and savory, smooth and grainy. The only other pb and chocolate ice cream I'll order is Moosetracks, which is really a combination of different flavors and tiny peanut butter cups mixed in.
Oh, but I must also weigh in on peanut butter sauce. Mmmmm. A scoop of chocolate ice cream with hot peanut butter sauce... now that's tasty!

Cookie pops

In this month's issue of Parents (or is it Parenting? I can never keep the two straight), there's a recipe for Valentine's pops. You melt a square caramel and put it on a vanilla wafer, then add a lollipop stick, then another vanilla wafer. Then you dip the whole thing in melted chocolate. Doesn't that sound yummy? And they look really cute too. I bet they can be made with peanut butter instead of caramel, or imagine this-- in addition to the caramel!

Cupcake calamity

There's a new bakery in my town and I was so psyched to buy this "Peanut Butter Stuffed Cupcake." I envisioned it would be fudgey cake with soft, fluffy peanut butter frosting. Unfortunately, it wasn't very good. In fact, sad to say, I threw half of it out. The chocolate cake was bland and dry and the filling appeared to be half straight peanut butter (too thick to pair with cake) and half bland peanut butter icing. But that's okay. It just means I have to continue the quest to find a really good PB and chocolate cake. In a way, this kind of reminded me of Funny Bones, those Twinkie-like cakes you can buy at the gas station and convenience stores.

Homage to the granddaddy

A blog dedicated to chocolate and peanut butter? Why not, that's what I say! Here's some background. My name is Patti and I'm a candy addict. Candy is one of the few things in life that can make you smile when you're really pissed off, or bring back memories of your childhood, when life was a lot more simple. It's inexpensive and easy to get, and it's something that everyone has a story about. That's why I started my initial blog, Candy Yum Yum. But recently, my friend Alex and I have been having some correspondence about peanut butter and chocolate, that universally delish, ultimate combination of sweet goodness. So here, dear reader, is our homage to the nectar of the gods, PB and chocolate.
It wouldn't be right to have this blog without mentioning the granddaddy of them all, the Reese's Peanut Butter Cup. Two to a package, they're the perfect combination of dry, crumbly peanut butter (the ONLY time when dry PB is acceptable!) and cheap, but sugary sweet chocolate. Praise the candy gods that invented these, the prototype for all forthcoming peanut butter and chocolate confections.
A recent ad campaign by Reese's asked, "How do you eat a Reese's?" and had clever answers, such as the one from Dracula with two fang marks in the cup. As for me, I have my own way. I bite into the cup and continue to eat through the center, leaving a cresent-shape out of one edge. I nibble through all of the peanut butter until I'm left with a mostly-chocolate moon and then nibble away at that piece like a peanut-butter-crazed rabbit. Oh joy!
So we welcome you to our new blog and encourage you to post your comments about your peanut butter and chocolate passions. And oh yeah, we're happy to accept samples.