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Sunday, April 20, 2008

Sugar High Fridays: The Unlikely Dessert



For this month's Sugar High Fridays - a celebration of all things sweet on the last Friday of every month, created by The Domestic Goddess - La Petite Boulangette presented a thrillingly creative theme: desserts with an "Asian twist." For weeks now, visions of sesame-glazed candies, or perhaps an adzuki bean version of the ever famous, ever tempting black bean brownies, danced in my mind. Yet every time I found a free moment to head to the kitchen and begin experimenting, I somehow wound up reading about spicy peanut sauces instead. "No, no," I'd scold myself, "spicy peanut sauce is not a dessert..."

These are the cosmic culinary questions I ponder in the kitchen when I really ought to be studying.

Could spicy peanut sauce become a dessert?

Could peanut butter cups be anything other than quintessentially North American?

I think so...



Spicy Peanut Butter and Dark Chocolate Candy Bars

3 cups dark chocolate chips, divided
2 cups peanut butter
1 cup raw sugar
1/8 tsp salt
1 pinch cayenne pepper
1 tsp vanilla

~ Line the bottom and sides of an 8X8 baking pan with aluminum foil.
~ Melt 1 cup dark chocolate chips in the microwave, heating for 30 second intervals and stirring until smooth.
~ Pour the melted chocolate into the baking pan and chill for 20 minutes - until set.
~ Stir together the peanut butter, sugar, salt, cayenne pepper, and vanilla, and heat in the microwave (also for 30 second intervals, stirring in between) until very soft and easy to stir.
~ Spread the peanut butter mixture atop the chocolate layer in the baking pan, and chill again for 20 minutes to set.
~ Melt the remaining 2 cups dark chocolate chips via microwave method, and then pour the melted chocolate atop the chilled peanut butter layer.
~ Chill again until fully set - for 20 minutes or until whenever you're ready to serve your batch of spicy candy! Using a hot knife makes the slicing a bit easier... Zach also showed me that the hot knife is useful for writing sweet messages in the top layer of chocolate... :-)




13 comments:

  1. Wow, I can't believe that I never thought of peanut-sauce as a suitable ingredient for a dessert... you're brilliant! Absolutely brilliant!

    Aww, what a sweet message that Zach left for you, in the chocolate! :0D

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  2. Astra...how sweet (pun intended)! lol

    Also, these pics are much better than before...keep it up.

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  3. Holy Moly! These look amazing! They're like Reese's for grown-ups!

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  4. Love and chocolate! What could be better??

    Well, now it's evident that love with spicy chocolate and peanut butter is leaving everything else standing.

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  5. These look sooooo good - Zach's message sums up my feelings for this treat.

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  6. What a great idea!

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  7. That looks really good! I have to make something with chocolate and chili soon! A very interesting combination.

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  8. awww so cute!!
    and mmmm i looove spicy peanut sauce...

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  9. I daresay that combination is brilliant! These look fantastic. And that Zach. . .what a sweetie, too!

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  10. Haha! I like the way you think -- yum! I recently tried making a spicy brownie ... it was so disgusting. Your spicy peanut butter bars look far better :-)

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  11. VeggieGirl, thank you! Wow! I'm blown away by your kind words!

    Peter, thank you! I'm SO thrilled by your encouraging words - especially coming from you with your incredible photography on your blog!

    StickyGooeyCreamyChewy, thank you! I love "grown up" candy... :-)

    Awww, Anya, I would definitely have to agree with you... :-)

    CakeLaw, thank you SO much!

    Ann, many thanks!

    Greg, thank you! Let me know how your chocolate and chili turns out!

    Allison, thank you! Spicy Peanut sauce is completely yummy, no? :-)

    awww, Ricki, thank you... :-) I'd have to agree... ;-)

    Allen, thank you! *giggles* Awww, your spicy brownie sounds like a scrumptiously great idea!

    Marye, thank you!

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  12. one of my favorite combos, peanut butter and chocolate, just got better! the spicy addition is brilliant! thanks for sharing

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