Dipping jumbo Guittard milk chocolate chips into freshly ground peanut butter brought to mind one of my favorite candies – Charles’ Chocolates Peanut Butterflies.
While most peanut butter filled chocolates are creamy, or maybe have a slight bit of soft crunch like peanut butter brittle (mmmm), Chuck fills these butterfly shaped wonders “with our smooth, creamy homemade peanut praliné (a combination of caramelized peanuts and chocolate).”
Now imagine miniscule pieces of hard caramel, ground up, adding the slighest bit of sugary crunch to your peanut butter confection.
Which led me to David Lebovitz’s “killer” caramelized peanut / almond recipe. It is his go-to recipe and surely will be mine, especially in my experiments with grinding the nuts into butter and pairing with chocolate.
On a side note related to using sea salt, I’ve become addicted to the Maine Sea Salt’s Applewood Smoked Sea Salt, with an aroma that’s as if you’re right there in the smokehouse – nothing subtle about it…just smoky flavor that nearly equals a wood burning fireplace. Note large salt chunks in photo. (Dear Bay Area readers I have some on hand if you want a sample!)
Smoky Salty Sugarless Nuts
If smoked sea salt and nuts if what you’re going for rather than sweetness – I’ve got the ultimate cheap and fast trick. Lazier than lazy: I mix a little of the sea salt in a bowl with water then toss the nuts in it before toasting in a toaster or dry roasting in a pan. Amazing with pecans.
The decadent and messier version would be to toss the nuts with oil before coating with salt. If you do this, the salt’s going to be grainier so saltier than the diluted version.
(Photos will definitely come, along with future experiments.)
