Chocolate Peanut Butter Crunch Ninja Stars!

OK, OK, not stars, but diamonds (that you can shape into ninja stars of [coronary] DETH!),  Who doesn't love chocolate peanut butter bars?  Who doesn't love that crumbly filling in Reeses peanut butter cups? You know what I'm talking about, the sugar substance spackled together with cheap peanut product and wax. Yeah, guilty as charged. So, obviously as soon as I saw this recipe in one of my new cookbook's, it jumped to the top of my 'To make' queue, with butter as the only dairy product, it was pretty easy to veganize.  

The end product was everything I hoped for, including the not-too-sweet crumbly peanut butter filling reminiscent of my childhood (into adulthood) favorite, Reeses PB cups, but now with a high quality dark chocolate topping and cookie bottom, topped with a dash of pink Hawaiian salt to give it a touch of sophistication.  Anyway, I do digress... Onto the recipe

Chocolate Peanut Butter Crunch Bars

Yields 24 bars 

Crust

2.5 cups (9.5 ounces) chocolate cookie crumbs*

8 T (4 ounces, 1 stick) butter substitute, melted

Filling

2 1/2 cups (19.5 ounces) smooth natural peanut butter

1 1/4 cups (3.5 ounces) graham cracker crumbs

1 1/4 cups (3.5 ounces) finely ground puffed rice cereal*

1/2 cup (3.9 ounces) packed brown sugar

1 teaspoon (.2 ounces) kosher salt

8 T (4 ounces, 1 stick ) butter substitute at room temperature

Topping

6 ounces 70% dark chocolate, chopped

1 Tablespoon (1 ounces) coconut oil or butter substitute 

Finishing

Artisan salt, such as sel de guerande, pink Hawaiian, black salt, etc. 

*NOTES* 

You can use any sort of chocolate cookie you like, I used Newman's Own chocolate alphabet cookies pulverized in my food processor.  Pulverize the puffed rice cereal in a similar manner. You can also use vanilla cookies, corn flakes, or a blend of other crispy products for this. 

For the crust...  Line a 9x13 pyrex pan with aluminum foil, then grease with the wrapper of the butter substitute.  Mix the crumbs and melted butter substitute together until it resembles wet sand. Press the mixture into the pan using your palms to flatten and spread until you have a uniform pressed crust.  Chill in the fridge, uncovered, for about 30 minutes.

For the filling... Combine the peanut butter, butter sub, sugar, and salt together into the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with a paddle. Mix on high until well combined, about 5 minutes. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix until well combined. Remove the crust from the fridge and using your palms, spread the peanut butter mixture around evenly on top.  Refrigerate for 1 hour, uncovered. 

For the topping... Melt the chocolate with the oil in a double boiler set over simmering water, about  6 minutes, stirring with a rubber spatula to combine.   When the chocolate is melted and smooth, pour atop the bars and spread quickly into a think layer, careful not to scrape against the bottom, The faster you work the better, as the chocolate will start to seize atop the cooled base.  Return the pan to the fridge. 

Finishing... . After the bars have fully set (about 6 hours), prepare a hot water bath for a knife (a vegetable cleaver or a 7" santouku work well). While the knife is soaking in hot water, take the bars out of the fridge and lift them out of the pan in the foil and place onto a flat cutting surface. Use the hot knife to press down first in straight columns, then once more on diagonals to get that diamond shape, as illustrated below. 

If you would prefer squares, feel free to cut straight down rather than diagonal.   If you desire, a sprinkle of a fine salt really adds a nice touch to them. 

Peanut Butter Marbled Rocky Road Brownie bars

Five half pence (two and a half pence?) to the first person who can guess what the above picture is of. No cheating and reading the title before hand!

Oops, probably too late for that, isn't it? So these are tasty, decadent, rich, happy little things. Like many things the recipe I am posting isn't exactly what I did. So first I will post the recipe I originally intended to go with... And then I will have a discussion about my dance

with these bars...

Peanut Butter Marbled Rocky Roads

• 2 1/4 c vegan graham cracker crumbs
• 2 T firmly packed dark brown sugar
• 2/3 c butter sub*
• 15 oz semisweet chocolate, chopped
• 1 1/2 light corn syrup
• 1 c soyatoo cream or cashew cream**
• 20 halved vegan marshmallows***
• 1/2 C whole, salted peannuts****
• 1/2 C to 1 C smooth peanut butter

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F. Grease the sides and bottom of a 9x13 inch baking pan.

In a large bowl, stir together the graham cracker crumbs and brown sugar, then add the butter sub. Stir gently until combined. Pour and evenly distribute into the prepared baking pan, pressing down with your hands along the bottom and up the sides of the pan.

Bake the crust for 10-15 minutes, or until the crust is golden brown. Remove the plan, let cool on a rack.

Set up a double boiler. In the large heatproof bowl, toss the chocolate together with the corn syrup. Place over double boiler, add "cream" of choice. Cook, stirring, until everything is melted. Fold in the marshmallows and whole peanuts. Pour the mixture into the pan and spread as evenly as possible (using an off-set spatula helps).

Now lay down horizontal 'stripes' of peanut butter on the oozy yummy top, then drag a knife up and down vertically to create a marbling effect.

Refrigerate for at least 3 hours, or until set. Cut into triangles and serve. The bars freeze well, and will keep for about 3 days.

Asterix!

So my notes... I hate letting food go to waste, so a few things I did to illustrate alternative uses for things...

So...

*Butter sub. I used a mix of canola oil, coconut oil, and about 15% water. There was no need to use more expensive vegan butter for the task at hand.

** I used a failed cashew-based raw ice cream with touches of cinnamon and raisen for the cream. It had decent flavor, was good, rich, but didn't quite click right as an ice cream.

*** I used a failed batch of vegan marshmallows and swirled it in the chocolate mix, rather than getting some vegan marshmallows. I know I've said it before and I'll say it again. I try not to get fairly narrow-use ingredients, especially if they are unnecessarily expensive.

**** Other nuts are usable. I tossed some yummy walnuts in there!

Malted Peanut Butter Ice Cream

OK, so maybe the pictures were not as bad as the first one implied... Though this one could use some serious photoshop mopping on my lovely concord grape balls, as well as the plate. Oh well, I'm working on it, I'm working on it.

Appropriately enough, better pictures come with better recipes (Srsly? You mean it gets better than salted concord grape tapioca balls?!) So I am starting to release the more substantial stand-alone items of this concoction. The first, and probably best to make without any grander purpose is the peanut butter ice cream. Sure, the melting ice cream does go beautifully with the crunchy home made cracker jacks, tangy sesame yogurt cubes, and salty-sweet-chewy tapioca balls, but I don't just whip those out of the cupboard.

Anyway, this was sourced from a number of peanut butter ice cream recipes, and I gave it my own twist... I felt it turned out quite lovely, but it turned out even better when paired with a dark chocolate ice cream, recipe forthcoming... I am going to note I used a super blender for this, so you may want to stick to very smooth peanut butters if using a normal blender. The addition of maca root can be omitted, rendering the peanut butter non-malted. I felt it was missing something, though, which is why I added it. I am sure the type of peanut butter one is using can significantly change this, though.

Malted Peanut Butter Ice Cream

1 12 oz package silken tofu, frozen, thawed then drained
1 cup peanut butter (I used a mix of ground-at-store, Maranatha, and Trader Joe's Valencia)
3/4 c maple syrup (think I used grade A, Kirkland brand)
dash cinnamon
1/4 t Xanthum Gum
1 T gelatinized maca root powder
1 3/4 C unflavored hemp milk (or milk alternative of choice)

Blend ingredients together.
Chill.
Churn.
Chow.