As I am sure many of you know, I LOVE baking. I also value feeding my kids as much real food as I can, and I try to cut sugar intake where possible. So, I’m sure it’s no surprise that the other day I took advantage of the cooler weather by baking whole wheat bread, chocolate muffins (using whole wheat flour and bran), and whole wheat banana bread (sweetened with honey and bananas). Everything turned out prefect, and although baked goods may be a treat no matter how they’re prepared, these were all less guilt-inducing.
Darn, no picture of the bread or muffins...!
I was on such a roll (with a little help from my little ladies) that I thought I would try out a healthier granola bar recipe. Unfortunately, it was a little too close to supper time for me to undertake the task myself, or even help out, so I asked the girls to team up on it.
No problem! They have helped me in the kitchen a lot, and they both love baking, so it seemed like a solid plan. Well, at one point the recipe they were using said to warm peanut butter and honey in the microwave to soften the peanut butter and assist in the mixing. I was not paying much attention to their recipe while prepping vegetables, mixing up a marinade for our steak (and probably a few other tasks, just for fun), so when the oldest said she thought she needed to microwave the mix a little longer I barely glanced over at it before agreeing.
I’m not sure how long she warmed it for in total, but she created a cooked mass of peanut butter and honey. Not at all a mixable consistency. Uh-oh! We had company for supper that night and the post-dinner visiting was a pleasant interruption from recipe completion and peanut butter salvation. In fact, the oats mix is still in a covered bowl on my counter…
Another thing to add to today’s “To-do” list?!
Anyway, this morning while making oat flour crepes (so good) I saw the peanut butter in the fridge. Right, what are we going to do with that? I thought. In a moment of what I am choosing to call culinary genius, I came up with a solution! Peanut butter and chocolate sauce (or spread?) for the crepes! Since the oldest was the cooker of the peanut butter I thought she would want to assist in it’s salvation, and I was right. In she trooped and we made a nice little peanut butter and chocolate spread out of our solid mass of PB and honey. It was delicious, and is already half empty! Had I known what a success it would be, I might have taken a few pictures along the way. Maybe it’s best I didn’t, I probably would have burned my crepes from the distraction. 😉
It was this simple!
Since the peanut butter we used was hard (we actually broke it back up in my ninja blender), the proportions might need to be adjusted slightly when using PB straight out of the jar. However, I am sure I will be trying this again and will update and adjust the recipe as needed. If you try it out before I get to do that, by all means drop me a comment with any revisions you needed to make.
Without further ado or idle chatter, I present to you:
Prep Time | 5 minutes |
Cook Time | 5 Minutes |
Servings |
Cups (approx)
|
- 1/2 cup Butter, margarine, or coconut oil See notes!
- 1 cup Peanut butter natural
- 1/2 cup Honey plus additional to taste (if needed)
- 1/4 cup Cocoa
Ingredients
|
|
- Melt the butter in a small saucepan. Add the peanut butter and honey, mix to incorporate. Add cocoa, mix. Add additional butter (if needed) to reach desired consistency. Add additional honey (if needed) to achieve desired sweetness. Enjoy!
*** Since our peanut butter was hardened, it is entirely possible (likely even) that less butter would be needed than we used. Add 1-2 tbsp at a time to reach desired consistency. We ended up using 1/2 a cup plus 2 tbsp, but again, that was using peanut butter that was NOT a spreadable consistency***