Kitchen Experimentation: Curried Peanut Butter Chocolates

Last fall, Sean and I received a jar of P.B. Loco Curry Peanut Butter from my mom, who was right on in thinking that it was very much up our alley.

After we’d shared a couple of delicious snacks of curry peanut butter with apple slices, I was struck by a grocery-store inspiration! I saw chocolate chips on the shelf and decided to give some candy making a try. After all, peanut butter and chocolate is an old stand-by, the curry peanut butter was tasty, and I’ve had the good fortune to have tried a couple of really good curry-chocolate combinations, so why not put all three together?

I brought home a couple of bags of the white and dark chocolate chips, and got to experimenting. I used a little over half the jar of our curry peanut butter on the first batch, and they turned out great! Got a few odd looks when offering them to friends, but most people were willing to give it a try – and just about everyone who tried them liked them.

But the only P.B. Loco store that I’m aware of is in a mall in Scottsdale, and I’m in Portland. And we wanted to make more – without asking my mom to go to the mall and mail us more peanut butter. So it was back to the kitchen to work out a recipe using only ingredients I could find in my local grocery store. Fortunately, it only took a few tries to get it right – and I can’t say it was a hardship for Sean and I to eat the mistakes.

This final version ended up pretty much just as I was hoping – rich and smooth and just a touch spicy, with some nice texture from the peanut bits and a good balance of flavors that leaves a great taste in your mouth after eating them. Without further ado, here’s the recipe!

Ingredients:

1.5 12-oz bags dark chocolate chips*
1     12-oz bag white chocolate chips*
3/4 cup crunchy peanut butter
1.5 Tbsp curry powder
Cinnamon for dusting

Rectangular cake pan or other deep-sided pan
2 Microwave safe bowls (one for dark chocolate, one for white chocolate mixture)

*Chocolate chips are ideal because they don’t need to be tempered. If you want to try this with chocolate bars, melting wafers, or some other initial form of chocolate, you’ll need to temper the chocolate to make sure it solidifies well and doesn’t end up covered quickly with powdery white bloom. More on how and why to temper chocolate here.

Melting chocolate in a microwave:

I used a microwave for chocolate melting instead of a double boiler because it’s quite a bit faster, and you don’t have to worry about accidentally getting water in the chocolate and making it seize. Here’s the basic procedure:

1. Empty your chocolate chips into a microwave safe bowl – I actually used a glass measuring cup.
2. Microwave for 30 seconds on 50% power. Remove and stir as best you can – the chocolate will likely still be pretty solid at this point.
3. Microwave another 30 seconds on 50% power, then stir again. Repeat until the chocolate is smoothly melted. Make sure you are actually pulling the chocolate out and stirring at each interval – the stirring is very important, as it spreads the heat throughout and allows more of the chocolate to melt at each step. If you don’t stop and stir, you could end up burning your chocolate before you think it’s melted. Also note that different types of chocolate will melt differently – the white chips, for example, not only melt faster than the dark chocolate but also to a more liquid consistency.

Making the candy:

1. Line  pan with aluminum foil.
2. Melt 3/4 bag of dark chocolate chips.
3. Pour the melted chocolate into pan and spread evenly across the bottom. Shake the pan gently a few times to help the layer even out.
4. Place pan with chocolate layer into the refrigerator for 2-5 minutes (optional, allows for easier spreading of the next layer, but may increase the likelihood of layers splitting later on.)
5. Melt 1 bag of white chocolate chips.
6. Mix peanut butter and curry powder into melted white chocolate until evenly distributed.
7. Pour the peanut butter mixture into pan and spread evenly over the bottom chocolate layer. Shake the pan gently again.
8. Place pan back into refrigerator for 2-5 minutes
9. Melt remaining dark chocolate chips
10. Pour melted chocolate into pan and spread evenly. Shake pan gently again.
11. Dust with cinnamon
12. Place pan into refrigerator to cool. Once cooled and solidified, remove candy from the pan, peel off the aluminum foil, and slice into bite-sized pieces. I found that a pizza cutter  worked really well to cut through the dense chocolate.

Store in refrigerator, or in freezer and allow to warm before serving. Makes lots – be ready to share!