Tuesday, August 07, 2007
Chocolate Crispy Crunchies
One of my favorite restaurants in Seattle, Veil, has an amazing dessert--peanut butter ice cream with peanut butter shortbread and chocolate-peanut crunch. It's both sweet and salty, and it always leaves you wanting more! Lucky for me, the dessert was featured in the September 2006 issue of Bon Appétit. The crunch recipe is quite simple, and is great with the Veil peanut ice cream, store-bought ice cream, pudding, and endless other things! Best just to have it on hand at all times... I've adapted the recipe slightly to make use of more commonly-found ingredients.
Ingredients:
1 c. creamy peanut butter
2-1/2 oz. high-quality milk chocolate, chopped
2 T. butter
Pinch fleur de sel or fine sea salt
2-1/2 c. finely crumbled Pirouette cookies (about 8-1/2 ounces whole cookies)
1/2 c. cocoa nibs or 1 chocolate bar with cocoa nibs, chopped fine (both optional)
Step-by-step:
1. Line a baking sheet with foil. Microwave peanut butter, chocolate, butter, and salt using medium power until almost melted, stirring periodically. When chocolate is almost all melted, stir mixture until remaining melts. Fold in crumbled cookies and cocoa nibs.
2. Transfer mixture to prepared baking sheet and press out to 1/2-inch thickness.
3. Refrigerate crunch until cold and firm, about 2 hours. Slice with a sharp knife into desired sizes and shapes, or use a cookie cutter. Refrigerate finished pieces until read to use.
4. Serve with ice cream or other desserts.
Note: Since you may not be able to find cocoa nibs conveniently, I substituted one 2-ounce chocolate bar with nibs in it. Many gourmet chocolate bar brands make these now, including Theo Chocolate, here in Seattle. If you can't find either the nibs or the bars with nibs, simply leave the ingredient out.
