Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Peanut Butter Chocolate Crunch Squares


Uhhh...Yum!

So one day I was thinking about desserts for a Ladies Lotto meeting and all I could think about was watermelon smoothies and cucumber-mint slushies. I would have ended up bringing melted messes that could have been used for a mixer. but would hardly do for a dessert. In the summer, the number one kitchen rule for me is that the oven stays off, not exactly a cookie friendly environment. Since you all enjoyed the almond cherry blobs we had in May, I decided to research more quick and easy desserts. Although this is not a raw dessert and the blobs (I need a new name for those) were, it's still vegan. Just so you know I tested out on a few people to make sure they were good. I don't have much of a sweet tooth so almost anything is dessert if its the slightest bit sweet.

Anyway, glad you liked them and now you can make your own.
I followed a precise recipe once and they were ridiculously sweet, so I modified

1 cup creamy peanut butter (you could substitute almond butter as well)
1/2 cup maple syrup or 1/3 Agave
1/4 cup of shredded raw coconut (not toasted)
a pinch of sea salt
1-2 cups of cornflakes
1-2 cups of rice puffs (not rice krispies)
I put 1-2 cups because if you use Agave you have less liquid so you may want less crunch
1 cup of semi-sweet chocolate

Directions:
In a sauce pan on medium to low heat add peanut butter, sweetener, salt and coconut stirring as you add. Be careful not to leave it too long or the peanut butter will burn.

In a large mixing bowl, add cornflakes. Put on some latex-free gloves and squeeze the flakes into smaller pieces. Add rice puffs. Mix together.

Add you peanut butter mixture and use a spatula to mix in leaving no dry mix untouched. Once it has cooled a little, put your gloved hands in the bowl and really mix it up.

Depending on how thick you want your squares, choose a cooling dish. I used a cookie sheet so the were super thin. With your spatula spread a layer of the mix evenly across the sheet/dish. Refrigerate.

In a double boiler or a small pot of boiling water with a bowl resting on top (be sure the bowl isn't touching the water or your chocolate will burn) add your chocolate to the dry bowl.
It should melt in about 5 mins. Once its melted, grab your cookie sheet and spread the chocolate around and then the sheet back in the refrigerator.

after a 1/2 hr you should be able to cut and eat!