Ribbon Candy Bars

Do you remember those old Reese’s commercials where people collide and someone’s chocolate ends up in someone else’s peanut butter?

This is kind of the way it is with people sometimes.  We know people that love peanut butter and they love chocolate, but they hate them together.  We also know people that love peanut butter and chocolate combined, but hate them separately.  My husband finds this endlessly fascinating.  I find it more interesting when applied to people.

I know people that are nuts…er..um…peanut butter.  There are times I want to relive my childhood and I want to just relish the weird lumpy, pasty goodness of plain peanut butter.  (Always crunchy.  Creamy peanut butter is like eating paste.)  But after a while, I get to the point where I remember that childhood is over and I have stuff that I have to get done and I don’t really have time to be cleaning up a goopy mess on my fingers and unsticking my mouth.  And I really hate the smell of wet peanut butter.  I know that there are people out there that subsist on nothing but peanut butter, but I am not one of them any longer.

Then there are those people that are chocolate.  Some people like them, some people don’t.  Some prefer them darker, richer, sweeter, or more bitter.  Each of them are great in their own way.  They can be nuanced and interesting, but even if you want to, you can’t really eat nothing but chocolate without getting a stomachache.

Together they create something special.  And not just in the sense of peanut butter cups.  You may add peanuts and chocolate to your mole sauce and I can even see adding them to your chili. In savory dishes, they add depth and interest to the other ingredients.  They harmoniously blend to enhance the flavor of whatever is being prepared.

However, unless perfectly balanced, either of these two ingredients can take over a sweet dish, especially the peanut butter.  I’ve had a few chocolate peanut butter pies where I’ve lost all sense of the chocolate because I just can’t get past the overwhelming peanut butter flavor.  Sometimes I eat chocolate and wonder where the peanut butter is.  If something is supposed to have peanut flavor and chocolate flavor, I want to experience and enjoy both.  I like them both equally and want them to play nicely together in certain situations.  It doesn’t mean that I always need them together, but sometimes it’s exactly what I need.

Chocolate and peanuts balance each other perfectly in these Ribbon Candy Bars.  I originally made these for our friend’s 41st birthday party.  I knew I had to make something special that wasn’t cake.  Ribbon Candy Bars looked like an interesting recipe to try out.  I  read a book about making your own candy bars a few years ago and didn’t have time to practice the skills I’d learned.  To be honest, nothing in the book helped with the preparation of these candy bars.  This recipe is amazingly simple, although a bit time consuming.  And when we say “candy bar” think more bar cookies and less Snickers.

Adding butterscotch chips as the third party to the peanut butter and chocolate chips allows them to harmonize more perfectly than if left to their own devices.  Filling the chocolate mixture with a salty sweet layer means every bite is a little different.  Some nibbles are a little crunchy and hard to bite into as the salt from the peanuts hits your tongue.  Other bites melt in your mouth so quickly, you almost wish the moment would last longer.  Our overall impression was that these candy bars are best in small doses, but are completely addictive.

Regardless of how you feel about chocolate or peanut butter or the combination of the two, this is a recipe worth trying.

The Recipe:

*Recipe should say spread half of the chip and peanut butter mixture in pan, but make sure it’s a decently thick layer.

If you like this recipe you should check out Darned Good Candy, Peanut Brittle, and Seaside Candy Rolls.

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