There’s a trend I’ve been noticing lately in the peanut butter aisle of the grocery store. There are a bunch of new types of fancy flavored peanut butter. Flavors like cocoa, chipotle, espresso, pretzels, vanilla, coconut, or spice mixes. There are non-peanut butter versions of some types, too. I know that some of the nut butters are made by local Oregon companies, but they sell nationally. Is flavored peanut butter catching on where you live?

Some of the flavors sound really intriguing, but when I tried samples, the spices in many of the versions I had weren’t nearly strong enough for me. So I decided to make my own. I came up with three different flavors: Garam Masala, Honey Chipotle Pretzel, and Chocolate Espresso.

These are inspired by a couple of different brands, one of which is a local Portland company that has “adult nut butters” in the name. Yes, that’s really part of the name, and because I’m immature, it makes me think they’re for a totally different purpose. Hey, nobody’s stopping you from using them for whatever you like. But I just want to eat them.

At first I wasn’t sure what to eat flavored peanut butter with, aside from the obvious peanut butter and jelly sandwich. But when I was trying to figure out how to photograph these (brown paste, by itself, just isn’t that photogenic), I hit on the idea of eating the chipotle honey pretzel flavor on apple slices. That was a winner, and then I realized that the garam masala might work on apples, too. It’s slightly unexpected, but I might like it even better. Other things I’ll be trying these with: oatmeal, celery, in cookies, on waffles, and oh my god, I just thought of peanut butter ice cream with these. Chocolate peanut butter chocolate espresso ice cream? Or maybe just vanilla honey chipotle pretzel ice cream. Geez, I need to make that ASAP.

You could get extra fancy and make your own peanut butter from roasted peanuts, or just use your favorite store-bought natural peanut butter for these recipes. That’s what I did. My favorite, and what I used here, is the Whole Foods 365 store brand of smooth salted peanut butter (“365 Everyday Value Smooth Peanut Butter with Salt”). There are three reasons I’m loyal to this kind, and make special trips to Whole Foods just to buy it:
1) Strong roasted peanut flavor.
2) It only has two ingredients, peanuts and salt. No extra oils or sugar.
3) It’s cheaper per ounce than most other natural peanut butters. (Although last week I realized that the 16 oz size costs less per oz than the 32 oz size–tricky!)
If you use an unsalted kind, I’d add a pinch of salt to all of these recipes.

Top to bottom: Garam masala, raspberry jam, honey chipotle pretzel, chocolate espresso, raspberry jam.

The garam masala is the first one I made, and the simplest. Just three ingredients if you use pre-made garam masala. I used a garam masala spice mix I bought from the bulk spice section at my local grocery store. Garam masala, if you’re not familiar with it, is the spice mix often used in Indian food, so you might want to check the international foods section of your grocery store if you’re having trouble finding it. But I’ve included a recipe to make your own garam masala spice mix if you can’t find it, or just prefer to make your own.

 

The chocolate espresso flavor is like a grown-up, more sophisticated version of Nutella (doesn’t that sound better than “Adult Nutella?”). It’s sweetened with brown rice syrup, partly because I have a jar in my pantry I need to use. But I think you could probably substitute agave syrup, or even other sweeteners, to taste.

 

Can you think of any ideas I’m missing for how to eat these? (Other than straight out of the jar, of course.)