Chocolate Peanut Spread

What? There's no meat in this dish. It's completely vegetarian.

I don't know how I stumbled upon Smitten Kitchen, but boy am I glad I did. This is the second recipe I've tried (with more on the way) and so far I've been extremely pleased with the results. You could easily whip up this spread in under 10 minutes. However, if you have a 3 year old begging for every snack under the sun even though she's just had lunch, it's going to take you a little longer. Chances are you have all of these ingredients in your pantry right now, so hop to it, try this recipe.

2 cups roasted, unsalted peanuts

1/2 cup unsweetened, dark cocoa powder

1 1/4 cups powdered sugar

1/4 - 1/2 tsp Kosher salt

2-3 Tbsp oil (I've used olive oil and canola oil, both worked fine)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spread peanuts in a single layer on a cookie sheet. Toast in oven for 5 minutes to deepen the flavor.

Place peanuts in a food processor and grind them for about 5 minutes. First they’ll become a paste and then they’ll liquefy. Scrape down the sides as needed. Add the cocoa, sugar, salt. Turn on food processor and drizzle 2 tablespoons of oil. Blend for about 1 minute. Add more salt if needed. Add the last tablespoon of oil if the consistency seems too thick.

Store in refrigerator up to a week in a covered container. 

Nap time snacks don't get much better than this.

Review - Right out of the food processor, this was heavenly. It was warm from being blended for so long. I've been wandering around my kitchen trying to come up with things to dip into it. The apples were delicious. I'm sure this wouldn't be too shabby on a piece of toast topped with banana slices. This recipe made about 1 1/2 cups and turned out to be a heck of a lot more economical than those tiny jars of chocolate hazelnut spread we all love so much. 

I realize that I didn't include anyone else in this review but me. Well that's because I didn't share. If it were up to me I wouldn't share. I plan on hiding the jar in the back of the fridge, probably behind the spinach, where I know no one will ever find it.