Three C Peanut Butter

Well, two more weeks left of my weird, loop-holey sugar abstinence:

Pros:
No longer randomly grabbing at the meaningless foods in my path:

candy bowl proferrings

off-brand commercial cookies that don’t taste good anyway

dollars in my backpack for the vending machine

or that abandoned power bar left temptingly on the bench in the women’s locker room at the gym (embarrassed to admit I even considered it).

Slowly peeling away from the “dessert as reward” system of thought
No longer getting that sugar-binge sweatiness.  I know you know what I mean

Con:
I’ve been missing out on the homemade treats of my friends:

cheesecake

chocolate cheesecake

oatmeal cookies

pumpkin bread

truffles

trifle

and yes, Ari’s thin mints

What I’ve learned:
This may be the end of wrapped sweets for me, a hard yet liberating decision.  It may also be the end of my own baking…no loss, I was always a mediocre baker.  However, a friend recommended that I make a once-a-week exception for the things made by friends–that I can still appreciate their talents and will probably appreciate the treat for the occasion it represents.

Weirdly, I’ve had little trouble saying no to most things–except for the Jiffy peanut butter.  Last week I attempted to make my own PB, supplementing spices for the sweetness.  The result?  Definitely not a replacement, but maybe a nice addition to my snacking repertoire.

Unfortunately, the new method I was hoping I’d be able to share failed.  I realize most students do not have a food processor, so I tried the Simply Recipes method of a mason jar and a blender.  While this was perfect for chopping nuts, it failed utterly in the creaming stage.  I’ll try to put up the 3 part failure video in the near future.

For now: Roasted peanuts + Chili powder + Cumin + Coriander + Garam masala = the rough-around-the-edges cousin of sweet little Jiffy.

Ingredients

• 1.5 cups roasted peanuts
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp coriander
• 2 tsp chili powder
• 0.5 tsp garam masala
• salt to taste…i used about .5 tsp
• 2 tsp neutral oil (optional) for that glassy effect

Set the oven to 350F and put the peanuts on a foil-lined baking sheet.  After about 10 minutes, remove the peanuts (they should be warm and easier to break up at this point) and deposit them into a food processor.  Add the spices, salt, and oil, then set the food processor to low, building speed as the peanuts turn into powder.  Keep blending on high, the creaming process will take as much as 10 minutes.  You’ll see the peanuts disintegrate, then clump, then begin to form a particulate ball, and then turn into a paste as the peanuts give up their oil.  Keep blending until you achieve a consistency that you desire.

Store in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.

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