Chocolate Peanut Butter "Crackles"

Ok, so this isn't so much a recipe as a really awesome idea for party food or a homemade gift. It involves chocolate and peanut butter and the only "cooking" you have to do involves melting stuff in the microwave. 

My husband and I dubbed these confections "crackles" because they're made with crackers and because of the crack-like addiction you will acquire after eating one. You start with two butter crackers and a big dollop of peanut butter:

Then you smoosh the two crackers together and run your finger around the sandwich to trim the excess peanut butter:

After you've got your peanut butter sandwiches made up, you microwave your chocolate in a tall narrow-ish container and dip the sandwiches. I used a fork to remove the sandwiches and gently set them on some parchment paper.















While the chocolate is still melty, I sprinkled some roughly chopped peanuts over the top.
I let them set up for a few hours and then packaged them in tea tins with cupcake liners to keep them separated.

I'm already envisioning other crackle flavors. Let me blow your mind a little:


S'more Crackle: Marshmallow creme on graham cracker, dipped in chocolate.
Nutella Crackle: Same as above but with an extra layer of Nutella.
Caramel Cookie Crackle: Caramel on vanilla wafers, dipped in chocolate.
Double Cookie Crackle: Biscoff spread on vanilla wafers, dipped in chocolate.
Maple Almond Crackle: Maple almond butter on crackers, dipped in chocolate.


Toppings to consider: coconut, orange zest, different nuts, crushed candy canes...


Yeah, so it's a little easy for me to get carried away with these. They're easier than making truffles or bark, but a lot of the same flavors are possible. The only drawback is depending how much moisture is in your filling ingredients, the outside of the crackle starts to weep after a couple of days. The texture actually gets better, but the outside doesn't look as pretty. So if you're big on presentation, I wouldn't make these more than a day in advance.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Crackles
Yields about 15

Ingredients

30 butter flavored crackers (like Ritz)
1 cup peanut butter (There's probably less than a tablespoon on each one but err on the side of more peanut butter so when you stick the sides together you get a nice even layer that you can trim.)
8 ounces dark or milk chocolate
2 ounces salted peanuts, roughly chopped  

Directions

1. Put about a tablespoon of peanut butter on a cracker. Smoosh another cracker on top and run your finger around the outside of the sandwich to trim the excess peanut butter. Repeat.

2. In a tall, narrow-ish bowl or container, melt the chocolate by microwaving in 30 second increments and stirring each time.

3. Dip each sandwich in the chocolate, using a fork to roll them and remove them to a piece of parchment or wax paper. I found that after 3 or 4 dips I had to reheat the chocolate slightly or the coating started to get too thick.

4. Sprinkle with chopped peanuts and allow to cool at room temperature for several hours before packaging.