P.B.E.'s

I'm sure you're wondering what in heck a PBE is. no.. I assure you it's not the newest blue-collar beer. It's another new flavor of my Happy Janes.

I know.. I have yet to even market these things enough to sell ONE, and I'm coming up with new flavors. ISSUES! But it's all in the spirit of creativity.

If you recall, a while back, I hosted a contest. Well, given that the winner wasn't really a HUGE fan of any of the flavors I was offering, I decided to come up with something better for her 'prize'. I also had a 4-month-late birthday present to send... so all of that coupled with another bake sale at church... and well.. two new flavors were born. I've already posted about the Pumpkin Truffle flavor.

(as a matter of fact, I actually just made another batch of them. my parents were visiting and are heading back to jersey tomorrow, and my mom requested that I make some for her to give as part of a gift basket to give to her doctor. So I GUESS you can say I got my first order. except I wasn't paid for them. Though my folks will tell you that they paid in some free babysitting while they were here. but my first order!!! though it's my folks... and they're supportive like that. oh well. I'm chalking it up as a win-win. I get to practice my skills and get my product to a new mouth without having to pay hand-over fist in shipping. but NEVERMIND!! back to PBE's!)

So the other flavor was made with the previously mentioned belated birthday girl in mind. Erin of Erin Cooks had a birthday back in June, and I had promised to send her some CDs. oops. So, to make up for my tardiness, I tried to make the CD package more than just music for her ears. you see... Erin is a fan of peanut butter. like a BIG fan. A while back, Erin posted a recipe for her own take on a recipe called "Melting Moments". She decided to make it in a peanut butter version. The recipe she posted looked pretty good.. so I used it for inspiration and as a base for a filling for a new Jane.

I made a few changes.. like using crunchy peanut butter, and using like 5x the amount she calls for. but still... it was sweet. and pea-nutty good.

I used a chocolate cookie base... and spooned some filling on each before freezing. (note.. yes, I DID say SPOON. the filling was too thick/crunchy to be piped on using my bags. I mean, I did start to pipe it on, but it came out like little logs, and I ended up using a spoon to round them out... so I stuck with the spoon for the rest.)

You know the rest... dipped them in chocolate, let them cool, and served with some milk!

Oh. it occurs to me I never did explain what the PBE stands for. The PB is easy.. Peanut Butter. duh! but the E? Gotta give credit where credit is due. SO since I used Erin's recipe for the filling... I think it's proper to have the E stand for Erin. But Jane is a vain little cookie... and can't be havign another woman's name in the mix.... so just a plain E will have to suffice. The taste makes up for it, though.. cause there's nothing plain about them.

enjoy!

Lessons Learned: I noticed I may have yet another reason to use paraffin in my chocolate. I'm not quite sure if it was the shoddy sprinkling of gold dusting powder I did on the PBE's, or if it was the EXUBERANT amount of peanut butter I used (hence creating a very heavy oil-base for the filling) but I noticed an odd crystallization happening on the outer shell of the chocolates. (if you look closely, you can see it on the last picture.) It did not affect the taste.. but I'm big on appearances, and seeing those spots bugged me. I really need to look into the paraffin.