Not Your Ordinary Peanut Clusters

Probably one of my least favorite treats at the holiday time is the peanut cluster.  If I am faced with a plate of cookies and candy, if there is a peanut cluster, I almost immediately dismiss it.  What’s so special about them? It’s just peanuts, and chocolate, and peanuts are simply not a special occasion nut in my book.  But last year, I went to a cookie exchange where one of the cookies I brought back home was a peanut cluster.  Except this wasn’t an ordinary peanut cluster.  The person who made this cluster added something so simple and so basic to it, yet it completely transformed the peanut cluster from something that takes up valuable cookie real estate, to something desired.  I discovered that I did love me a good peanut cluster, so yesterday, facing the very ingredients necessary, I made my own batch of peanut clusters.

The ingredients:

Peanuts

Dipping Chocolate (I used dark)

Rice Krispies

It’s the rice krispies that take these peanut clusters over the edge. They add the most wonderful crackle and crunch and act as the perfect ingredient to take peanut clusters into well-regarded status.  I don’t actually have a recipe for you, because it’s a little difficult to gauge amounts, but I would say to use 1 part krispies for 4 parts peanuts.  I used about 4 cups of peanuts and about 1 cup of rice krispies.  Then I took a small block of dark dipping chocolate, melted it in the microwave (just two minutes total!) and poured the chocolate into the peanuts and stirred.  Once the peanuts and krispies were well coated, I simply dolloped them out onto waxed paper to set.  Complete start to finish- was no more than twenty minutes.  The entire family cannot stay away from these peanut clusters, so I would say they are a rousing success.  The magic of Rice Krispies… you gotta love those little crispy bubbles of rice goodness.