There are few foods that I actively dislike, but of the flavors that rub me the wrong way, a great deal of them involve “fake” flavors – chemicals added to candies and other processed foods to mimic a real, natural fruit or ingredient. Banana runts and laffy taffies do not taste like banana; cherry water ice turns out to be such a poor substitute for the fresh fruit that it deterred me from even trying a real cherry for the first 21 years of my life; and then there’s grape. I know there are people out there who like grape-flavored things – I know this because L is one of them. I, however, am definitely not one of them. The idea of a synthetically flavored grape treat completely turns me off, and I blame it mostly on the grape-flavored cough syrup I had to take as a kid. All grape-flavored foods (aside from fresh grapes, of course) remind me of that horrible, horrible medicine, and I’m immediately transported back to my childhood, having to choose between an obnoxious, persistent cough and the taste of that medicine.
Naturally, then, when I saw that tomorrow is National Grape Popsicle Day, I was none too enthused. If ever grape popsicles came in a variety pack as a kid, they were always, always, always left over in the end, shunned and untouched. Now, I’m even less inclined to choose that flavor than I was back then. Still, I enjoy being festive, and it just so happens that although I do not have a grape popsicle to share with you, I have something even better but still pretty similar: frozen grapes.
I know, I know – this isn’t really a recipe or even a new idea. People have been freezing grapes for a long time now. But what if I told you these were peanut butter covered frozen grapes?
Imagine your favorite childhood peanut butter and jelly sandwich – I’m sure it was grape, right? As we get older we tend to branch out to more exotic jams and even fresh fruits – strawberry preserves, sliced banana, triple berry jam. But at least for me, the traditional, quintessential PB&J involves globs of Welch’s grape jelly, gelatinous and not a speck of real fruit in sight. Now take that sugar and calorie bomb sandwich and strip it of its bread (a distracter from the real flavor combination beauty at work, anyway), replace that dark purple jelly with a real grape, and turn the temperature down several notches. What are you left with? A chilly, peanut-butter encased grape that’s perfect for the warmer weather and absolutely reminiscent of your inner-child’s favorite sandwich.
It’s still not really a recipe, but it is delicious and I thought it deserved more than a link to Flickr from my Twitter account. And it’s so easy to make that you, too, can have a frozen grape-flavored treat to snack on tomorrow, even if you, like me, shun those artificial grape products.
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Peanut Butter Frozen Grapes
This recipe will bring you back to your childhood, cool you down on a hot day, and make you seriously question why anyone would ever want to eat just plain grapes.
Yield: Infinite1
Prep Time: Variable
Chill Time: 2-3 hours
The Ingredients
fresh grapes
all-natural creamy peanut butter2
The Method
Wash and dry the grapes. As they dry, line as many baking sheets as you need with wax paper and clear out areas in your freezer.
Using a fork, drop the grapes one at a time into the peanut butter to coat completely, pull out with the same fork, and let some of the excess peanut butter drip back into the container (or bowl if you choose not to work right from the jar) before placing on the waxed paper.3
Place in the freezer for at least 2 hours, then roll the wax paper similar to a sushi roll so that all grapes are separated by wax. Transfer the wax paper to a freezer-safe container or Ziploc bag and return to the freezer until ready to snack.
Source: Floptimism Original
Notes:
1Make as many as you’d like, but for a reference, 15 grapes is about 1 serving of fruit.
2Use all-natural peanut butter for its consistency – it’s much more of a liquid than standard peanut butter (you can practically pour it from the jar), which makes it easier to coat and dip. If you use regular, you may need to warm it to thin it out a little, but I haven’t tried this and can’t attest to the results.
3In line with using the more liquid all-natural peanut butter, some of it will also roll off of the grape and pool onto the wax paper. Because of this, you’ll want to work quickly and possibly in smaller batches than you’d normally do. You could also place a cooling rack over a sheet of wax paper and let some of the excess peanut butter drip off before freezing – I wanted to experiment with this before writing this post but my family ate all of our grapes before I got a chance. Personally, I just worked quickly and enjoyed the little pool of semi-frozen peanut butter, but it’s not as aesthetically pleasing. You could also try to peel the extra blob off post-freezing.
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