Peanut butter and jelly NaughtyStack

Following the roaring success of the S’Mores NaughtyStack, when my wedding anniversary arrived, I knew exactly what I was going to give to my wife as a treat.  PB & jelly sandwiches are one of her favourite things in life and the NaughtyStack has just been screaming out for a jammy, nutty makeover!  I tried several sizes and heights to try and get the perfect stack and the right balance of richness and sweet flavours.  In the end, I decided that as a dessert for one a stack of 6 smaller sized hotcakes offers the perfect amount for those who have a sweet tooth and love their puddings just like me!

Ingredients

Hotcakes

• ½ ounce / 15g unsalted butter
• 4 ounces / 110g plain flour
• 1 large egg
• 5¼ fluidounces / 150ml whole milk
• ½ teaspoon of caster sugar
• ½ tablespoon of baking powder
• pinch of salt

Toppings

• 1 jar of raspberry jam
• 1 jar of peanut butter
• 6 Reese’s Miniatures
• Cocktail sticks to serve

Method

Melt the butter in a small saucepan and allow to cool.

Place all of the hotcake ingredients (including the melted butter) into a food processor and blitz until you have your batter.

Heat a large frying pan on a low-medium heat and add a knob of unsalted butter.  Using a 1/8th cup measure (about 30 millilitres or 1 fluid ounce), put three dollops of batter around the pan (far enough apart so that when they spread they don’t touch) and once the hotcake starts bubbling on the surface and a skin begins to form, flip over.

Allow to cook for another 20 seconds or so before transferring to a plate.

Clean the pan, put in another knob of butter and repeat until you have six hotcakes.

Transfer the raspberry jam to a bowl and heat in the microwave in 30 seconds bursts, breaking up with a spoon until you have a sauce-like texture.

Transfer the peanut butter to a jug and like the jam, microwave in 30 second bursts until you have a creamy sauce.

Cut the Reese’s Miniatures in half.

To create your PB & Jelly NaughtyStack, take a hotcake and dollop with a couple of teaspoons of raspberry jam and spread evenly.

Drizzle over a generous amount of peanut butter sauce and then repeat the process with the other hotcakes.

Finish off with half a dozen halves of Reese’s Miniatures and then stick some cocktail sticks through your stack to stop them sliding apart.

Trivia

The rise in popularity of peanut butter and jelly as a combination can be directly linked to the introduction of pre-sliced bread in the 1920s. Until then, children were not generally allowed to slice their own bread until they were old enough to do it safely. But with the introduction of commercially pre-sliced bread, it was now safe enough for younger children to make their own sandwiches. And, of course, it was always children that drove this desire for mixing peanut butter and jelly, which they did, in their hundreds of thousands. And many never grew out of it!