Everyone I know loves a good peanut butter and jelly sandwich (including me!), and it’s always fun to reinvent this classic. Scones, which are like biscuits but are a bit more flaky and delicate, are a traditional part of afternoon tea; they are often served with jam and clotted cream. Here the clotted cream has been replaced with Brie cheese and the rich, peanutty scones serve as the “bread” portion of this elegant version of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

There’s something about combining the sweet taste of peanut butter with the savory and saltiness of thick cut bacon. You may question it, but try this once and it’s sure to keep showing up in your menus. Perfect for a party or light lunch, and so easy to put together.

Everyone knows that peanut butter and carrots are always a great pairing… so why not update the classic carrot layer cake by adding sweet Mighty Maple peanut butter to the traditional cream cheese frosting?
The end result is both delicious and impressive – three towering layers of moist, spicy carrot cake with plump golden raisins, all enclosed in swirls of tangy, maply frosting. The only downside is that you’ll be tempted to eat it all on your own, which is probably not a very good idea!
While layer cakes might seem a little intimidating, they’re actually much easier than you’d think. This one in particular is a great one for beginners – the sturdy layers of cake stack beautifully, and I’ve added a decorative garnish of chopped honey roasted peanuts that do wonders for disguising even the most imperfect of frosting jobs.

One of my favorite meals consists of candied nuts topping a nice gourmet salad with a well-balanced sweet and salty dressing. When I was a child I loved to snack on my favorite caramel popcorn loaded with peanuts from a box. I wanted to recreate some childhood memories with a grown-up twist. Instead of candied nuts I created a twist on this classic with a sweet and salty flavored peanut butter caramel corn laden with salty peanuts. The popcorn roasts in the oven until it develops a crunchy peanut butter flavored caramel coating. They’re perfect as croutons for a nice spring salad. The recipe makes plenty so there is even some leftover for snacking. The croutons top a simple gourmet salad with slices of salty bacon and balanced with a sweet and salty peanut butter flavored dressing. This recipe satisfies my craving for sweet and salty flavors in perfect balance.

Easter Candy has come a long way. When I was young, it seemed as if it was a matter of chocolate bunnies, jelly beans, and your choice of creme eggs or mini eggs in terms of treats. Then…along came the peanut butter egg. A delectable nugget of sweetened peanut butter coated in rich chocolate, it rocked my Easter basket and my world. Here’s a homemade version of a store-bought treat, made yet awesomer by incorporating peanut butter in the filling and the topping. A word of advice? If you’re creating these confections for a crowd, please make a double batch. They’re seriously that simple, that addictive, and that good.

As a frequent entertainer I am always hunting around for great appetizers that I can serve for company. I also love something that can be enjoyed without utensils and easily passed around. Enter these empanadas, easy to make and delicious to boot.

I’ve always wanted to play around with putting peanut butter into dough and have created a great one that really could be enjoyed with a sweet or savory filling. Although the filling for these is on the savory side- using chicken, goat cheese, and jam. Sweet, spicy, and creamy, the spice from the peanut butter is tamed from the goat cheese and apricot jam. Even your pickiest guests will be pleased with this combo, as they were declared a hit at my last dinner party.

I’m sure I go through the same lunch ruts as most people. There are only so many sandwich and salad combinations you can make! But this sandwich stays in my rotation and can change with the seasons. The mix of peanut butter and fresh berries covers up the flavor of the carrots and lettuce, but you still get in some vegetables. Not bad for a workday lunch!

When it comes to cooking at home, I’m all about making food with a good taste to effort ratio. By that measure, this peanut butter cake probably has the best ratio out of anything that’s ever come out of my kitchen.

For roughly one minute of work, you’ll be rewarded with a rich tender cake, covered in a gooey peanut butter sauce that tastes like it could have come from the kitchen of a 3 Michelin star restaurant.

It’s a flourless cake, which means it’s gluten-free. Aside from making it Celiac friendly, this makes it easier to make because you don’t need to worry about over-mixing the batter. It’s also very flexible because you can adjust the texture of the cake by the amount of time you cook it. On the low end, you’ll end up with a tender molten cake covered in a rich sauce. Cook it a little longer, and you’ll have a moist fluffy cake that can be frosted.

You’ll probably need to experiment with the timing for your microwave the first time. I recommend setting the microwave for 1 minute for the first cake, then stopping it when it looks done. Once you have the timing down the rest of the mugs should be a piece of cake!

For some variation, try using flavored peanut butter like Mighty Maple, Cinnamon Raisin Swirl, or Dark Chocolate Dreams, but be sure to halve the amount of sugar since the peanut butter is sweetened.

After spending a good part of my early 20s working in Toronto’s Eaton Centre, I get a little bit twitchy at the thought of spending any amount of time in a shopping mall.

The only thing that can lure me back in is the promise of a mall-style pretzel… I just love those pillowy-soft bites with flecked with crunchy bits of salt, preferably with a side of peanut butter for dunking.

So I thought to myself, why not try making them at home, so that I wouldn’t have to brave the mall for a fix? And why not take it one step further by baking the peanut butter right into each bite?

I’m pleased to say this little experiment was an unqualified success. Hidden inside the perfectly golden-brown salt-speckled exterior of each mini pretzel bite, a peanut butter centre awaits unsuspecting snackers. It’s all the goodness of my beloved mall pretzels, wrapped up in one perfect bite-sized bundle.

While I made these with Smooth Operator, the options are as endless as there are Peanut Butter & Co flavours – for a sweet-and-salty treat, try these with Mighty Maple or Bee’s Knees, or satisfy your inner chocoholic with Dark Chocolate Dreams. Personally, though, I prefer salty simplicity of the version below.

When you think about Canadian cuisine what comes to mind? You could be chomping down on Tart de Sucre in Quebec, Nanaimo Bars in British Columbia or Butter Tarts in Ontario. Or do you think of something more seasonal like cranberries, spot prawns or furled fiddleheads? No matter the season true Canadian cuisine can be found every time we visit our local farmers markets, farm stands or local grocers and depends heavily on our ethnic roots from province to province.

Living in British Columbia we thrive on “West Coast Cuisine” which is essentially just utilizing the very finest local gastronomic delights fresh from the ocean, the oven or the field… just as they do in every province and territory across the country. If you asked a Canadian in Halifax, Nova Scotia or Saskatoon, Saskatchewan to define what they eat on a daily basis you would have two different answers. Ask your neighbor what they had for dinner last night and see what the ethnic influences are. Like everyone else we use what’s in our backyard and cook with what’s around us.

This burger utilizes what I found available this time of year…firm, full-flavored sockeye salmon from the West Coast slowly baked with a maple syrup and Maple flavored peanut butter glaze. Top it off with a seasonal slaw and what could be more Canadian than that!