I am a sucker for any recipe that has a superlative in its name: deluxe, luscious, spectacular, impossible, amazing–so it’s no surprise that I was drawn to Peanut Butter Special from Better Homes & Gardens Cooking for Two.
Also, the chapter was titled “Sandwiches–Good for a Twosome.” But we all know that sandwiches are best for a threesome (ba-da-dum ching! I’ll be here all week! Try the veal!).
Yeah, so Peanut Butter Special. It’s a peanut butter sandwich. So what is it that makes it so frickin’ special? Seems standard: an apple, and some applesauce and…
BACON. Frickin’ bacon. Who knew that in 1977 Better Homes & Gardens predicted that bacon would be so ubiquitous in highbrow and lowbrow cuisine come the second decade of the 21st century?
So I did as I was told and I mixed in some crunchy bacon bits to the peanut butter and applesauce and spread it on margarine-topped, Granny Smith apple-lined Wonder Bread.
Shit, this was insanely rich. I think the strongest flavor was margarine (it did say to butter bread generously). This sandwich was so wrong texturally, as well. It was soft bread, soft spread, apple crunch and bacon chew simultaneously. I’m a fan of crunchy peanut butter but the fact that the bacon was chewy yet charred was quite unnerving.
And none of the flavors really melded, so it was the same with the taste. It was like a carousel of flavors. Each chew went like this: Wonder Bread! Margarine! Peanut Butter! Apple! Bacon! The applesauce never screamed at me, however.
Anyway, this wasn’t good. I only got through 1/2 of the sandwich. And although this was a dinner designed for two, I’d never serve this to anyone. Unless I hated them.
OMG! Peanut butter and bacon sannies are a family favorite. I don’t know why someone would go and ruin it with marg. and apples. Please give it one more chance with just the peanut butter and fried to your liking bacon, and no crumbling nice long strips of bacon like a BLT. And on some good hearty bread that can handle all that yumminess. Then get back to me about the love that I have introduced to your mouth, or tell me it is still gross, how ever you feel is fine by me I just want to make sure you try it the RIGHT way before you turn your nose to the wonder that is PB&B sannies.
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Its the Wonderbread and the applesauce that rode that one right off the rails for me… And the bacony paste, and the slathering of margarine . Okay, the whole damn thing just sounds painful… Maybe if it were more simple… Like a breakfast BLT, a BAPB if you will… Slices of apple and bacon, stacked on a nice homemade bread with Peanut butter as a binder…
Yes.
Wonderbread? You are a mid-century maven. I haven’t eaten regular old white bread like that in years. I hate how it sticks to the back of my teeth. Maybe this thing needed a crusty homemade loaf? And, you know, if you’re going to butter it, you might as well fry it up like grilled cheese. Which means, you might as well do what seasonedwithsarcasm suggested.
Totally weird but delicious peanut butter sandwich: Toast a piece of thick bread. Liberally apply peanut butter. Cut a big old slice of tomato and throw that on top. Salt. Pepper. Eat open faced.
kudos to you for forcing down 1/2 a sandwich! I’m a big fan of bacon but that whole combo sounds unpleasant to my tastebuds. Maybe apple and bacon with some cheddar and grilled up would have been good…you are so brave!