Peanut butter snaps have it all

Chocolate Snaps (Mary Elizabeth Williams)

You don’t need an expensive new piece of equipment, or an obscure ingredient you have to hunt for. You just need a fresh way of preparing an old favorite. In "One Way," we’ll revisit classic ingredients and dishes, giving them a new twist with an easy technique you haven’t tried before.

My favorite thing is everything. Give me the antipasto, the tapas, the bento box, the wine flight, the tasting menu. I don't want to miss a single bite or sip. When I recently stayed in a hotel with a breakfast buffet that included different kinds of infused water, I thought I'd die of ecstatic overload. So when it comes to sweets, I want a stack of all the flavors, with a salty, savory element or two tossed in.

In her wise and cheerful "Dessert Can Save the World: Stories, Secrets, and Recipes for a Stubbornly Joyful Existence," Christina Tosi offers the life lesson to sometimes "ditch the recipe" and figure your own personal style, in the kitchen and beyond. For Tosi, that philosophy shines through in her "snaps," which she describes broadly as "a snappy cookie on the bottom, then a flavorful spreadable layer like caramel, marshmallow creme, or jam reduction, something textural that's salty or crunchy like pretzels, all dunked in something delicious to seal in the elements and build up the flavors." Whatever that image conjures up in your mind is what your snap should be.

I express myself in dark chocolate, peanut butter and potato chips. And because I am spending a few weeks in the Netherlands, I believe there should be a waffle cookie involved too. My snaps are creamy and crunchy, but yours might be jammy or spicy. (I feel like crushed wasabi peas might be amazing here?) I would eat my snaps for dessert, but maybe you want yours in the middle of an otherwise endless afternoon. There are no wrong answers. It's just about taking what you love and making a whole perfect little pile of the stuff, and then eating it, happily, whenever you want. And if your stomach calls you in a different direction tomorrow, then it's about finding a new way, again and again and again. Life is short. You might as well taste everything.

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Inspired by Dessert Can Save the World by Christina Tosi

Chocolate peanut butter waffle "snaps"

Yields

 4 servings

Prep Time

5 minutes

Cook Time

 10 minutes

Ingredients

• 4 waffle cookies (Trader Joe's are very good.)
• 4 tablespoons of your favorite peanut butter
• 1/4 cup of potato chips, crushed, plus more for topping
• 1 cup of dark chocolate, roughly chopped
• 2 teaspoons of vegetable oil

Directions

1. Make your chocolate coating: In a microwave proof bowl, microwave the oil and chocolate  in 30 second bursts, stirring each time until the chocolate is melted.
2. On a cooling rack with a sheet pan or piece of foil underneath, lay out your cookies.
3. Evenly spread each cookie with a tablespoon of peanut butter. 
4. Top each with a generous sprinkling of potato chips.
5. Spoon your chocolate spread over each to cover, then top with a little more potato chip.
6. Transfer to the fridge to chill for 5 - 10 minutes. Enjoy right away, or whenever you get hungry.

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Cook's Notes

Tosi encourages would-be snappers to make this one their own. Vary the base, filling, type of chocolate and crunchy topping to your own taste and imagination.

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