I will be honest in that I never fully got why a peanut butter blossom cookie was referred to as a blossom. It’s a round cookie with a little Hershey’s Kiss sticking out of it – to me, that looks more like a weird hat or a part of human anatomy more than anything else. I guess you can say it sort of looks like a flower if you squint? Like really hard? Honestly, I don’t buy that it looks like a blossom, but that’s just me and maybe some day, I will see it. At least I hope I do. Trying to fit in with societal expectations and norms is hard enough when you are an immigrant. I still remember being made fun of for not knowing that a tater tot was at summer camp – you don’t see me making fun of people for not knowing what xiaolongbao are prior to Din Tai Fung coming to the states, but that’s just a peek into my weird culturally conflicted, no-win scenario childhood. That being said though, peanut butter blossom is a cute name, So I figured I would take that as a concept, being primarily peanut butter with some chocolate, and make a pate choux out of it! In this case, the choux is chocolate with a chocolate craquelin, while the filling is primarily a peanut butter mousse with a little ganache on it, and 5 peanut halves arranged to sort of look like a blossom. At least more than the cookie? Granted, my peanut flower-things are half-covered by the top halves of the choux, so my blossoms aren’t clearly flowers either? That being said, these choux are absolutely adorable, and they are perfect for anyone who loves chocolate-peanut butter-anything!

For this recipe, we have 4 main components: black cacao craquelin, black cacao choux buns, a peanut butter cream, and a chocolate ganache. Technically the craquelin and the choux both go into one component, but I listed them as two separate recipes since they each use similar ingredients but apply them into different techniques. The choux is easily the most technical part of this recipe, as it takes time to ensure that the buns are baked off enough, otherwise they will deflate and you end up with soggy, flat dough mounds instead of crispy, airy choux pastry. Especially since in this case, there is choux and craquelin, so two doughs that are being baked together so you need to ensure that both doughs are fully baked through. Leaving them in the oven for a sufficient amount of time, and giving them ample time to cool helps a ton – also, do NOT open the oven whatsoever. If you have an oven with a light and a little window, use that to see if the choux puffs in the oven. But cracking the oven will cause the steam to release prematurely, and your choux will deflate as they bake. So avoid doing that. The filling is a mixture of creamed peanut butter folded with heavy cream – it is a very rich filling, but I would be gentle with the mixing process, otherwise you will end up with a heavy, greasy peanut butter mixture instead of a mousse-like peanut butter that we are going for here. The ganache is really easy to make, but it will need a bit of time to cool down, otherwise it will just melt a crater into your cloud-like peanut butter filling. And lastly, I garnished each choux with 5 roasted peanut halves to resemble a little blossom, just to make my peanut butter blossom choux look a bit more flower-like than the a peanut butter blossom cookie.

Makes 8 choux puffs:
For the black cacao craquelin:
3 1/2 tbsp all-purpose flour
1/2 tbsp black cacao powder
2 tbsp unsalted butter
2 tbsp granulated sugar
a pinch of salt

In a bowl, mix together all of your ingredients until a cohesive dough forms. Refrigerate the dough for up to 20 minutes, then roll out the dough on a floured surface to about 1/8 inch-thickness. Cut out 2-inch disks from the dough, rerolling as necessary. Place the disks in the refrigerator until time to use.

For the black cacao pate choux:
1/4 cup water
2 tbsp unsalted butter
a pinch of salt
3 tbsp all-purpose flour
1 tbsp black cacao powder
1 egg

In a pot, bring water, butter, and salt to a boil. Once the butter is fully melted, add to that the flour and black cacao and stir until a shiny dough ball forms. Place the dough ball into a large bowl and allow it to cool slightly before stirring in an egg to form your pate choux batter. Transfer the batter into a piping bag. On a parchment or silpat-lined sheet tray, pipe the choux into 2-inch rounds, keeping them at least 2 inches apart. Place on top of each the craquelin rounds. Bake at 375 degrees F for 20 minutes first, then another 10 minutes at 350 degrees F. Allow the choux to fully cool before cutting them in half.

For the peanut butter cream:
2oz peanut butter
a pinch of salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
4oz heavy cream
1 tbsp confectioner’s sugar

In a bowl, start by creaming the peanut butter, salt, and vanilla together until the mixture becomes soft and spreadable. In another bowl, whip the heavy cream with sugar to stiff peaks. Add about a third of the heavy cream to the peanut butter and fold it in. Then fold in the remaining heavy cream. Transfer the cream to a piping bag and keep refrigerated until time to assemble.

For the chocolate ganache:
2oz dark chocolate chips
1oz heavy cream
a pinch of salt

In a pot, melt everything down on low heat until just melted together and smooth in consistency. Allow the ganache to cool to room temperature and transfer to a piping bag.

For assembly:
20 roasted peanuts, halved(so 40 halves in total, since you will need 5 per choux)

Start by piping the peanut butter cream into the bottoms of each choux bun. Pipe a small amount of the ganache over the cream, then arrange 5 peanut halves on top in the shape of a flower or a star. Then place the tops of each choux bun over the fillings to complete each bun.