We thought peanut butter playdough would be a great sensory activity to try at home with Nolan, particularly since peanut butter is one of his basic food groups. It could hardly be easier to make with just a few ingredients to stir together, but every recipe out there either called for nonfat milk powder or powdered sugar or both for bulk, making it more like peanut butter fondant than anything. I opted to employ the absorptive powers of coconut flour instead, to add body, protein and fiber to the playdough instead of extra sugar, corn starch, or oxidized cholesterol. It worked out very nicely, I think, although the Maranatha peanut butter I used was pretty oily. Nolan had fun squishing the playdough between his fingers, destroying every object I tried to make with it, and sampling a few choice bites also.

Once we had our fill of playing with the dough, I used the rest to make homemade peanut butter cups. Silicone muffin cups create the traditional shape; I just melted bittersweet chocolate chips in the microwave with splashes of coconut oil and honey, dolloped some in the bottom of the molds, squished a peanut butter playdough patty on top until chocolate squeeze up around the edges, and topped it with a little more chocolate.

After a night in the cold garage, our peanut butter cups came out of the molds looking just like the real deal and tasting even better! We’ve been purchasing Justin’s dark chocolate peanut butter cups lately, but the filling in them is too dry and crumbly for my taste. These have the perfect amount of chewy softness inside, and aren’t overly sweet like Reeses. If Nolan were more interested in this sort of activity, I would have had him help me form the peanut butter patties and spoon chocolate into the molds in addition to being my #1 taste-tester. 🙂

My mom made up baggies of easy chocolate candies for certain family members and friends, including one of our precious peanut butter cups in each. What you see here is mostly dark chocolate peanut clusters, just melted bittersweet chips mixed with roasted (unsalted) peanuts and dished out with my cookie scoop onto a silicone mat. Both of these are quick to make and so delicious that I am hoping my parents won’t buy cheap grocery store candy anymore! I am thinking of experimenting with other nut and seed butters, so that Nolan can bring them to school for snacks, and maybe hide his digestive enzyme in a few as well.

Peanut Better Playdough

1 C creamy peanut butter
1/2 C raw honey
About 6 T coconut flour

Stir together the peanut butter and honey, adding coconut flour by the tablespoon until the texture is stiff enough for your purposes… ta da!