My Grandpa loved desserts. And mashed potatoes and gravy… (But we’ll save the taters and gravy for another day)

So, since I was in the mood for chocolate – and grieving the loss of my beloved Grandpa, yet wanting to celebrate his Home-going – I decided to make my peanut clusters.

(Sorry, we’re about to leave on another book tour, and my good camera is packed, so these are from the iPhone. But hopefully, you get the idea…)

These are extremely simple to make. In fact, the invention came by throwing things in the crock-pot. Yep, you read that right – I made these in the crock-pot. (I only have 15 crock-pots, so I could theoretically make 15 batches at one time. Not that I’m going to… but I could.)

I’ll quit babbling now and share my recipe:

PEANUT CLUSTERS

by: Kimberley Woodhouse

2.5 lbs large roasted/salted peanuts

1 package (20 ounces) chocolate candy coating (almond bark)

2 (12 ounce) bags Reeses peanut butter chips

1 giant-size  (7 ounces) Hershey chocolate bar

1 (12 ounce) bag semi-sweet chocolate chips

2 heaping-ginormous spoonfuls of Peanut Butter (I use Jif) (Save this for the end!)

Dump the peanuts in the crock-pot, then cover with all the chocolate and peanut butter chips, breaking up the bar and almond bark into their squares. Set your crock pot on low or warm (whichever is your lowest setting.) Let it all sit in there and melt (don’t give in to the temptation to stir it!) for about 2 hours. (It might take a little longer on warm.) Get yourself a heavy-duty wooden spoon, and start stirring. It should all be melted and go together smoothly. Next, add the Peanut Butter (Kayla thinks you can never add enough) and then stir until incorporated. Remove from the heat and prepare wax paper or parchment paper sheets. This makes a lot, so be prepared with at least 4 cookie sheet sized pieces. Spoon the yummy-chocolately-peanuty goodness onto the paper. Now – you can definitely do any size or shape you want – but be forewarned: the larger you make them, the longer they take to set up, hence, the longer you have to wait before you can eat them.

Let them harden for a couple hours and then store in an air-tight container – that is, if your teenagers haven’t eaten them all.

Enjoy!