Peanut Butter: The Versatile Sandwich Topping

I think my sandwich-making experiments started when I was about 5 or 6 years old. I made my mom a peanut-butter-and-pickle sandwich. I have no idea why I thought this would be a good idea. But I brought it to her fresh from the kitchen, all proud to have made a sandwich by myself. I watched her as she took a bite. One bite. And then she gave me her honest opinion of my efforts, as gently as possible so as not to break my little heart or turn me from the sandwich-making talents which she doubtlessly recognized right then and there. Yes, my mother knew at that moment that she shared her household with a sandwich artist. And hey, as with drawing, making a sandwich of your own design may not yield perfection the first few times. My mom knew this, and that is why she said, "Well, I like peanut butter, and I like pickles, but I don't like them both together," giving me a small dose of positive criticism.

I also remember that day as the day I realized for the first time that some toppings simply don't go together. And for the record, I tried the sandwich myself, and decided there was wisdom in my mother's words.

Nevertheless, I do think of PB as THE versatile sandwich topping because it can go with so many different things. I will explore a select few. Have you ever tried peanut butter with honey, instead of jelly or jam? It's a much sweeter sandwich than PBJ, sweet and salty. The flavor of honey doesn't cover the taste of the peanut butter quite as much as does jelly or jam. I hear adding bananas to the mix also tastes good, but I have yet to try that myself. When I do, rest assured I will document the experience. What I HAVE tried is peanut butter and banana. Now THAT is a good sandwich! I usually have mine either cold or with toasted bread, not grilled, because the melted PB&Banana combination is just too messy for me, even though it tastes great. I have a thing about messy sandwiches; they bug me.

Another good sandwich is peanut butter and thinly-sliced apple. It adds a nice, sweet crunch to the sandwich. I have not yet tried this toasted, just cold, but I imagine toasted would be really good because it would add some really strong crunch to your crisp apple slices. Peanut butter and apple butter is also really good; it's like PBJ, with apple butter in place of jam/jelly.

Peanut butter and sour cream is also great as a sandwich. Of course, to enjoy that, you might need to have a very developed taste for sour cream. In fact, you might have to already LOVE sour cream, on anything. But it's another favorite of mine. Salty, tangy, a little sour, and very creamy in texture.

Let's talk breading for a moment. PBJ is great as a tortilla-wrap. The tortilla, of course, is very thin, so the PBJ flavor is quite prominent and very flavorful, especially the jam. It's much more noticeable than it is on regular bread, so you may want to use jam less if you aren't as fond of jam as you are of peanut butter. PB&Honey also tastes great as a tortilla wrap; again, much more prominent flavors, and much sweeter with the honey in place of jam. A couple other great breading ideas are English muffins, and pita bread.

One last note: I never use crunchy peanut butter, ever. I just don't like it. So I have NO idea whether or not any of the above combos would work with crunchy. I'll leave that to your discretion. Sample with caution.