Chocolate Spiders, Childhood Favourites

I’m not sure if anyone would know of these childhood favourites. I’ve had mixed reaction from people my age, some remember and some look at me like I’m crazy. “Sorry? A chocolate crackle thing made with peanut butter and fried noodles?” Um yes, that’s right.

I thought of these a little while ago when reading a post on Esurientes about peanut butter cups. I googled and googled, which was difficult since I couldn’t remember the name, only to find that the recipe is still on the back of the Chang’s Original Fried Noodles packet. There you go. So basically you melt 200 g cooking chocolate (milk or dark – I used a mix) with 2 tbsp peanut butter in the microwave. Once melted, stir in 1 packet Chang’s Original Fried Noodles and spoon mixture onto a baking tray or into individual paper patty pans.

I forgot that my perception of size has probably changed a bit over the last 15 years so I made them a little large. I served them as dessert when I held my HHDD Gnocchi dinner party. You might think it’s a strange dessert; more an after dinner treat really. However we were eating an early dinner and drinking red wine before heading down to the pub to watch the Swans play. I stated that we probably didn’t want chocolate whilst drinking red wine, but the punters were keen.

They were a bit of a success, in an ugly-as-a-picnic kind of way. A very easy way to satisfy your chocolate + peanut butter craving. If you really like your peanut butter you’d do well to up the content.
As I write this I’m thinking the reason not many people know of these is that they probably aren’t allowed in schools anymore due to peanut allergies. So whilst I’m marketing this as a childhood favourite I guess it’s really an adults-only snack now. Pretend you’re 10 years old again and enjoy.

If you do have peanut allergy sufferers in your household there are two other recipes from the Chang's packet: Fruit crunch and Oriental Fried Noodle Salad. I bet there's a few people out there who remember Oriental Fried Noodle Salad from summer Christmas buffets.