National Peanut Butter Day: 5 NYC Eateries Serving Up Delicious Treats
By Jessica Allen
Oh, peanut butter. What can't you do? You get along famously with chocolate and bananas, but have an excellent relationship with strawberries and marshmallow fluff too. You can be swirled and frosted, melted and poured, crumbled and devoured. The treats and desserts listed below do wonders with peanut butter. Try one, or all, for National Peanut Butter Day on January 24.
More: Best Bakeries In NYC | Best Gluten-Free Desserts In NYC
Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip Cookie
Levain Bakery
167 West 74th Street
New York, NY 10023
(212) 874-6080
The cookies at Levain are precisely calibrated to blow your mind. No kidding! Each one weighs approximately six ounces, which doesn't sound like much until you hold a dense, delicious orb in your hand. The dark chocolate peanut butter chip cookie is liberally studded with the aforementioned chips, so every bit brings an ideal combination of dark chocolate cookie and peanut butter chip -- a little sweet and a little savory. The original location on the Upper West Side almost always has a line—join it, and prepare to be amazed.
The Elvis
Brooklyn Farmacy & Soda Fountain
513 Henry Street
Brooklyn, NY 11231
(718) 522-6260
If you haven't been to Brooklyn Farmacy, then you're in for a treat (no pun intended.) Housed in a 1920s-era apothecary store, this restaurant updates the old-school soda fountain. Have a seat at the counter, nod to the soda jerk (hey, that's what they're called!) and order up The Elvis, a sundae made with peanut butter, vanilla ice cream, bananas, warm caramel, and candied bacon bits. The coup de grâce? It's served with a pickle. Anywho, if that doesn't float your boat, opt for a peanut butter cup sundae, including coffee ice cream, whipped cream and hot fudge, or a peanut butter milkshake.
Fluffanutter Crepe
Sugar and Plumm
377 Amsterdam Avenue
New York, NY 10024
(212) 787-8778
More: Best Ice Cream Shops In NYC
The fluffanutter crepe: marshmallow crème, peanut butter swirl ice cream, crushed peanuts, and peanut butter, warmed to perfection. We'll take 10, please. Other PB delights at this Upper West Side treat palace include a PB&J sundae, with vanilla cake bites and strawberry compote, or you can make your own sundae. Start with a base of the aforementioned peanut butter swirl ice cream, then add a peanut butter sauce and peanut butter pretzels. You might get a cavity just by walking in the door, but this place will take you straight back to your childhood, when everything was sugary and sweet.
Peanut Butter and Blackberry Jam Doughnut
Doughnut Plant
379 Grand Street
New York, NY 10002
(212) 505-3700
More: Most Unique Doughnuts In NYC
The peanut butter and blackberry jam doughnut at the Doughnut Plant is a PB&J in doughnut form. This bakery invented square doughnuts, a shape that allows the filling to permeate just about every bite. Die-hard peanut butter fans will want to order a peanut butter and banana cream one too. Doughnuts are made fresh daily, as are the jams and fillings.
Peanut Butter Chocolate Pie
Billy's Bakery
184 Ninth Avenue
New York, NY 10011
(212) 647-9406
The peanut butter chocolate pie at Billy's Bakery is, quite simply, a little slice of heaven. It's moist and ethereal, the peanut butter whipped to a froth, poured into a graham cracker crust, swirled with chocolate, and sprinkled with nubbins of peanut butter cups as well as crushed peanuts. We're also pretty crazy about the chocolate peanut butter bars -- a maximum version of a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup.
The Ron Bennington Cupcake
Molly's Cupcakes
228 Bleecker Street
New York, NY 10014
(212) 414-2253
The Ron Bennington at Molly's Cupcakes is one of the Soho bakery's "center-filled" cupcakes: this one features chocolate cake, peanut butter filling, chocolate ganache, and crushed butterscotch topping. The peanut butter Nutella, as the name suggests, fills a peanut butter cake with Nutella filling, then covers the whole thing with Nutella buttercream frosting and a light sprinkling of cocoa. Both are excellent, whether or not you're celebrating National Peanut Butter Day. And, in more joyous news, both can be made into cakes. Yes and yes and yes!
Jessica Allen is a New York-based writer.
