In this installment

Peanut Butter Dark Chocolate Clusters

Zzang! Candy Bar

Chocolate Olive Oil Lollipops

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Peanut Butter Dark Chocolate Clusters from Grand Rapids

The nut mavens at Koeze in Grand Rapids, Michigan, start with their Cream-Nut peanut butter, made from slow-roasted, super flavorful Virginia peanuts. Then they blend that peanut butter with a bit of white chocolate, toss it with a ton of chopped pecans, form it into fat little clusters, and cover the clusters in really good dark chocolate. The result is supremely nutty, dense, rich, creamy with just a bit of crunch—the ultimate peanut butter cup.

Zzang! Candy Bar from Ann Arbor

We make great, old-fashioned American candy bars almost entirely by hand. They’re not the serious kind of sweet you nibble with your eyes closed, hushed, your tasting notes near at hand. They’re the kind where you chew great chunks off—fun, fantastic candy, made with all-natural ingredients, without cutting a single corner. For this bar, we start with honey nougat made with natural peanut butter, roll it up in silky caramel made from organic muscovado brown sugar, then add peanuts and cover the whole in dark chocolate.

Chocolate Olive Oil Lollipops from Plymouth

Adina St. John creates small batch confections out of The Blu Kitchen about 20 minutes down the road from us here in Ann Arbor, Michigan. For these lollipops, she mixes cocoa powder with locally roasted organic coffee to deepen the chocolate flavor, plus a pinch of sea salt for balance. The real secret ingredient is Zingerman’s Peranzana extra virgin olive oil, which adds a rich, silky texture. The result tastes like a decadent brownie in candy form, and is truly a handheld delight worth savoring.