Gosh, I thought my readership would immediately act like empiricists and try it themselves. ;-) It's not like I was suggesting that one place pop-tarts in a toaster and jam the eject lever in the down position.
Okay, if you want to accept on authority what occurs when you microwave peanut butter, here's what happened.
I was hoping to make a peanut butter topping for my ice cream. I thought that if I mixed three tablespoons of peanut butter (organic) with an ounce of maple syrup (artificial, sugar-free) in a bowl and microwaved it for 30 seconds, I might get a hot, liquid-y topping.
Instead, the peanut butter mixture simply expanded slightly, like a marshmallow puffing up over a campfire. It did not liquefy at all; in fact the consistency was slightly stiffer than the pre-microwaved peanut butter. So I ended up putting chunks of hot, puffy peanut butter on my ice cream.
Please feel free to experiment by using different styles of peanut butter, either adulterated or not with other ingredients.
Okay, if you want to accept on authority what occurs when you microwave peanut butter, here's what happened.
I was hoping to make a peanut butter topping for my ice cream. I thought that if I mixed three tablespoons of peanut butter (organic) with an ounce of maple syrup (artificial, sugar-free) in a bowl and microwaved it for 30 seconds, I might get a hot, liquid-y topping.
Instead, the peanut butter mixture simply expanded slightly, like a marshmallow puffing up over a campfire. It did not liquefy at all; in fact the consistency was slightly stiffer than the pre-microwaved peanut butter. So I ended up putting chunks of hot, puffy peanut butter on my ice cream.
Please feel free to experiment by using different styles of peanut butter, either adulterated or not with other ingredients.
Comments
In my experiment, I used Jif peanut butter (smooth) and Mrs. Butter-worth's syrup (original). After mixing the ingredients, I covered the bowl with a paper towel because I certainly didn't want to clean up the mess just in case there was a peanut butter explosion in the microwave. After microwaving for the allotted 30 seconds, the mixture looked foamy and frothy. After stirring, it was hot and extra creamy but not liquid-y. Instead of an ice cream topping, it looked like some nice cake frosting.
Just in case you wanted to experiment further, you can get a nice thick liquid-y peanut butter topping if you mix peanut butter, butter, milk, and vanilla. I don't remember the amounts of the ingredients, though. Well actually, I don't even know it those are the correct ingredients. :-)
Btw, thanks for the good laugh with the Strawberry Pop-Tart Blow-Torches Experiment. Incidentally, I don't think I will try that one.
Good to know though.
And the pop-tart experiment just cracks me up. I can just picture Tom Green replicating that experiment with his off the wall humor.