cashew butter, dulce de leche, banana, and apricot jam on toasted whole wheat sourdough

There are only a few foods that I would say I honestly love, and have loved for as long as I can remember. As I age my palate becomes accustomed to a more diverse range of flavors leading me to seek out more interesting and complicated foods.

Leaving these childhood favorites to nostalgia, few foods are allowed to transition from childhood to adulthood, most notably: cereal, ants-on-a-log, and, of course, the peanut butter and jelly sandwich (Q: “What’s the difference between a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and a peanut butter and jam sandwich?”).

The peanut butter and jelly sandwich does not require an upgrade; it has a great crunch and mouthfeel, features the perfect mix of salty and sweet, and accommodates a huge variety of possible ingredients.

This endless roster of fillings, which can be substituted without straying from the original form, makes the peanut butter and jelly sandwich somewhat unique. One of my favorite ways to admire a sandwich is to cut it in half and look at the layers in cross-section. Peering into the slightly-pinched cross-section of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich exemplifies simplicity. While it is not very likely that the peanut butter and jelly sandwich will be replaced by peanut butter and jelly sandwich 2.0, if it were to happen, this would be the sandwich that would knock it off the pedestal.

In this sandwich, the peanut butter has been replaced by a simple and crunchy cashew butter, slightly modifying the roots of the sandwich. The cashew butter is adhered to the bread by a thin layer of dulce de leche, which enhances the richness of the sandwich and lends an unmistakable caramelized flavor. The jelly component is a rich apricot jam, topped with a layer of thinly-sliced ripe bananas. Moving away from the classic wonderbread envelope, a rustic sourdough bread adds a subtle fermented note and a worthy wrapper for the new cast of ingredients.

What you need:

• 2c. raw cashews
• 3-4t. canola oil
• Pinch sugar
• Pinch salt
• 1 small can of sweetened condensed milk
• 1 ripe banana
• Apricot jam
• Sourdough bread

The Process:

made some cashew butter by grinding up 2c. or so of raw cashews with 3-4tsp. of canola oil (a splash at first and then add until at the desired consistency), a pinch of sugar (to taste), and a pinch of salt (to taste). reduced some sweetened condensed milk into a medium-thick dulce de leche syrup/cream. smothered some iggy’s whole wheat sourdough with the dulce de leche, followed by the cashew butter, placed some sliced bananas on top, smeared the other side with a nice meaty organic apricot jam, and put it together. served with some nice honeydew melon.