What If (film)
“I found this website where they explain what Fools Gold is. You take a loaf of Italian white bread, you coat it in butter and bake it. Then you hollow out the inside and coat it with an entire jar of peanut butter and an entire jar of jam then you stuff it with a pound of crispy bacon. The website says it serves 8-10 people or one Elvis” ~ Wallace (typing to Chantry)
When I attended BlogHerFood this past november I happened to breakfast with a fabulous woman named Jen. We bonded over our mutual love of peanut butter. Turns out she works for my all time favorite brand – Peanut Butter & Co. And when I say favorite I mean my family and I are slightly obsessed. We have no less than four different flavors of peanut butter & co. peanut butter, in our pantry, at any given time. My husband and son love Smooth Operator, my daughter is more of a Dark Chocolate Dreams girl and I can eat the Cinnamon Raisin Swirl straight out of the jar. Plus there’s usually a jar of White Chocolate Wonderful or the Bee’s Knees, for variety.
When I told Jen about my blog she mentioned that Smooth Operator had a little cameo in a delightful RomCom called What If, starring Daniel Radcliffe. What?! My favorite peanut butter AND Harry Potter in a Romantic comedy? Count me in!
Daniel Radcliffe stars as Wallace, a medical school drop out who’s broken heart leads him to want nothing more than a platonic relationship with Chantry (played by Zoe Kazan). Which totes works out for Chantry as she already has a beau. Their friendship starts over coffee and conversations regarding something called the Fools Gold Sandwich, which then turns to deeper feelings and miscommunications, etc. The film released in 2014 to less than rave results but I loved it. I admit I might be a little biased because Romantic Comedies are my jam, and there have been few good ones lately, but this was really adorable. Daniel was so charming that he actually had me crushing on him in a non-Harry Potter way. It was sweet and a little cheesy and it made me laugh out loud. Plus it had a bacon PB&J as a main character. Perfection.
Ok, I’ll be honest, when I initially heard the sandwich desription I thought “ICK, who puts bacon on a PB&J, why do they want to ruin my delicious peanut butter”? Then I realized the person who created this was actually some kind of genius. Creamy peanut butter, sweet jam, and crispy bacon. The bacon really takes a standard PB&J to the next level. It adds an unexpected salty crunch, like pretzels in a chocolate chip cookie. It was quite a perfect combination, just like Wallace & Chantry in What If. (see how I tied it all together.)
Fools Gold Sandwich
Makes 2 sandwiches
Ingredients:
2 mini Italian Bread Loaves
1 cup of Smooth Operator Peanut Butter (or PB of your choosing)
1 cup of jam, I used natural strawberry
8 slices of bacon
2 tbsp butter
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 375
- In a large frying pan set over medium-high heat, fry bacon, turning once, until crispy. Remove from heat and set bacon on paper towels to drain
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Coat each loaf of bread with 1 tbsp of butter and bake for 15 minutes.
- Allow bread to cool completely
- Slice loaves in half, lengthways, and scoop out the bread
- On one half of each loaf spread 1/2 cup of peanut butter, and top with 4 slices of bacon. On the other half of each bread loaf spread 1/2 cup of jam.
Assemble the sandwich by placing the jam side on top of the bacon and enjoy.
- 2 mini loaves of Italian bread
- 2 tbsp butter
- 1 cup Smooth Operator Peanut Butter (or PB of your choice)
- 1 cup jam (I used strawberry)
- 8 slices of bacon
- Preheat oven to 375
- In a large frying pan set over medium-high heat, fry bacon, turning once, until crispy. Remove from heat and set bacon on paper towels to drain
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Coat each loaf of bread with 1 tbsp of butter and bake for 15 minutes.
- Allow bread to cool completely
- Slice loaves in half, lengthways, and scoop out the bread
- On one half of each loaf spread 1/2 cup of peanut butter, and top with 4 slices of bacon. On the other half of each bread loaf spread 1/2 cup of jam. Place the jam side on top of the bacon and enjoy.
