In the past couple of weeks, I’ve made a couple of recipes that were finished off with a creamy peanut butter frosting. The other day, I was surprised to see a new type of peanut butter frosting in the baking aisle at my local market: Jif Peanut Butter Frosting. I like both peanut butter and frosting, so I took a container home to see how it stacked up to homemade.
The frosting has a texture that is similar to other whipped frostings or whipped cream cheese, so it is light and easy to spread at room temperature. The frosting has a nice peanut butter aroma, though it is a much milder aroma than straight peanut butter. It has a pleasant peanut butter flavor and is sweet without being cloying when you taste it. I liked the consistency and thought it was easy to work with, but felt that it could have been improved by amping up the flavors a bit more with an extra bit of sugar or pinch of salt.
The container looks smaller than a standard packaged icing container, that’s because it is. Each one – they come in Peanut Butter and Chocolate Peanut Butter – is just 11 oz. I felt that this was only enough to frost 8 or 9 cupcakes, depending on how generously you frost them. That said, the directions on the packaging made me think that this was intended as a dip for both sweet and savory things – such as veggies, cookies and other treats – instead of just as a frosting. In the end, even though I prefer my homemade frosting (which I also typically use Jif in, by the way), it’s pretty good and a great option if you need a quick fix for a small batch of cupcakes – or just want to eat some with a spoon.
What do you think?