Everyone has their market guilty pleasures — that one item that, even after sticking closely to your shopping list and stocking up on produce, you just have to swing by and sample. For me, it’s Ray Road Nut Butter. Every time Kate and Micah Pyle come out with a new decadent nut butter combination, I feel myself being pulled toward their booth.

That very thing happened a few Wednesdays back. I was walking through the evening market and decided it was time to taste their new pistachio nut butter. One bite of the delicious creation — and the realization that I wouldn’t have to spend hours peeling pistachios to enjoy their unique flavor — sealed the deal. I knew I’d be taking a jar home.

If you’ve ever purchased Ray Road Nut Butter, you know it’s meant to be savored. This isn’t something you toss in a smoothie for extra protein — it’s more of a “maybe I’ll just eat it off the spoon” kind of situation. With that in mind, I wanted to find a special way to use my newly acquired pistachio nut butter.

A quick scan of the fridge led me to a container full of Colorado cherries. In-season fruit is a treat on its own, but it’s always fun to find new ways to savor seasonal flavors. That moment of inspiration led me to create white chocolate-covered, pistachio nut butter-filled cherries.

Recipe: Chocolate-Covered Pistachio Cherries

Ingredients:

Ray Road Pistachio Nut Butter

Colorado Sweet Cherries

White Chocolate

Instructions:

Rinse the cherries and slice each one in half around the pit. Remove the stems and pits from all halves. Place a small amount of pistachio nut butter on one cherry half (use more for a stronger flavor, but note it may be messier). Top with the matching half to form a cherry “sandwich” with the nut butter inside.

Place the stuffed cherries on a parchment-lined baking sheet and freeze for 20 minutes. Melt white chocolate in the microwave, stirring frequently to prevent burning. Remove cherries from the freezer and dip each one into the melted chocolate. Return them to the parchment-lined sheet.

Freeze the chocolate-coated cherries for another 20 minutes. Transfer the finished cherries to an airtight container and store them in the fridge. Enjoy chilled!

Be sure to visit the markets this Wednesday or Saturday to stock up for your holiday barbecues: get locally grazed beef or bison, tomatoes, cucumbers, pickles, hummus and more. Then steal the show by bringing chocolate covered pistachio cherries for dessert!