Sunday, February 3, 2008

Homemade Peanut Butter Cups

Didn't think anything could taste better than a Reeses? Hell, yes it can.

I promised my chocolate and peanut butter fiend Evan that I would make him homemade peanut butter cups this weekend. He is almost as much of a chocoholic as I am, although I don’t love peanut butter as much as he does.

Homemade Peanut Butter Cups
1 cup creamy peanut butter, divided
4 ½ teaspoons of butter, softened
½ cup confectioner’s sugar
2 cups (12 ounces) semi-sweet chocolate chips
4 milk chocolate candy bars (1.55 ounces each) I used Hershey bars
1 pinch salt
Mini paper muffin cups

In a small bowl combine ½ cup peanut butter, confectioners’ sugar and salt. Mix by hand until smooth. Set aside.

In a microwave safe bowl, melt the chocolate chips, candy bars (break t
he bar into little pieces) and the remaining ½ cup of peanut butter. I checked the chocolate mixture at about 1 ½ minutes on full power, gave it a good stir and put it back in for another 30 seconds.

This is the method I
used for filling the cups. Get out a big baking sheet, have all the paper cups on the sheet ready to be filled. I used a small ladle to drop a little less than a teaspoon full of the chocolate into the bottom of the paper cups. Top each cup with about a half a teaspoon of the peanut butter mixture, then top with more chocolate. I went back and took the back of a teaspoon and gently pushed the top layer of chocolate down a little and made a little swirl on top. Totally not necessary, but just one of those little things that I do. At this point you can also add some sprinkles on top. I made a few with red, white & blue stars on them in honor of the Patriots.

Refrigerate until firm, store in a covered container.

1 comment:

Dana @ Cooking At Cafe D said...

Woohoo!
Those - look - spectacular!
I love the shot that shows it sliced down the middle showing the PB goodness. I make PB bars that...well, I hear they're pretty good. ;) Now, I'm soo gonna have to try yours! Adding it to the list of things to make. My list is growing.
D.