These peanut butter cups are really good. I won’t say they’re better than Reese’s, rather, they’re differently delicious. One thing about them is the chocolate parts can be hard, particularly if you refrigerate them. A way to get around this is to use a chocolate ganache instead of melted chocolate. That said, I’m unsure how hard the ganache would set after it cools.
To avoid the hard chocolate, you could make the chocolate layers thinner, or just don’t refrigerate them. Even with the hard-chocolate version, these are delicious and really easy to make.
There are a ton of recipes for this on the web, and they’re mostly similar. My recipe is the adaptation of a few different ones I found on the web.
Try not to eat them all at once!
What you’ll need:
- 1 lb semisweet chocolate chips—I feel like milk chocolate would be good, too. It may even work with white chocolate.
- 0.5 cups peanut butter—most recipes I saw call for creamy. Because you’re whipping it with the powdered sugar, chunky may not work.
- 6T powdered sugar
- 1 or 2T softened butter
- 12 paper baking cups
- Muffin pan for 12 large muffins
What to do:
Line the muffin pan cups with the paper liners.
You’ll be melting the chocolate in two batches—one, each, for the bottoms and tops. Each batch will be made with the same process: melt the chocolate in a double boiler.
When the chocolate has reached a pourable state, evenly distribute it in the bottoms of the baking cups. Now is the time to work quickly. It’s a little hard to determine how much to pour into each cup, but it’s pretty easy to get the hang of it. Just barely fill the bottom. If the chocolate does not lie even gently drop the pan on the counter or very quickly vibrate it from side to side until the chocolate evens out. When you’re done, place it level in the refrigerator or freezer until completely re-solidified.
While the first batch of chocolate is cooling in the cups, prepare the peanut butter part. With a hand mixer, beat the peanut butter, butter and powdered sugar until well mixed and whipped up.
When the bottom chocolate is chilled and solidified, add enough peanut butter to cover the chocolate in each cup. Use the photo as a guide for about how thick to make this layer. Do the same dropping/vibrating trick to even out and level the peanut butter. Refrigerate or freeze for about 30 minutes.
Now melt the second batch of chocolate and prepare to add it to the top of the peanut butter. The peanut butter will be cold enough to actually start solidifying the chocolate really quickly, so even out and level the chocolate in each cup immediately after spooning it in.
Remember: room temperature = tender, and cold = more firm.
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