Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Peanut Butter Cups!





My friend, David (no, no that's not a photo of a young Paul Newman, that's David!), is returning to America after 3 months of being on a navy ship. He was there to teach philosophy and he'll be going back in just a couple more weeks. I think when you're homesick you miss your family of course but also you really miss food. I'm sure David is craving good Mexican food, a fat juicy burger with a cold beer, and a cheese laden pizza. I know I'm craving all of these things and I haven't left American soil in about 5 years now.
A couple years ago, I made a recipe for peanut butter bars that were supposed to taste just like Reese's peanut butter cups. David was one of my roommates at the time and he loved them- they DID taste a lot like Reese's. He mentioned putting them into cup form. So when I found out David would be back on Tuesday, I knew what I had to do.

First, melt a couple cups of milk chocolate chips (or white or dark chocolate if you prefer that). And spread the chocolate into little paper cups stuck in a mini muffin tin.



I used the back of a spoon and that was easy enough. I was able to make all the chocolate cups without the chocolate hardening up on me. After I made the cups, I froze them. While, they were in the freezer, I mixed

1 c. peanut butter
1 and 1/2 cups of powdered sugar (give or TAKE, maybe closer to 2 cups)
1/2 cup graham cracker crumbs
1/4 tsp. salt

I used my hands to knead everything together like dough because the crumbs tend to hang out by themselves and you want them well mixed in so you have that Reese's peanut butter consistency.



I made this into 24 little balls. It made more than 24 but since I'm planning on making more of these, I just chilled the leftover PB mix. At that point, the chocolate cups in the freezer were set, so I took the muffin tin out and popped the PB balls into the chocolate cups. I pushed them down with the back of a spoon.


I tossed the mini muffin tin back in the freezer. Then it was time to melt some more chocolate!! Couple more cups worth. Melting chocolate in the microwave is a cinch. Just do 30 second increments and stir between each. Once it was ready, I took the cups out and spooned melted chocolate onto each cup.


Then smoothed it out.


Work it!

After that, chill 'em again. Chillin' like a villain. And they're done. Store in the fridge in an airtight container.


A perfect reminder of home!

3 comments:

  1. These look amazing and easy enough to make. What's better then chocolate and peanut butter?

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  2. Wow! Amity, these look really good. You make them look do-able (fairly easy) to make! Great process writing and photos :-)
    Aunt Cindy

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  3. Wow!These look amazing- thank you for sharing :)

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