Homemade Peanut Butter Cups

Chocolate and peanut butter are one of the greatest pairings ever. Nothing beats the sweet and salty combo and the perfection of the two when combined. Peanut butter cups are pretty much the holy grail of the pairing, the duo at it's best and one of my favorite desserts. One of the downsides this treat is it often has ingredients that are not the best for you, hydrogenated oil, high fructose corn syrup are all things we should eliminate from our diet, but I'll tell you, it's still hard to stay away from these things despite the doctor's warnings.

So what's a girl to do but make them herself? I have been contemplating this idea for some time but couldn't quite figure out how to make them and then I found a solution online that made perfect sense. Make them in cupcake liners! How genius is that? It's the perfect size, you get the classic ridged edges and it makes clean up a breeze.

Can you just taste them now? They're so easy you can practically make them in your sleep.



Homemade Peanut Butter Cups
Yield: 25 cups
Prep Time: 30 minutes     I     Freeze Time: 15 minutes

Ingredients

• 1 cup peanut butter
• 3/4 cup confectioners sugar
• 1 tbs softened butter
• 1 tsp salt
• 3 tbs sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 3 cups chocolate chips

Now let me start by saying the peanut butter portion of this recipe makes enough for 50 peanut butter cups, however I used less chocolate and made 25 cups and put aside half of the peanut butter to use for another recipe I will be posting this week, (chocolate peanut butter swirl ice cream!). 

Start by combining the peanut butter, confectioners sugar, butter, salt, vanilla and regular sugar in a stand mixer or a regular bowl. Beat the ingredients together until well blended. Set the mixture aside and start on the chocolate.

Prepare the cupcake liners by placing them on a baking sheet and greasing them with cooking spray.

Next in either a double boiler or a microwave safe bowl melt 2 cups of chocolate until smooth and shiny. If the chocolate is not melting nicely you can add a little bit of canola oil, milk or cream to smooth it out. Spoon chocolate into the cupcake liners until you have filled all of the liners and used all of the chocolate. 

Then take a small spoonful of the peanut butter mixture and roll into a ball. Flatten the ball and press it into the chocolate. You can put as much or as little as you'd like depending on what you want the chocolate to peanut butter ratio to be.

Melt the rest of the chocolate to the top of the cups. 

When all of the cups have peanut butter in them take another spoonful of chocolate and cover the top. You don't need as much chocolate for the top as you put in the bottom. I put a dollop of chocolate on top and then  shook the cup a little to spread the chocolate out. Repeat until you have topped all of the cups, I also put a few rainbow sprinkles on top for some color, but that's purely up to you!

I let the chocolate rest at room temperature for about 20 minutes and then popped them in the freezer for about 10-15 minutes. Then all you need to do is peel back the wrapper and enjoy!