Normally when I bake there’s an occasion — a birthday, a holiday, or a dinner party. But sometimes I just get the urge to make something delicious for no occasion whatsoever. I think I was kind of in baking denial after all the treats I made over break, so I took some time last night to put together a simple recipe just because.
My aunt gave me this cute silicone baking tray for Christmas that I was really excited to use, and we all know how I feel about the combination of peanut butter and chocolate, so baking homemade peanut butter cups just made sense. It can’t even really be considered baking since there’s no oven involved at all — just some melting and mixing!
You see all those holes on the sides of the cups? I think that’s because I didn’t pay attention to making sure the chocolate I poured on top dripped completely down the sides of the peanut butter filling to meet up with the bottom layer. I figured the chocolate would just do its thing and fill in all the gaps, oops! No tragedy here though, there shouldn’t be any trouble pawning these off on my friends. And just in case you’re not salivating enough:
I did some research on what would make the most authentic Reese’s peanut butter filling, and I ended up tampering with the recipe quite a bit as I was baking. I’ll do my best to report to you what I ended up using (because it was darn good) but I’m going to have to force you to try your peanut butter filling as you go to test and make sure it’s perfect!
Homemade Peanut Butter Cups
6 tbsp peanut butter
3 tbsp butter
1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup graham cracker crumbs
2 cups semi sweet chocolate chips
2 cups milk chocolate chips
– Mix 1 cup semi-sweet and 1 cup milk chocolate chips in a microwavable bowl and melt in the microwave using 30 second intervals
– Grease pan generously with shortening (you can use the daisy pan I used or cupcake liners to get that crinkled effect around the edges)
– Fill cavities up 1/3 of the way with the melted chocolate and place in freezer to chill for about 5 minutes
– Prepare peanut butter filling by first melting peanut butter and butter together for about 20 seconds in the microwave
– Mix melted peanut butter and butter with sugar and graham cracker crumbs. I had left my mixer at home so I just used my hands for this part (if the filling ends up being too crumbly, try adding more melted butter and peanut butter)
– Remove pan from freezer and spoon peanut butter mixture onto each chocolate layer, making sure not to fill it up to the edges so that your top layer of chocolate can drip down and form the sides
– Mix and melt remaining chocolate chips and pour over the peanut butter so that it fills in the gaps on the sides and is even on top
– Refrigerate for about 30 minutes before serving/gorging
I really played around with this recipe, and ended up halving it in the end — so just have fun with the ingredients and see if you can recreate the perfect Reese’s! Let me know if you have suggestions for my recipe :)
ahhhh omgosh that looks absolutely amazing. peanut butter and chocolate combo=the best, I’m about to barge in your condo to steal some
those are precious! what a great present from your aunt! “Fill cavities up 1/3 of the way…” — the dental student in me just smiled and thought hmm, amalgam or composite :)
Great idea to make, I can give you an idea on how to avoid the holes on the sides. Just pour the chocolate in the middle of the mould, that way you fill it all the way up. Then you smash it easily (no good with silicone now) on the counter to get read of the wholes. Hope this is any help for you.
Thanks for a nice blogg, mine is in Swedish but you might enjoy the pictures.
Can I give you my address, so you mail me one. They look fantastic! Who cares about holes? I wouldn’t slow down enough to notice.
these look absolutely amazing. i love chocolate and peanut butter together. next time I have to bring treats to work, I’m definitely making these – they sound incredible!
I am going to be trying these!
Erica…you’re a genius and my best friend for sharing this recipe! Definitely going to try these.
I love the graham crackers in there! Incredible creation!!!
Thanks for sharing the recipe! I made these last night with a friend of mine and I have just one complaint. The peanut butter filling was a bit too crumbly and it was hard to shape it just right. Though, the flavor was phenomenal! Maybe less graham cracker crumbs? I don’t know but they are still killer!
Eva – I had similar problems when I was first making the recipe and I probably ended up using more butter/peanut butter than what I reported in the recipe. I added a note in the instructions to melt more butter and peanut butter and add it if the mixture’s too crumbly. Thanks for your feedback!
These look amazing. Thanks for sharing the recipe.
Fantastic treat!
I just made a similar recipe (http://www.muffintinmania.com/2010/08/peanut-butter-chocolate-cups.html) but will have to try the graham crumbs next time.
First time to your blog. Everything looks amazing! Never realized these were made with graham cracker crumbs. Yum!
AHHHH that is awesome! LOOK at all that chocolate!
These were DELICIOUS!!!!!!! Especially the filling…yum!
They look amazing!!
I made my own version of this last week, but I added flax seed and reduced the graham crackers to improve the healthiness quotient. I also used olive oil instead of butter, but coconut oil can easily be swapped in.
Peanut butter and chocolate are so very delicious! What worked for me for the filling texture was an additional 2 TBSP each of peanut butter and butter. It was really, really sweet so I added a little salt too.