Oversized Peanut Butter Cups
I find that when we’re cooking for friends, which is all of the time, we always make what we want.
We’ll usually inquire about dietary restrictions, but other than that, we create the meal around recipes that we feel like testing, ingredients that we love, etc. It’s not because we don’t want to take requests, because we do. It’s just that people are always like, “oh, you guys know better than I do.” Or, “you’re the ones with the food blog.” Yeah, so? Just say what you like!
It gave us great pleasure yesterday to cook for Alex’s wonderful friend from home, and not because he requested anything in particular, but because Alex knew he loved chocolate and peanut butter. It was amazing — instead of flipping through dessert recipes trying to decide between dishes as different as flan and strawberry mousse, we knew right where to go. We turned to the ultimate chocolate peanut butter combo: the peanut butter cup, via a recipe from Baking Bites.
The only problem was we didn’t have mini cupcake cups, so we had to make giant ones. This is the type of “problem” we love to encounter in the kitchen. So yes, these were huge and rich, but they were so delicious that we each managed to eat a entire cup (plus the “test” one that we all split earlier). We’d make these again in an instant, as they’re super easy to do, but look like they’ve been handcrafted by a professional confectioner. You can do mini versions if you like, but we say they’re amazing enough that the bigger, the better.
Ingredients:
3 cups dark chocolate chips
1 cup creamy peanut butter
1 cup confectioners’ sugar
generous pinch salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
14 muffin cups
Instructions:
Melt half of the dark chocolate by microwaving for 30 seconds then stirring until chocolate has melted. Use a spoon to pour a little chocolate into each muffin wrapper, and spread the chocolate up the sides of the wrapper. Freeze candy shells immediately until set. In a small bowl, whisk together peanut butter. confectioners’ sugar, salt and vanilla. If it is not soft, you can microwave it a bit. Add a generous amount of the filling into each prepared candy cup, and chill again until set. Melt all remaining chocolate and then cover peanut butter filling with chocolate, and chill a final time until set. Serve cold or at room temperature.
oh my, i had seen these on baking bites and resisted thus far, but now…
08 Sep 2008 at 11:41 pm
I’m a jerk and never looked at your site until today but I ate the last of the peanut butter cups on Sunday night (I shared with my roommates) and I missed them so I decided to check out the blog when I saw it on Alex’s facebook and… I LIKE! You guys should get it published as a book
10 Sep 2008 at 5:37 pm
yum!
11 Sep 2008 at 10:55 pm
So I make a similar version of this except it’s a pan full instead of individual servings so it’s a bit easier. http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Chocolate-Peanut-Butter-Bars-IV/Detail.aspx My vegan friend loved it (dark chocolate + smart balance substitution) and it ALWAYS go so quickly when I make it. Only tricky part is getting the chocolate to stick to the peanut butter part.
14 Sep 2008 at 1:23 pm
I just made these and they came out deeeelicious!!!! I did make two sort of silly stumbles in the process… first, for some reason I thought it would be OK to just put the chocolate-lined muffin papers on a flat tray before freezing, but they got v.v. lopsided and non-circular. When I took them out to put the peanut butter in, some of them did manage to unfreeze enough to become malleable again, but more of them look like Reese’s cast-offs. Second, the muffin papers I had seemed very gigantic, so I cut about 1/2 inch off of the top of them before lining them with chocolate. (This also did not occur to me until after the first batch went in the freezer. Oops!)
Thanks for posting this recipe!!! I think some friends of mine (not to mention my boss) will be quite pleased with the results, lopsided or no.
17 Sep 2008 at 3:03 am
oh yeah! lots of pb in there…love that you were not stingy in the least here. this is a keeper.
17 Sep 2008 at 5:39 pm
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12 Nov 2008 at 6:44 pm
[...] worked loosely from this recipe, but I picked up some smaller candy papers at NY Cake Supply, so no monster [...]
02 Dec 2008 at 11:33 pm
Oh they lok just right! I adore chocolate and peanut butter so these would be just perfect!
I have been very bad in the past and stood with a spoon and a car of chocolate spread and a jar of peanut butter and made these on the fly…
18 May 2009 at 2:53 pm
A friend & I just made this for a chocolate & peanut butter dessert competition – and won first place! We adapted your recipe just a bit, and blogged about it, too – with credit and gratitude to Two Fats Al: http://www.suburbansweetheart.com/2010/01/peanut-butter-chocolate-overload.html THANK YOU!
03 Jan 2010 at 10:36 pm
What is so special about Reese’s peanut butter cups? Is it the way it melts in your mouth without sticking to the roof of your mouth? Is it the sweetness and the saltiness combination that you taste? Is it the tiny little pieces of peanut that you feel in your mouth? Or is it all of the above?
buttercups cupcakes
19 Nov 2010 at 12:45 am
buttercups cupcakes
You really can be more creative than the standard sheet cake with a photo image of your grad. I have some ideas for you – quick, easy, and when-you-have-more-time. The trick is to have fun and keep it simple, the focus is on the graduate!
buttercups cupcakes
25 Nov 2010 at 12:00 pm