peanut butter cups of love

From: Co-Worker
Sent: Monday, February 14, 2011 11:36 AM
To: Dori
Subject: OMG!
Importance: High

Seriously, one of the best desserts I’ve eaten in a long time (and I eat A LOT of desserts)!!  So crazy yummy.  You did an awesome job and thanks for sharing.  I’m in heaven. :- )

 My dear friend Tyler posted a recipe for peanut butter cups on Facebook last week. She is an awesome Vegan cook. (Her Vegan cruelty free blog is here at Vegan Show and Tell). James loves peanut butter cups so I thought it would be nice to make him some for Valentine's Day.

If you've ever watched me cook, I will have a recipe in front of me for inspiration alone. I never end up following along as I am supposed to and it is hard for me to explain what I did after the fact. Sometimes my cooking instincts are dead on and sometimes, I will continue several different techniques to get a recipe right. For example, I have tried to make bread pudding twice now and it is still not turning out the way I would want it to. I will continue to keep trying to make this until I master a recipe and then I will probably never make it again. (see: cranberry cinnamon rolls of 2008).

The peanut butter cup recipe that inspired me is here for the recipe purists in the crowd. Looking at this recipe, I immediately tried to think of ways to make it better. If you've ever "made" peanut butter out of one of those machines at Whole Foods, you would know that the texture and consistency does not require the addition of graham crackers.  Also, I wanted to cut down on the amount of sugar in this recipe. By using honey roasted peanut butter, I would get a lot of sweetness with out additional sugar. Last but not least, to pull this off, I would need a good food safe brush.

I found a good food safe brush at Sur La Table for under $10. While I was there, I picked up a mini cup cake pan (only $30!!) and mini cupcake wrappers. James was with me and explained why the steel coated with aluminum is a good pan for baking but I hardly listened as visions of peanut butter cups danced in my head.

Peanut Butter Cups 
(all measurements are approximate)

3 c. chocolate
1 c. fresh honey roasted peanut butter
1/4 c. powdered sugar
pinch of sea salt

I used some organic semi-sweet chocolate chips but if you use bar chocolate, chop it up for even melting.

Create a double boiler by putting a glass bowl that fits nicely over a sauce pot that has about 1" of water in it.. Be sure that the water does not touch the bowl when the bowl is in place. Glass conducts heat (thank you high school chemistry!) so it will melt nicely just as long as you make sure the water doesn't touch the bottom of the bowl and the bowl traps the steam from escaping. If either of those things happen, you ruin the chocolate as it will over cook and turn into this disgusting grainy mess.

Heat your home made double boiler on med-high heat and stir the chocolate until fully melted.

When the chocolate has melted, turn off the heat.

Using your paint brush, paint the chocolate into the cupcake wrappers. Make sure to get plenty of chocolate on the sides and bottom. Put into a cupcake tray to ensure the cups maintain their shape. After I had painted the wrappers, I was just about out of melted chocolate and I felt like the chocolate on the bottom was too light so I melted a bit more chocolate.

Put the tray into the fridge to cool and harden the chocolate.

While the tray is in the fridge, melt more chocolate. While the chocolate is melting, mix the peanut butter, salt, and sugar. Add more or less depending on taste and/or peanut butter used). I found it easier to mix the peanut butter by hand. It was not at all sticky and the powder sugar acted much like floor when kneading bread.

Remove the tray from the fridge and add peanut butter to each cup. The amount to add depends on the size of the cups you are using. used my thumb and pressed it into each cup. Because I was using the mini-cups, it was probably about 1/4 teaspoon in each.

When each cup has its peanut butter, brush melted chocolate over the top to seal the cup. Put the tray back into the fridge for a while until the chocolate hardens.

Eat. To keep from eating them all, why don't you share a few, fatty?