Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups for Valentines Day

So despite the debate raging about nuts in brownies, most people not allergic to nuts can agree that peanut butter and chocolate are really yummy together.  My sister makes an incredible chocolate peanut butter cup so I snagged her recipe to make David some treats for Valentine’s Day.

Kate is so fancy and includes lovely chocolate filigree on top of hers:

I had to sneak my production in when David wasn’t looking so had to just go for the basics.  They are easy to make and so, so good.  I accidentally ate 2 before breakfast this morning.  :)

They’re pretty easy to make but there’s a little secret to the filling.  There are endless ways to vary this but this is how I did it:

Filling: I took 1/2 cup of peanut butter (I used natural, nothing added peanut butter), added 2 tablespoons of sugar and 2 crushed graham crackers.  The graham crackers are the key because they give the peanut butter a lovely crunch that makes all the difference in the final candy.  I ended up with about 1/4 cup left over but I think it’s easier to mix in the larger quantity and really, I had no problem eating the leftover crunchy, sweet peanut butter on some bread later. :)

Coating: I took 3 bars of Ghiradelli Milk Chocolate (12 ounces, but I had some left over), chopped it up and melted all but 2 squares worth in a double boiler.  After that melted, I removed it from heat and added in the non-melted 2 squares (Kate taught me this, its called “seeding” and the non-melted chocolate teaches the melted chocolate how to set up right and stay shiny and smooth when it hardens).  I stirred that all together until it all melted.

Then, I lined a mini muffin tin with cupcake/candy liners.  I spooned chocolate in to cover the bottom of the wrapper, rolled the peanut butter mixture into a ball (about the size of a large marble) and put it on top of the chocolate.  Then I spooned more chocolate over to cover the peanut butter and filled the cupcake liner.  Repeated that for all the tins and popped it into the refrigerator overnight.  That’s it.  Totally easy and looks harder than it actually is – my kind of craft!  Thanks Kate and Happy Birthday!  :)