Gourmet Peanut Butter Cups

Milk & Cookies's Note:

These are not your ordinary peanut butter cups. The filling is creamy, smooth and oh so good. I was looking for a recipe close to what I could get at Rocky Mountain Chocolate before they changed the recipe and ruined them. While making buckeyes I got the inspiration to try. I find buckeyes too sweet and they don't have as big a peanut butter flavor as I was craving. This is what I came up with. Close in my opinion but then again it's been nearly 7 years since I had one from Rocky Mountain Chocolate. But these sure do fill the void. These are meant to be rich and decadent. The use of silicon cups makes it much easier to coat with chocolate than paper would be. When you peel back the silicon, you're left with a perfect beautiful rippled cup. It leaves you thinking "did I really make these". I experimented with the chocolate. I preferred milk chocolate to semi sweet chocolate chips. I used Belgian fondue chocolate (comes in wafers), it melted easier and smoother than chocolate chips. The chips melted in your hands fast and was a little more messy to eat. I also preferred regular peanut butter to light. It gave me the consistency I desired. But use what you like. Makes 12 but you might want to share one with a friend, or maybe not!

• Total Time: 2 hrs 5 mins
• Prep Time: 45 mins
• Cook Time: 1 hrs 20 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 12

• 18 ounces milk chocolate
• 1 1/2 cups peanut butter
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup icing sugar

Directions:

1. Melt 12 ounces of chocolate (a little more than 2 cups) in a small sauce pan.
2. Put roughly 2 teaspoons of melted chocolate into each silicon baking cup, spread chocolate up the side of cup with a silicon brush. (Silicon brush is much easier to clean).
3. Put cups into muffin tin for stability and place in the fridge for 30 minutes. Keep sauce pan on stove (with the burner turned off) with extra chocolate.
4. Remove from fridge.Use leftover chocolate to brush over thin spots in the baking cups. You shouldn't need to reheat the chocolate, it will be thickened nicely to coat the sides again.
5. Place in fridge for another 20 minutes.
6. Mix peanut butter, vanilla and icing sugar. Divide peanut butter filling between 12 chocolate filled cups (roughly 2 Tbsp a piece). Shaking the muffin pan will help to smooth and even out the peanut butter filling in the cups.
7. Melt 6 ounces of chocolate in saucepan, spoon melted chocolate evenly among the 12 cups.
8. Place in fridge for 30 minutes until chilled and chocolate hardens.
9. Remove silicon baking cups, cut in half and share with a friend.

Reviews

[CarpeNoctu]

This is an excellent recipe! The only change I tend to make is the cups. I, for some weird reason, prefer to make balls rather than cups, so I roll the peanut butter into marble sized balls and put them in the fridge for about an hour, then I dip them into the melted chocolate, set them on some wax paper and put them back in the fridge for a bit. One more little thing... I like to use all natural peanut butter. The flavor is fantastic, the very slightly crunchy texture is amazing, and I have the extra benefit of being able to tell myself that they're more healthy. :) Thank you for sharing this recipe with us!

[LuuvBunny]

If you have ever tried the Peanut Butter Cups from the Vermont Chocolate Store you will become addicted as I did.Unfortunately living in Canada I have to get my sister to bring them up from Vermont on her visits home.I had to find that recipe,this is it!As soon as I saw the photo I knew I had to try these.I find these are a little sweeter than Vermont's but that can be easily adjusted.I used a silicon muffin pan and also thick paper liners.I only have a 6 muffin silicon pan so I figured I would give the liners a try too.The silicon is definately the best way to go but the liners were usable also.If you are using liners I recommend a fairly thick one or foil ones. I used light peanut butter and it worked great for me.But I did have to make 1 1 /2 times the peanut butter filling in order to fill 12 cups.I did not skimp on the filling for each cup,that may be the reason ;) You cannot go wrong with this recipe,thanks for posting!!

[Wendy-Bob]

Wow, these are fantastic! I scaled the recipe down by half, made them using mini-muffin cases, and ended up with about 20. They were really tasty and looked so good. Ridiculously my other half and I were both really surprised at just how peanutty they were, but I am aware this was a stupid thing to be surprised about considering the ingredients! All in all a definite keeper and one I can't wait to start showing off!