How to Make Peanut Butter Cups at Home

Yahoo Food Recipes

Every week, we spotlight a different food blogger who’s shaking up the blogosphere with tempting recipes and knockout photography. Below, Jerrelle Guy of Chocolate for Basil — a noted peanut butter critic — learns she has a soft spot for homemade peanut butter cups.

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Photo courtesy of Jerrelle Guy

By Jerrelle Guy of Chocolate for Basil

I’m not a Reese’s peanut butter cup lady. Or a Kit Kat lady. And to be honest, I’m not really a Snickers lady, either. What can I say, I’ve always been an opinionated chocolate purist, only interested in the darkest of the dark chocolate. Maybe accented by bits of orange or espresso here and there, but never — not ever — peanut butter.

I know, I know. Some of you must be up in arms by now. But the truth is I’m not a peanut butter lover at all. The flavor is too strong, and I don’t know, maybe something traumatic happened to me as a little girl that had to do with peanut butter. I have no clue.

However, my boyfriend Eric loves it, so I figured I’d make him homemade peanut butter cups for him. My version is larger than a store-bought cup and is filled with ground espresso, chia seeds, flax seeds, and bittersweet dark chocolate. The thing is, I could NOT stop eating them. Now I believe I understand why they are a classic pair.

Homemade Peanut Butter Cups
Makes 9 extra-large cups

1.5 cups of Trader Joe’s flax and chia seed peanut butter
1 heaping cup of powdered sugar
1 10-oz. bag of bittersweet or semisweet chocolate chips
Your favorite ground espresso or coffee for sprinkling

Special equipment:
9 foil cupcake liners

Melt the chocolate chunks in the microwave using a microwave-safe bowl (it should only take around 90 seconds). Be careful not to burn the chocolate.

Line your cupcake liners with a bottom layer of chocolate, about 2 teaspoons worth. (It should be just enough to coat the bottoms.)

In a separate bowl, mix together the peanut butter and the powdered sugar. Then separate the peanut butter dough into nine equal balls, and flatten them in your palm. Place them on top of the bottom layer of chocolate inside the liners. (It’s OK if the patties touch the sides of the tin. This will make the cups looks more homemade and beautiful, because once you unwrap them, you’ll get to see bits of peanut butter oozing through the sides.)

Cover them each with the remaining melted chocolate, sprinkle them with freshly ground coffee or espresso beans, and then let them sit at room temperature to harden.

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