Easy Times Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups

Contributor post by Lyndsay of Coco Cake


If I could be a hoarder of chocolate bars I would have a closet bursting with Reese's peanut butter cups. Salty sweet peanut butter, milk chocolate... even the cute little "puck" size. The cool thing about this recipe - "no baking required!" Just a little stovetop melting of things, some throwing of things together, some mixing and spreading and chilling... then some serious peanut butter cup snacking!





Who knew graham cracker crumbs were the key to making homemade P&B cups taste so much like the classic store-bought cups?! Brilliant! Make these for your next holiday party and you will make new friends: peanut butter and chocolate loving friends! These can also easily be made vegan or gluten free by using vegan/gluten free graham cracker crumbs and substituting vegan margarine for the butter, and using dairy-free dark chocolate.





EASY TIMES CHOCOLATE PEANUT BUTTER CUPS

Ingredients


1 cup melted, unsalted butter
2 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1 1/2 cups icing sugar
1 cup smooth natural peanut butter
1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3 cups semisweet chocolate (or your choice of chocolate- I used a mix of Lindt brand milk and dark!)

You will need a 9 x 12 inch baking pan.

Make it!

1. In a saucepan on the stovetop, melt 1 cup of unsalted butter.
2. In a stand mixer on low setting, or mixing by hand with a wooden spoon in a medium bowl, mix together melted butter, graham cracker crumbs, icing sugar, peanut butter and vanilla extract until combined.
3. Pour into the baking pan and spread evenly along bottom of pan.
4. In a double boiler/bain-marie (or using a ceramic or metal bowl over top of a saucepan of low boiling water), melt the chocolate.
5. Pour melted chocolate on top of graham cracker layer and spread evenly.
6. Place in refrigerator to set, about 30 minutes.
7. Using a circular cookie cutter, punch out circle shaped peanut butter cups! Or just cut out into squares (or some sort of shape!) with a knife.

Note: if your fridge has set the peanut butter cups so the chocolate is too hard, let it sit out for 15 minutes before punching out with cutters! I decorated with blackberries which gave it a bit of a peanut butter and "jam" vibe!

Enjoy, Poppytalk readers!

xo Lyndsay


Lyndsay is a self-taught baker and subsequent enthusiastic blogger. She loves makin' foods and bakin' goods, and shares her stories, recipes and foodstuffs on Poppytalk! Her other work can be found on her cake blog: Coco Cake, her ice cream blog: Ice Cream by Coco Cake and her food oddities and delights blog: Trompe Chomp!

Jan Halvarson

9 comments:

Kathryn Hansen said...

omg that looks delicious...you had me at the photo!!

melodycharlotte said...

Wow. I usually breeze over food posts... (more of a craft girl, myself) but this one really caught me. Maybe it's just my sweet tooth talking, but this one's getting a bookmark!

Best,
Melody of From Scratch
http://melodycharlotte-fromscratch.blogspot.com

Spencer said...

I reckon I could eat about 100 of them!

Tara Celeste said...

These sound so good! Definitely know what I'm bringing to any Christmas parties coming up!

Kylie Bowers said...

Oh wow they look beautiful!

kickpleat said...

I love homemade pb cups!! And with blackberries on top too? Nice!!

Coco Cake Land said...

@kathryn - thank you!!

@melodycharlotte - glad this caught your eye ... it's too easy of a recipe not to try!!

@spencer - i've already snacked on way too many of these!

@tara - thank you! yes, such a nice easy recipe for the holidays!

@kylie - thank you!

@kickpleat - jeannette, yes!! thanks!!

Food-o-holic said...

Hey Lyndsay,

omg! Can I just say this recipe was amazing??! I just tried this recently and I am hooked!
It was soo good had to put up a link on my blog!!

I'm a college student so I dont really have much time to cook so this one was really helpful!

Can you please post more college student friendly recipes?

Loving it!

Coco Cake Land said...

Food-o-holic, thank you so much and I'm really stoked these worked out for you!

Most of my recipes here are pretty simple so I hope you try a few more!!

:)