Homemade Peanut Butter Cups

These are, by far, my favorite from all of the holiday treats I've made this year.

Anyone remember the two really skinny girls on Survivor that took their tops off for peanut butter and chocolate? I may have gone right along with them. Okay, maybe not ... but I do really love the combination. I go for anything Reese and I'm thinking this is about as close as anything homemade is going to get.

I got this recipe for peanut butter cups from a food blog that I have just recently started frequenting.

A note about the paper wrappers: I bought smaller wrappers than the author used so I was able to make about 48 cups where she was only able to make about 24 (I couldn't find any the size of Reese peanut butter cups). Mine were about an inch across, about the size of the miniature Reese cups.

These are a little labor intensive but so worth it in the end because they taste so good your friends and family will rave about them!

While standing in front of the chocolate chips at the grocery store, I decided to make white, dark, and milk chocolate cups. The white cups are fabulously rich! I'll list the ingredients and directions as the original author did since the addition of the different chocolates does not really change anything.

INGREDIENTS

Approx 1 1/2 cups dark chocolate, chopped, or dark chocolate chips (I decided to make white, dark, and milk chocolate cups so used about 1/2 cup of each, maybe a little more)
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1/2 cup crunchy peanut butter (I didn't have crunchy peanut butter so just added some finely chopped peanuts)
1/2 cup icing sugar
generous pinch of salt
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS

Set wrappers on a baking sheet.

Melt approximately half of the chocolate, using a microwave-safe bowl, and cooking it in short intervals (about 30 seconds), stirring frequently, until smooth. Use a spoon to pour a little chocolate into each wrapper. Use a small, very clean brush to paint the chocolate up the sides of each wrapper (this worked great). Alternatively, you could add extra chocolate and swirl it around, pouring out the excess later, to coat the inside of the wrapper (I found the chocolate didn't get runny enough for this to work).

Chill cups until set, about 20-30 minutes.

In a small bowl, whisk together reamining ingredients (again in short intervals, stirring frequently), until it is very, very soft. Working carefully, transfer the filling to a pastry bag (or plastic bag with the tip cut off) and pipe a generous amount of the filling into each prepared cup.

Chill again for approximately 30 minutes, or until set.

Melt the remaining chocolate and fill each cup up with chocolate. Chill until set.

Serve cold or at room temperature.

Note: So they are easier to unwrap, fill the cups up close to the top but not level to the cup paper so there is something to grab onto when unwrapping it.