Peanut Butter Cups

Sometimes I see a recipe and I'm like "I wonder if I could do that."  I actually flipped past this page when combing through my mom's All You magazine for the coupons, but it caught Steve's eye and so I flipped back.  This only makes 12, and they are made in mini muffin pans, so these are barely worth the effort, even if they're fabulous, when you consider a bag of chocolate chips is about $2.50, not to mention the cost of the other ingredients, and a bag of mini Reese's peanut butter cups is maybe $3.  So this was purely just for fun, just to see if I could.  The making and pondering of this recipe has caused me to add another category to my blog listings, called "Just To See If I Could," because it's not like that many people will want to make this, or other recipes of this ilk.

Peanut Butter Cups
2 full sheets graham crackers (I used 1/4 + 1/8 cup graham cracker crumbs)
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup peanut butter
2 tbsp honey
12 oz semi-sweet chocolate, chopped (I used 11.5 oz bag of milk chocolate chips, because the best Reese's peanut butter cups are the milk chocolate ones)

Line a 12-cup mini muffin pan with small paper cups (which I did not have; I sprayed with cooking spray).  Process crackers and salt in a food processor until ground.  Transfer to a bowl; stir in peanut butter and honey.  Chill for 10 minutes.

Line a plate with plastic wrap.  Divide peanut butter mixture into 12 1-tbsp balls.  Flatten slightly.  Place on plate; cover with additional plastic wrap and chill.

Melt chocolate in double boiler (or in microwave at 70% power for 30 second increments) until melted.  Remove from heat and let cool slightly.

Spoon 1 tsp of chocolate into each paper cup.  Spread over bottoms and halfway up sides of paper cups.  Chill until hardened, about 30 minutes (keep remaining chocolate at room temperature).  Press a peanut butter disk into each shell.  Spread 1 tbsp of remaining chocolate on top of each disk and smooth out to cover the peanut butter completely.  Chill until firm, about 1 hour.  Store in refrigerator.

I had a bit of leftover chocolate after I made all of these, so I thought "What Would Jill Do?" and so I mixed it with some of our blueberries, so I can eat chocolate covered blueberries mmmmmmmmmmmm

So these were pretty good.  The peanut butter filling tasted pretty authentic.  There was too much chocolate though.  When you eat a Reese's peanut butter cup, the peanut butter:chocolate ratio is just perfect.  So you could never pass these off as the real thing, but they were yummy.  A bit laborious, but fun.  The kids were all very happy.  I trust Steve will be, too, once I give him one...it only makes 12 though so he better not be home late from work or they could be gone already...