Chocolate Cup Line Up

 

Move over Reece's, I've got a line up that will put your peanut butter cup to shame!!

I am on winter vaykay and that means more time in my kitchen!! This is the g o o d  life. I can see why going back to school for a masters degree is going to be harder than I thought.  I have enjoyed the few short weeks of just interning and cooking.. and more cooking... and lots of baking!! (which resulted in lots of left over ingredients)

I love left over ingredients. Its the perfect excuse to find a new recipe. You might only have a single tablespoon of what ever it is but it doesn't take much to convince me that not matter the small amount it is  absolutely worth buying all the other ingredients the recipe calls for... in which case you have more left over ingredients and so the cycle continues : ) In this case the four graham crackers I had left from a Daring Baker's challenge were practically begging to be used!

I was so excited to find out peanut butter cup filling uses graham cracker crumbs. (who knew?) So after flipping through many recipes I used a combination of a few and created the perfectly creamy peanut butter filling.

To make this more exciting, as though peanut butter and chocolate were not already the perfect pair, I decided to add even more flare and make an entire line up of peanut butter cups!! I just made Dulce de Leche and decided to make PB Dulce de Leche cups, and while I was at it why not add a little Nutella to the mix.

Are you making your grocery list yet?!

You say: yes!

In that case, here is what you'll need...

For the chocolate cups:

Yield: makes approximately 48 mini cups

• 36 oz semi sweet chocolate chips (you can use dark chocolate, white chocolate, a mix or what ever you prefer)
• 2 tbs shortening
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tbs creamy peanut butter
  
• 1 tbs Nutella

Directions:

Prepare a mini muffin tin by using foil cupcake liners. This will give the peanut butter cup the signature crinkle edges and make removing them much easier.

Add all above ingredients to a double boiler and stir until completely melted. Remember, chocolate burns easily so keep stirring.

Add two heaping teaspoons of the melted chocolate to the foil liners.

Using a basting brush, brush the chocolate up onto the sides of the liners. This will create a little well for the filling.

Place chocolate filled liners into fridge or freezer until chocolate hardens. (I had to do mine in batches because my freezer too packed. But, if you choose this method then make sure to make your filling first.)

Hint: If the chocolate becomes to thick to work with. Remelt on double broiler until it is loose enough to work with again.

For Peanut Butter Filling:

• 1 cup peanut butter
• 3/4 cup powdered sugar
• 1 cup graham cracker crumbs
• 4 tbs butter, softened/room temperature
  
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 tbs honey

Directions:

Using a standing mixer cream together first three ingredients. Add butter, vanilla and honey. Continue to

cream until incorporated.

Note: Nearly all of the pb cup recipes I found on the web were identical. I always use Foodgawker as my main source for a recipe search...I'm pro blogger support 

This time I used the simple pb cup recipe and tweaked the recipe. I added the vanilla and honey to taste, increased the sugar by 1/4 cup and added the butter to make a creamier filling that was less granular in texture (due to the graham cracker crumbs). The result was perfect!!

Directions to fill the cups:

You should now have the bottom of the cups and filling ready.

1. Fill each cup with 1 tsp peanut butter filling and press to spread in the cup. (I added some Dulce de Leche to mine. Along with some Nutella.

2. Top each cup with another teaspoon of the melted chocolate.

Use your imagination.

Fill 'em up with what ever you'd like!