Peanut Butter Cups

I'm on a sweet kick.  Getting 20 cookbooks dedicated to desserts from the library has not helped.  A zillion June birthdays doesn't help.  A sweet boyfriend with a sweet tooth willing to test all my new recipes doesn't help either.  So on I trudge, into more sweetness.  Project of the day: homemade peanut butter cups. 



I've been thinking about peanut butter cups for a while.  Fresh nut butters started me out --  I had some luscious fresh pecan butter and then I found a good recipe for homemade nut butter in River Cottage Every Day.  The thought of peanut butter cups with a fresh peanut butter and good, dark chocolate lead me on an exploration of cup recipes.  I found a good-looking one in Jam It, Pickle it, Cure It.

This recipe is my own, but inspired by both cookbooks.

Peanut Butter Cups:
Makes about 20 peanut butter cups
Materials:
20 small paper candy liners (these are smaller than mini-cupcake liners -- they fit in mini-cupcake pans, but are shorter.  In a pinch you could use mini-cupcake liners by filling them only partway).

Mini-cupcake tin/s

Peanut Butter Filling
1 1/2 cups freshly roasted peanuts*
3 teaspoons oil (canola or sunflower)
3 teaspoons liquid honey (i.e. liquid at room temperature)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt (a good, fine/medium sea salt)

Chocolate Coating
2 1/4 cups good-quality chocolate chips or chopped chocolate (I used a mix of 1/2 dark and 1/2 semi-sweet chips, but you could do all dark, all milk, semi-sweet or a mix).

*To roast your own peanuts, heat oven to 350 degrees F.  Place the raw peanuts on a baking sheet in a single layer.  Bake for about 15-20 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes.  Cool.  They will crisp as they cool.  If you get any blackened ones, remove them as they will make everything taste bitter.

Directions:
1. Grind the peanuts in a food processor until fine.  Add the rest of the filling ingredients, pulsing to incorporate everything well.  It will not be as creamy as a nut butter.

2. In a double boiler, melt the chocolate over medium heat, stirring occasionally.  You can move onto #3 and #4 while you are heating the chocolate, checking in to stir and make sure it all gets melted.

silky, melted chocolate

3. Line the mini-cupcake tins with the paper liners and have them ready nearby.

4. Form peanut filling into small balls, about 1.5 - 2 teaspoons each.  Flatten the balls into a disk that fits into the paper liners but allows room on all sides for chocolate to fill in around.

disks of peanut filling

5. Once chocolate is melted, spoon a couple teaspoons into each lined cup.  Drop a disk of peanut filling on top of the chocolate in each cup.  Tap the disk to settle it into the chocolate, without pushing it to the bottom.  Spoon a teaspoon more of chocolate on top of the filling, using a spoon to spread the chocolate as needed.

6. If it's a hot day (it was here), these can go into the fridge for quicker setting.  They will also set at room temperature in about 4 hours. 

7. Store in a sealed container.  They will last a couple weeks (although I doubt they will stick around that long!).