How to Make Peanut Butter Cups

Yields: 24 cups

Preparation time: 45 mins

Cooking time: 1 hour

Ingredients needed to make Peanut Butter Cups:

For the filling:

• ¾ cup crunchy peanut butter
• ¾ cup powdered sugar
• 1/3 cup Graham Cracker crumbs

For the coating:

• 14 oz milk chocolate, coarsely chopped

Cooking instructions for Peanut Butter Cups:

• To make the filling, fit a stand mixer with a paddle attachment and dump the filling ingredients into its bowl.
• Beat them all together at moderate speed until the crackers crumble into large chunks and blend along with rest of the mixture to form a cookie-dough like mixture; it should take about 3 minutes.
• Split the filling into 24 parts and roll each of them into round balls, compact enough to nestle into mini muffin molds; reserve.
• To make the coating, fill a large bowl with cold water until it stands 2’’ from the base and drop in 3-4 ice cubes; set aside.
• Fill a saucepan with water until 2’’ of it is filled and bring it to a simmer.
• Toss 12 oz of the chocolate chunks into a large heatproof vessel and place it over the saucepan with simmering water.
• Turn off the heat and melt the chocolate, stirring constantly, until becomes gooey and reaches the temperature of 118 degrees F.
• Lift the vessel out of the saucepan and throw in 4 oz of chocolate chunks.
• Fold them into the hot melted chocolate, until they melt themselves and set aside on the prepared ice water bath to cool it down to 80 degrees F.
• Place the bowl back onto the saucepan with the simmering water and cook, stirring often, until it reaches 86 degree F.
• Turn off the heat again and spread a thin layer of the melted chocolate onto a sheet of parchment paper.
• Refrigerate for 3 minutes or until it hardens to form a smooth patch; repeat the process of tempering if the patch sports any streaks.
• Brush the tempered chocolate into the sides and base of each muffin mold, using small pastry brush, so that the coating it about 1/16’’ thick.
• Spoon the filling into the coated muffin wells and spread more chocolate on top of each filling to cover completely; smooth out the surface with a palette knife.
• Leave the pan in the freezer to set for 20 minutes.
• To remove, tap one edge of the molds with the handle of the knife and flip it onto a silicone baking mat.
• Store them in the fridge for as long as 3 weeks.
• Serve at room temperature.

Image credit: Wikimedia Commons