I work at a small candy store in town so I used our own chocolate instead of the chips. The easiest way to make these cups though, is to use some sort of squeeze bottle, or maybe even a pastry bag with a big pipe on the end to fill the cups. First, line your cups with the paper. Form balls of the PB mixture by warming about a teaspoon of the dough in your hands and rolling it into a ball. Fill a squeeze bottle with chocolate, squeeze a bottom into all of the cups, place a peanut butter ball in the middle of the chocolate and then squeeze the remaining chocolate in around the sides and tops of the cups. You can whip these out so fast this way, and they look very professional...and they taste good too!
We LOVED these, but never having made candy before I thought the instructions seemed a little too simple! After making these and finding somethings out the hard way I have a couple of modifications: make the peanut butter filling first and let it cool while painting the cups. I also melted the chips in two batches, otherwise the chocolate hardens before you get to use it for the top layer. If using stovetop watch carefully – if the chocolate gets too hot it will seize and not melt!! I melted 1 c chips and 1 T shortening in microwave for 1 minute, stirred and microwaved for additional 30 seconds or until melted and smooth. After painting the cups I let them chill and then formed the cooled peanut butter filling into 30 little discs the size of quarters. The filing was kind of hard and crumbly, but just warm it up in your had for a second and it gets easy to work with. (I also had enough filling to make 60 cups, not just 30!) I put a disc in each cup then placed the cups in a jelly roll pan (or something w/ sides), melted the 2nd half of the chocolate chips, spooned about ½ t melted chocolate on top of the filling and then after finishing every 4 or 5 cups I tapped the pan on the table to even the chocolate out and remove air bubbles - this gave it a perfectly smooth finish and professional look!
Instead of doing the paper cups I used a 9x13 pan and spread the chocolate in the bottom, chilled, spread the peanut butter, chilled then added chocolate again and then cut into squares. It was pretty good but really didn't taste like a Reese's cup. Cutting them in squares made it a much easier project though.
I used larger paper cups and creamy peanut butter instead of the chunky. Big hit with the kids!!! People said they are better than the real thing!
OH MY WOW! It is true that the other reviewers have said "They are time consuming!" The end result is totally worth it. I wasn't sure about the crunchy peanut butter but I used it anyway. They are great. If you like the store bought candy....you must try these. Thank you...these are going out to my entire family for a christmas treat.
All I can say is "WOW!" The recipie was right on without modifications. My friends and co-workers instantly devoured them. Actually I was bold enough to make 120 of these wonderful treats the first try. If you make that many I highly recommend having someone to help out; it can be rather time consuming. Another hint: make sure to press the filling into the cups so the chocolate covers it nicely. ENJOY!
I have been making these for a couple of years now, and have shortened the process alot over the years -here's my tips: Use a pastry brush to fill cups, let them harden, then fill then with the PNB filling while still warm. I put mine into an icing bag and use that to squeeze the filling in, it's quick and easy. Once they are all filled I cover with the remaining chocolate, also from an icing bag. Easy to turn out up to 4 dozen this way. Enjoy!
These were absolutely delicious!!! I made them a few months ago and my husband is still constantly begging me to make more as well as the rest of my family and my in-laws! I had a lot of comments about how they were even better than the Reese's peanut butter cups! I did do something that was a little easier than crushing up a bunch of graham crackers. I bought some of the "Jello" graham cracker crust mix and just used it. It worked great! Although for me this was a very time consuming recipe it was well worth it!
My husband said these were better than Reese's cups. My children had fun painting the cups. Great recipe to bring the family together in the kitchen. I was contemplating using creamy p.b. but decided at the last minute to follow the recipe as given and it was great. Don't need to change a thing. I feel like I learned a secret now that I know that there are graham cracker crumbs in them. Who would have guessed? A recipe.
Very dry peanut filling not peanut flavor at all.
