Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups

I had never made homemade peanut butter cups before, but really wanted some on Valentine's Day, so, I made a batch.

These are really tasty and not too much mess to make, so if you are having a craving for a  rich, delicious peanut butter cup made with whole ingredients, give these a go.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups

Adapted from Alicia Silverstone's recipe in The Kind Diet

Ingredients

4-6 tablespoons of Earth Balance butter or other vegan baking butter, see my note below

3/4 cup peanut butter

3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs or cereal crumbs like Puffins

1/4 cup organic brown sugar

1 cup nondairy chocolate chips (or carob, but I hate carob and it's made with palm oil)

1/4 cup coconut milk (aseptic box or refrigerated kind, not canned) or other non-dairy milk

Method 

1. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners. (If You Care makes unbleached liners made from recycled paper.) Set aside.

2. Melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. I used Alicia's recipe's full 1/2 cup (1 stick) of EB and that was WAY too greasy and tasted too much like EB (which I only use in baked goods) so I had to keep adding cereal to it to make it a drier consistency.  I recommend using only 4-6 tablespoons (1/4 to 1/3 cup) of EB and keeping the rest of the ingredients the same. I don't really like EB, but the consistency works very well in baked goods and desserts, if you use the lesser amount (4-6 tablespoons) it should be fine and not taste like EB once you add all the other ingredients :-)  

3. Stir in the peanut butter, graham cracker or cereal crumbs, and sugar and mix well.  Note: I didn't have graham crackers (because we ate them all), so I just processed Original Puffins in the food processor until they were fine crumbs, and measured out 3/4 of a cup of the crumbs.  It was a fine substitution!

4. Remove the mixture from the heat. Evenly divide the mixture, approximately 2 tablespoons per cup, among the muffin cups. I used an Oxo medium scoop to do this task.

5. Combine the chocolate and milk in a 4 cup Pyrex measuring cup. Heat in microwave, covered, a minute at a time, whisking each minute, until the chocolate has melted and is combined well with the milk.

6. Carefully pour the chocolate evenly over each cup of the peanut butter mixture. 

7. Place in the refrigerator to set for at least 2 hours before serving.

I couldn't resist using my Silverstone muffin tin!  These were just poured and had not yet set in the fridge.

Enjoy!

This makes 12 large (!) cupcake sized peanut butter cups.  You can cut them into quarters and arrange prettily on a platter for smaller dessert "bites," or you can just go for it and eat a whole one per person.