Peanut Butter Cups

Okay, you all are going to think I am crazy about peanut butter after my last post of Peanut Butter Krispies, and now these! Well, I am not...that would actually be my best friend Katie and her love affair with the peanut butter jar...HA! We often joke about this. :) Myself, well I prefer almond butter, crunchy, unsalted and have made this recipe with almond butter before which I prefer. However, it was my hubby's birthday and he loves Reese's peanut butter cups, so I figured a homemade version would be a treat for the festivities. Thanks to her Nut Butter Cup recipe over at Elana's Pantry, which is where I got this idea (and thanks to BF Katie for introducing me to her blog...and for sending me her cookbook recently!), all our friends at the party who had one of these delicious morsels were quite impressed!

Peanut Butter Cups

yields 24 cups using my molds

Peanut butter mixture

1 C peanut butter, creamy (I used salted for this recipe)

1 T honey

1 tsp vanilla

1/4 tsp sea salt

3 T flax seed meal

Mix together all of the ingredients above in a bowl and place in the freezer to harden.

Chocolate concoction

1 C semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 bar (5 oz.) 72% Belgian dark chocolate

Melt chocolate in a double boiler or small pan until melted. Remove from heat. Use a small paintbrush to coat the sides and bottom of your silicone baking molds with chocolate. Arrange on tray and place molds in freezer for 10 minutes allowing chocolate to harden. Remove molds and peanut butter from freezer. Scoop small balls of peanut butter mixture into each chocolate lined mold and press down to fill well with peanut butter. Using brush, paint over the top of mold to cover with chocolate and freeze again until hardened. Remove from freezer, peel off molds individually and store in refrigerator, removing shortly before serving.

I discovered the best part of this recipe are the adorable mini silicone baking molds I bought at Cost Plus World Market for only $2.49 for a set of 12. YES, that's only $2.49 for a set of 12! They were perfect for this recipe and are also oven-proof so I am already dreaming of my next creation with them. I don't see them on their web site, but my local World Market has them. I hope you can find them too!