Deluxe Reese’s Cups

This blog is mostly for life updates and faith reflections, but I thought that I might mix it up a bit. During our short 2 months of being a family, Andy and I have spent a lot of time cooking and trying new recipes. It has been a lot of fun. Trying new recipes is not the cheapest way to go food-wise, but instead of having money set aside for going out in our budget, we just put that money towards food.

Anyway, last week our trying new recipes journey brought us to homemade Reese’s Cups. The recipe is based on of one in a cookbook I got for Christmas a couple of years ago, but I tweaked the recipe quite a bit. I took most of them into work, and they got rave reviews. I may have set the bar for the things I bring into work a little too high, we’ll see. 😉 Andy and I only saved three to keep at home – which is probably a good thing. Since lots of people at work have been asking for the recipe, I thought it would be a good one to post.

So without further ado, a picture of the finished product and the recipe:

Sarah’s Deluxe Peanut Butter Cups

There are three elements to this recipe, the chocolate outside, the brownie bottom, and the peanut butter filling.

You will need (Makes approx. 12 cups):

• Brownie Mix
• 1 c. Peanut Butter
• 1 c. Powdered Sugar
• 1 tbsp. Butter
• 1 c. Chocolate Chips
• 12 Paper Muffin Cups

Instructions:

1. Make the brownie batter. (I made mine from scratch, but a box mix would work fine.)
2. Pour the brownie batter into muffin tins, filling the muffin cups about 1/3 of the way full.  Do not use muffin wrappers. (I would recommend only making 12 and using the rest of the batter to make a small pan of brownies. I made my batter from scratch so that I could halve the recipe and not have batter left over.)
3. Bake brownie muffins at the temperature directed by the recipe for about 10 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let them cool on the counter for about 5 minutes, and then cool them in the fridge for about 10 minutes.
4. After the brownie muffins have been cooled in the fridge, you should be able to pop them out of the muffin cups without too much trouble. Set them aside.
5. While the brownie muffins are cooling, you can make the peanut butter filling. For the peanut butter filling, combine 1 cup Peanut Butter (I used the crunchy kind, but any kind would be fine), 1 cup Powdered Sugar, and 1 tbsp. softened butter. Stir until well mixed. Place in fridge.
6. Place paper muffin cups in the muffin tin. Melt the chocolate. (I melted about 1/3 c. at a time in the microwave for about 45 sec.)
7. Use a brush to paint the chocolate on the sides of the muffin cups while they are in the tin. Be generous with the chocolate. Make sure to completely coat the bottom, and to the top of the sides.
8. Remove the painted cups from the tin and press the brownie into the cup while the chocolate is still wet. Place cups in the fridge and let them set overnight.
9. Once the chocolate is set, you can remove the paper muffin cups from the outside and fill the cup with the peanut butter filling. I piped the filling in, but you can also just spoon it in.
10. Sprinkle chocolate chips on top.

And after all that hard work, you’re done! Enjoy! 🙂