Do I have your full attention? Excellent. These homemade chocolate treats are essentially grown-up, homemade Reese’s peanut butter cups. I make my peanut butter cups with dark chocolate and a sprinkle of flaky sea salt. You can make these peanut butter cups with milk chocolate and skip the fancy salt, if you’d rather.
My version is for you if you’ve ever walked down the freezer aisle at Trader Joe’s and grabbed the mini dark chocolate peanut butter cups and the salted dark chocolate-covered almonds. Also, we should be friends and eat chocolate together. I’ll bring wine. I’ve been hanging onto this recipe for Halloween. They’re a variation that I discovered when making Jessica’s chocolate peppermint cups earlier this year, which is kind of mean, now that I think about it. I’m sorry.
The Best Peanut Butter Cups
Three reasons to love this recipe:
These peanut butter cups are far more tasty and somewhat more redeeming than your average Halloween haul. They’re also easy to make, requiring just a few basic ingredients. These homemade candies take about 15 minutes to put together. They’re ready after a 30-minute chill. Let’s make some!
*Peanut butter notes: I’ve used a range of natural peanut butters here, and they all work well. If your peanut butter is salt-free, I would stir a little pinch of salt into the filling. Crunchy peanut butter works if you want some crunch. You can also use almond butter instead of peanut butter. **Chocolate notes: I used Ghiradelli bittersweet chocolate chips (60% cacao content) and thought they were perfect. Use chocolate chips that you enjoy on their own—I prefer darker chocolate, but milk chocolate will work, too. Make it dairy free: Choose dairy-free chocolate chips. Check out Enjoy Life and Pascha brands. Make it vegan: Choose dairy-free chocolate chips (see above) and maple syrup instead of honey. Make it soy free: Make sure your chocolate is free of soy derivatives like soy lecithin (see above). Make it nut free: Use sunflower seed butter instead of peanut butter.
