homemade chocolate pb cups

The peanut butter cups turned out tasty, as did the fondue for two.  We made an oil fondue for the first time and cooked up vegetable tempura with broccoli, squash, onion, bell pepper, eggplant and baked polenta squares. Served with three dipping sauces: sweet and sour, dill & a thai peanut concoction. A slice of wonky, homemade French bread rounded it out and we barely had any room for dessert. But, you know me, I persevered :)

I found this recipe on Ashley English's Small Measures feature on Design*Sponge. There was also a promising recipe in The Kind Diet, but this ingredient list was simpler. If you make sure to use non-dairy chocolate chips and graham crackers, it's suitable for vegans.

Homemade Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups
Ingredients

1 bag semi-sweet chocolate chips (or milk chocolate or dark, if you'd like)

1 cup natural peanut butter

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1/4 cup graham crackers, crushed

1 tsp sea salt

Directions

1. Line a muffin pan with 12 paper liners and set aside.
2. Melt one cup of the chocolate chips in a double boiler. Don't have a double boiler? Make your own! Fill a small saucepan with about 2-3 inches of water. Place a medium size, heat-proof bowl (so, not plastic...) on top of the saucepan, so it's just sitting on top and the bottom of the bowl is just dipped in the water. Put the chocolate chips in the bowl, turn on burner to medium-high and stir chips constantly until melted through.
3. Spread a layer of melted chocolate into the bottom of each paper liner. Don't skimp! Chill the muffin pan in the fridge for about 20 minutes, or until the chocolate is hardened.
4. In a medium bowl, combine the peanut butter, crushed graham crackers, sugar and salt and combine. (Tip: a food processor will crush those grahams up in no time, just a few pulses.) Add a glob of the PB mixture into each of the muffin liners. It may help to divide the mixture up into 12 even globs first, though you can just eyeball it and adjust if you'd like.
5. Heat another cup or so of chocolate chips in your double-boiler (or make-shift double boiler). Once melted, top each peanut butter mixture glob with a generous amount of chocolate. Using a spoon, smooth out the chocolate and then give it a little swirl.
6. Chill for an hour or so until set. I found that the cups were a little too hard right out of the fridge, so bring them to room temp before eating. 

And enjoy! These would be cute in mini muffin tins too, or even heart-shaped ones for a Valentine's Day treat.