Ingredients: butter, peanut butter, graham crackers, sugar, chocolate chips, milk, sea salt
Tools: microwave, bowl, muffin tin(s), muffin papers, rolling pin and a sandwich bag (or food processor), refrigerator, spoon
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| Make many little cups or a few big cups! |
1/4 cup butter
3/4 cup peanut butter
3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs (optional swap: salted pretzel crumbs)
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups semisweet or milk chocolate chips
1/4 cup milk
Sea salt (optional swap out if using salted pretzel crumbs)
Directions: Line muffin tins with the papers; large muffin tins will use eight cups and mini-muffin tins will use about twenty cups. Using either a rolling pin and sandwich bag or a food processor, make the graham cracker (or pretzel) crumbs.
In the microwave-safe bowl, melt the butter and the peanut butter for 45 seconds, then stir until smooth. Add the graham crackers and sugar, mixing well to combine. Evenly spoon the mixture into the muffin papers and refrigerator 15-20 minutes to set the peanut butter layer.
When the peanut butter has set, combine the chocolate chips and milk in a microwave-safe bowl and heat for intervals of 10 seconds, stirring well in between, until the chocolate is just melted. (Note: Over-cooking the chocolate will not allow the chocolate to set and will stay soft, no matter how long they are refrigerated. How often intervals are needed will vary by microwave. Stirring well after each interval will help prevent over-cooking. When the chips have all smoothed together, no more heat is necessary.) Distribute the chocolate evenly over the peanut butter cups. Add a dash of sea salt on top of each cup (or omit if using pretzels) and chill until firm, roughly 30 minutes.
I have made this recipe three times and I did not get the chocolate right the first time around. As was seen where I had found the original recipe, I too had followed their directions and microwaved the chocolate in 25-second intervals, which ended up overcooking the chocolate and made it too thin. I also had some concerns about the amount of milk with one cup of chocolate chips, so I increased the chips by one-half of a cup the second time around and watched carefully for when the chips were all melted. The more I stirred the chips together between the intervals, the easier it was to see when enough was enough. Sea salt is a nice touch when using the graham crackers to give it that salty-sweet taste, but I left it out when I used the salted pretzels because I did not want it to be too salty. It's an easy recipe when you get the hang of the chocolate. I have not experimented with reducing the amount of sugar that goes in with the peanut butter and crackers/pretzels as it is key in the peanut butter setting correctly.
