Homemade Peanut Butter Cups

I'm really excited to bring you this week's recipe!  It is a homemade version of one of my all time favorite candies---the peanut butter cup!

I first saw this recipe in Taste of Home magazine a few years ago, and I marked the page but never got around to trying the recipe. (This tends to happen a lot with me.)  But a few days ago, I was wanting to make some kind of new spring/Easter treat, so I started looking through my old magazines, and found these again.  I had all the ingredients I needed, and they were pretty easy to make, so I decided to give it a whirl!

I have to warn, these things are very tasty!  They remind me of the gourmet peanut butter cups that you order, except they're much cheaper, and the peanut butter is more sweet, almost like a Reese Cup!  And since these are so easy to make, I'd say if you make them once, you'll probably be tempted to make them again and again.  So don't say I didn't warn you!  Hope you enjoy!

Recipe for Homemade Peanut Butter Cups:

Ingredients:

1 cup creamy peanut butter, divided

4-1/2 teaspoons butter, softened

1/2 cup confectioners' sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 cups (12 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips

4 milk chocolate candy bars (1.55 ounces each), coarsely chopped

Colored sprinkles, optional

Directions:  In a small bowl, combine 1/2 cup peanut butter, butter, confectioners' sugar and salt until smooth; set aside.

In a microwave, melt the chocolate chips, candy bars and remaining peanut butter; stir until smooth.

Drop teaspoonfuls of chocolate mixture into paper-lined miniature muffin cups. (I didn't have any miniatures, so I used the regular sized cups and started with about a tablespoon of chocolate in each cup, but I recommend making miniatures, because these things are rich!)

Top each with about a teaspoonful of peanut butter mixture. (For the regular sized cups, I actually used a cookie scoop to measure, so it was just under a tablespoon of peanut butter.  Then I rolled it into a ball See pic below.)

Then top with another teaspoonful of chocolate mixture. (tablespoon for regular size cups)

For fun and extra added cuteness, decorate with sprinkles! Refrigerate until set. Store in an airtight container.

This makes 3 dozen minature cups, and anywhere from 12 to 18 regular sized cups, depending on how you distribute the ingredients and how big you make the cups.

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