Smooth and creamy peanut butter wrapped in rich, sweet chocolate. This recipe is the thing dreams are made of!
Peanut Butter Cups
I’m just going to own this fact: I am the mom that steals the peanut butter cups from her kids Halloween bag! It’s true, and I am not even ashamed! And this homemade peanut butter cup is better than anything you can buy at the store.
Chocolate and peanut butter may quite possibly be the world’s best combination. I love it in all forms! Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars, Peanut Butter Pie, and even Peanut Butter Cheesecake. This is as good as it gets!
Candy making is one of those things that feels intimidating and a little overwhelming. But no fear, these peanut butter cups are dangerously easy to make! And they can be ready faster than it takes to go to the store!
6 Simple Ingredients to Peanut Butter Cup Heaven
- Chocolate Chips- One of my favorite things about making homemade peanut butter cups is the fact that you can use quality chocolate. Feel free to use chocolate as inexpensive or as luxury as you want!
- Butter
- Creamy Peanut Butter- Any brand will do, but if you are looking for a more exact Reese’s peanut butter texture, try using natural peanut butter. It will give you that slightly grittier texture.
- Powdered Sugar
- Vanilla
- Salt
How to Melt Chocolate in the Instant Pot
Essentially, you’ll use your Instant Pot and a glass bowl to create a double boiler! I use this all the time!
Put about 2 cups of water into the liner of the Instant Pot. Turn the Instant Pot onto Sauté HIGH. Place a large glass bowl on top of the Instant Pot (as shown in the pictures). Add chocolate to the bowl and stir while the chocolate melts.
Simple Steps to Homemade Peanut Butter Cups
Using and electric mixer, combine the butter and peanut butter and mix until smooth.
Add in the powdered sugar. Start with 1 cup, then add the last half cup 1 tablespoon at a time until the peanut butter has a cookie dough consistency.
Melt the chocolate chips in the microwave (Or the Instant Pot! See my note above!)
Line a mini muffin pan with liners. Spoon a small amount of chocolate to the bottom of each liner. Tap the muffin tin on the counter until the chocolate has spread evenly on the bottom of the liners.
Roll small portions of peanut butter into balls and place them in the liners.
Using either a spoon or a piping bag, pour melted chocolate over the peanut butter, again, tapping the pan to remove any air bubbles and to flatten the tops of the chocolate.
Place the muffin tin in the fridge until the chocolate sets.
It is easy to make these peanut butter cups in mass, for Christmas gifts…or you know…weekends. 😉
Why does my chocolate not harden?
This is probably because it got too hot while melting! Try to keep your melted chocolate under 90° to insure that it will still harden nicely.
How to store your Peanut Butter Cups
I personally like them chilled, but this isn’t necessary. Once the chocolate has set, you can put the Peanut butter cups into an air tight container and leave them at room temp.
You can also freeze the peanut butter cups to make them last up to 3 months!
Peanut Butter Cups
Ingredients
Instructions
- Using a stand or electric mixer, combine the butter, peanut butter, vanilla and salt until smooth.
- Add in the powdered sugar (1 cup to start) and mix until it has the consistency of a thick cookie dough. Add in the extra half cup little by little until you have the right consistency.
- Melt your chocolate chips using the microwave (30 second intervals, stirring in between each one until smooth) or with a double boiler.
- line a 24 mini muffin pan with the muffin liners.
- Spoon a small amount of chocolate into the bottom of each liner. Tap the bottom of the pan onto the counter until the chocolate has spread to the bottom of the muffin liner.
- Roll a small portion of the peanut butter into a ball and place in to each muffin liner.
- Either spoon or squeeze the melted chocolate over top of the peanut butter balls, again tapping the pan to remove air bubbles and flatten the tops of the chocolate.
- Place in the fridge until the chocolate has set.
Nutrition
Tamra says
I’m excited to try this recipe! Do semi sweet chocolate chips or milk chocolate chocolate chips give you that Reese’s chocolate taste?
Karli Bitner says
Milk chocolate!!
Virginia B says
Holy smoke, I am in great danger of losing any self-control I might ever have had with these things in front of me. Just delicious. I used a mix of several stashes of dark chocolate, Trader Joe’s crunchy PB. Thank you very very much!