Peanut butter and chocolate are a match made in heaven. (Though not quite as heavenly as caramel and chocolate, but that’s just me.)
We love peanut butter in this house. And chocolate. And even more when they are smooshed together.
I’ve seen countless recipes for peanut butter cups, peanut butter balls, [insert Reeses copycat recipe of choice here]. But they are all unnecessarily complicated or make enough to feed the state of California twice over. Also, people do not know how to give proper measurements when it comes to using a lot of powdered sugar.
WTF does 4 boxes of powdered sugar equate to? My powdered sugar comes in bags of 2, 5, and/or 7 POUNDS. Does a box equal a bag of any size? I seriously doubt I need 4 7-pound bags of powdered sugar.
And then I found this recipe. It gave actual measurements for the powdered sugar. It has simple steps. It makes a decent (small) amount. And it tastes good.
It doesn’t taste Just!Like!Reeses! But it’s good.
I made these (a double batch) to take to my parents’ house for my nephew’s birthday. We didn’t bring many home.
Peanut Butter Cup Bars
Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
1 & 3/4 cups powdered sugar
1 cup peanut butter
3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs1/4 cup unsalted butter (1/2 stick)
1 cup chocolate chips (semi-sweet, milk, dark, your preference)Directions:
1.) Line an 8×8 square pan with foil. Make sure the ends hang over the edges of the pan, you’ll use them to lift the bars out later. Butter the foil. Set aside. (If you use a Pyrex pan, just butter the pan and skip the foil all together. Pyrex is awesome.)
2.) In a sauce pan melt 1 stick of butter (1/2 cup) over low/medium heat. Once melted, remove from heat and stir in powdered sugar until smooth. Add peanut butter and graham cracker crumbs and stir until completely combined. Spread mixture evenly into prepared pan and smooth the top.
3.) In the same pan, melt 1/2 stick of butter (1/4 cup) over low/medium heat. Add chocolate chips and stir until melted. Pour over peanut butter layer and smooth evenly across the pan.
4.) Refrigerate 30 minutes to an hour or longer to set. Lift bars out of the pan using foil edges and place on cutting board to cut into bars. Store in the refrigerator to maintain chocolate shell.
Adapted from here.
The original only used half as much chocolate for the top layer. Just looking at the pictures on the original post, it didn’t look like nearly enough chocolate to compliment the peanut butter. I doubled it and it turned out great.
I used creamy peanut butter but chunky might work out alright too. It would give it a different, crunchy texture.
They don’t taste “just” like a Reeses cup like some people claim, but they’re close. And they’re good.
Peanut butter cups are one of Bob’s very favorite, but he doesn’t have them often because milk chocolate triggers his milk allergy and dark chocolate ones are few and far between. With these I can use anything but milk chocolate and Bob can get his peanut butter cup fix.
And for a dessert recipe, there’s not a lot of mess and clean up afterward. Aside from dealing with powdered sugar. Because I am incapable of handling powdered sugar without making a big mess. But it’s better than a sink full of dishes to wash.
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