Homemade Peanut Butter Cups are hands down one of the most rewarding from scratch candies to make at home. Halloween or Holiday gift giving is the perfect excuse to try your hand at homemade candy!
I originally posted these little favorites in 2012 and they remain some of our favorite treats to make from scratch. We recently had a backyard movie night and we whipped these up to share along with lots of popcorn. I figure since Halloween and the holidays are quickly approaching this won’t be the only batch of Peanut Butter Cups I make this season.
My original post from 2012:
With a crunchy, sweet milk chocolate shell and a creamy, salty peanut butter center, these Peanut Butter Cups are guaranteed to win the affection of the man in your life. Or the men in your life. I made a big pot of White Chicken Chili along with these peanut butter cups for Josh’s band this weekend in hopes of making the whole experience just that much better for the talented group of guys.
Whenever Josh has a big show we usually also have a delicious weekend, waking up to a tasty breakfast, and eating one of his favorite meals before the show, plus of course a few treats to snack on in the green-room as the band sets up and goes for sound checks. These peanut butter cups were perfect for the guys to enjoy back stage and the recipe is pretty easy, although a bit time consuming I will say.
I made these tasty little chocolate candies with my sweet mother-in-law, who came all the way from Texas to see her son play a show. She’s always a great one to have along in the kitchen as we tell stories and laugh. Also, when we cook we aren’t too shy to lick our fingers, lick the mixing spoons or eat ‘mess-ups’.
The concert went fabulously, due to the treats of course 🙂 No really, it was a great night. They played at the State Room, one of my favorite venues in Salt Lake City and with two openers, Owen Monroy and Seafinch, the night was surely a hit.
Josh’s songs have evolved over the years, from fast punk songs about lost love, to heart breaking ballads about his parents’ divorce, to now- stories of introspection of his own heart. If I look back on all of his CDs its pretty incredible to see how much he has grown and matured to be the man he is today. I guess musicians have it hard that way, their life story inspected by others as an open canvas. Josh’s story revealed through song becomes more beautiful with every song he creates.
If you perhaps missed the concert but are interested in hearing some of his music, you can check out his new album, All We Can Do on iTunes. I recommend his music as great cooking tunes, although I will warn you, it causes most people to ponder life in a different way so as your listening and thinking don’t burn the food! Or a better idea, just make these PB cups while you listen, no baking required!
About the Recipe
• To create the bottom chocolate layer of the pb cup I use a kitchen pastry brush to brush melted chocolate onto the mini muffin liners. Then, I place these in the fridge or freezer to set while I mix up the peanut butter for the center.
• For a little bit of crunch in the pb center, I mix in crushed biscoff cookies. You could also use a gluten free butter cookie or anything that’s nice and hard.
• If you want a less sweet candy you can omit the sugar. It does help thicken then peanut butter so you may add a couple extra tablespoons of cookie crumbles or use a non-runny peanut butter.
• I use milk chocolate here for a more traditional or familiar pb cup but feel free to use your favorite chocolate.
• When melting the chocolate you can do so in the microwave or on the stove top in a double boiler. If using the microwave, start with 30 seconds then stir and do 5-10 second intervals stirring in between (more chocolate will melt as you stir it all together). Stop heating the chocolate right when it reaches the melting point, careful not to cook or burn it. You can rewarm as necessary.
Peanut Butter Cup Recipe with Sea Salt
Ingredients
- 2 bags quality milk chocolate chips
- 1 1/4 cup peanut butter
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar, sifted
- 1/3 cup biscoff cookies or graham crackers, crushed
- 1 teaspoon himalayan sea salt*, divided in half
Instructions
- Line a mini-muffin pan with mini cupcake paper liners. Set aside.
- Melt 1 bag of the chocolate in a double boiler. (Or you could do this using a microwave, melting the chocolate for 30 second then additional 5 minute intervals until melted). Stir with a spoon or spatula until smooth. Remove the pan of melted chocolate from the stove and turn off the heat.
- Using the back of a spoon or a pastry brush, paint a layer of melted chocolate onto the bottoms and sides of the paper liners. Coat the liners generously. Set the bowl aside with any remaining melted chocolate left in it.
- Put the muffin pan in the refrigerator for 20 minutes while you make the peanut-butter filling.
Peanut Butter Filling
- In a bowl, combine the peanut butter, crushed cookies or graham crackers, powdered sugar and 1/2 tsp salt. Stir with a spoon until well combined.
- Return the bowl used to melt the chocolate to the top of the double boiler. Turn the heat to medium-high. Add the remaining bag of chocolate and melt.
- Meanwhile, remove the muffin pan from the refrigerator. Then divide peanut-butter mixture in tablespoonfuls or 1 inch balls into the chocolate cups.
- By now, the chocolate added to the double boiler should all be melted. Using a spoon, dollop the top of each peanut butter mixture mound with a generous portion of chocolate.
- Use the back of a teaspoon to level out the tops and swirl the top of the chocolate. Top with a sprinkle of himalayan sea salt.
- Place the muffin pan in the refrigerator. Within one hour, your cups should be set, depending how cold your fridge runs.
- Remove the pan from the refrigerator and remove from wrappers. Enjoy!
Notes
Equipment used in this recipe:
Mini Baking Cups
Mini Muffin Pan
photos from 2012:
Love these! What a fun little treat! And I LOVE the new site! Congrats my friend!
This post has me craving chocolate and peanut butter in a bad way, and the treats look fantastic!
Josh’s concert was fantastic! I knew he was talented, but had no idea how much so! To all of Becky’s readers, I would highly recommend Josh’s new album.
And finally, I love the new site. Well done! 🙂
Thanks Annalise! I was so encouraged that you and Steve came to the show. It is nice to have foodie friends to share more of our life with!
I had to share! Not only do the chocolates look amazing, the little bowl made me feel giddy inside!
Oh you would love my mother’s bowls!!! I remember all of your colorful Pyrex from our vintage cocktail party!!
Oh, these peanut butter cups remind me of some delicious ones that I recently received in a Foodzie box, but yours look even better (more peanut butter!). I can’t wait for a spare minute so I can make them 🙂 The concert looks like fun, too!
These look wonderful! You are so sweet to make these for your husband and the band. Lucky guys! 🙂
I’ve got to try this recipe.
oh my… my absolutely favorite chocolatey treat. I must give this a try soon.
They are a new favorite treat at our house now! Let me know what you think if you try then out!
These look yummy, but I do have a question. Where does the other half of the salt go?
the other half is sprinkled on top. Thanks for bringing that to my attention. I will make that change.
I cannot get milk chocolate chips how will these come out w semisweet or i can melt milk chocolate candy bars what do you think?
Hi there.
Your recipe sounds so interesting I would love to try this. I live in South Africa and seeing our supermarket products are dissimilar could you please give me an indication of the weight of the chocolate chip bags?
Many thanks.
Oh dear, something else too. The biscoff cookies or graham crackers – are they sweet as in normal cookies ?
Thanks .
Greetings from South Africa and a very merry Christmas to you and yours.
These look so good and pb cups are my FAVORITE! I think I will make them with dark chocolate <3
Yum these looks divine! How can you make these so they are wheat free. Can I use almond meal instead of the crackers maybe? Or will I need to make my own wheat free biscuits?
I would try finding a wheat free cookie that would be a good substitute for the ones in the recipe! That should be fine!
holy moses, these look delicious… totally speaking my language! (i love himalayan sea salt too!!)
Himalayan Salt is not sea salt, not even close. It does not come from the sea it comes from caverns within the country of Pakistan. Please update this as it is a misconception.
Thank you,
Jon Wollin
Thanks for your comment Jon! I think this term is up for discussion as this amazing salt was formed from salt deposits from an acient ocean millions of years ago. So, though it’s not from the sea now, maybe that’s why some still use the term sea salt when referring to Himalayan salt.
great recipe and thank you for introducing a new salt ingredient, love the home-made version of these since you’re able to alter the peanut butter-chocolate ration, thank you!
Wonderful to hear Sabrina! So glad you like them 🙂
I’ve made this recipe for maybe 4-5 years now and love it. I am gluten free now for a few years and used to just leave out the graham cracker crumbs. I made it again tonight and since I’m gluten free (wasn’t when I first started making these) I changed it a little. I used powdered Swerve instead of sugar since my chocolate chips already had lots of sugar in them. I use semi-sweet chocolate chips instead of milk because we just don’t buy milk chocolate. I also swapped the same amount of almond meal (not flour) in place of the graham cracker crumbs to make it gluten free and couldn’t tell a difference! I have made these in an 8×8 pan (a little harder to cut, but still works for me) and in a candy mold/mini muffin tin. Thanks for a great recipe!
Love these tips!! Thanks so much Amanda and I’m so glad you enjoy these as much as we do! I’ll be trying them with less sugar and almond meal next time.