Tata’s

Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups

***These are fairly easy to make and super fun to make with kids!  Also using dark chocolate makes these treats fairly low in sugar as the whole recipe has only 1 ¼ cup added sugar.  A friend challenged me to make a dessert that is "Dairy free; egg free and Gluten-free."  I provided directions for both this special diet and the dairy version.  Enjoy!!

INGREDIENTS

·         30 1-inch paper candy liners or 14 waxy cupcake wrappers

·         1 cup creamy peanut butter (this is a good recipe to use up junky peanut butter i.e. Skippy Jiff etc…or use the good stuff.)

·         1 1/4 cup sifted powdered sugar

·         3 tablespoon butter, softened (you can use a vegan butter or coconut oil (the solid stuff—not liquid) if you want to skip the dairy.)

·         3 cups (10-oz. pkg.) Dark Chocolate chips

·         2 tablespoons + 1 tsp vegetable shortening (If you can’t do shortening you can add an oil of your choice i.e. avocado oil or canola oil—do not use olive oil or other oils such as peanut that have a strong taste or it will overpower your chocolate.)

·         Coarse sea salt

·         1/3 cup chopped salted peanuts

·         INSTRUCTIONS

·         PLACE paper liners on a baking sheet.  COMBINE peanut butter, sugar and butter in mixing bowl until well blended. If mixture is very soft, mix in an additional tablespoon of powdered sugar at a time. If mixture is dry add a little more peanut butter at a time.  The consistency should be that of play dough and should not stick to your hands.  

      Shape peanut butter mixture into 30 1/2- to 3/4-inch balls or 12 to 14  1 inch balls if you are using cupcake wrappers.  flattening slightly.  MELT dark chocolate morsels and shortening in a glass or metal bowl in a double boiler.  To double boil: Take a sauce pan and put 2 inches of water in it.  Then find a bowl that fits nicely on your sauce pan—so it won’t fall.  Place your shortening and dark chocolate pieces in the bowl and place on top of the sauce pan with water.  

    

      Turn on to med/high and stir until chocolate is melted and smooth.   STIRRING often. TIP:  Do not allow water to touch bottom of bowl or allow water to get into chocolate.

·         Spoon 1 teaspoon of melted chocolate into each candy cup or 1 ½ TBS into each cupcake wrapper . 

     Place peanut butter filling onto top of melted morsels. 

     Top each peanut butter cup with one teaspoon of melted chocolate for candy wrappers or 1 ½ TBS melted chocolate for cupcake wrappers.

    While the chocolate is still soft: Sprinkle with a few grains of sea salt on some of them and sprinkle chopped salted peanuts on the others—for decoration. 

     Refrigerate for 20 minutes or until firm. Store in covered container in refrigerator.

Enjoy!!
 Love, Tata