Peanut Butter Cups

Peanut Butter Cups
By Betsey Block (from momtalk.com)

"Sure, you can just go out and buy peanut butter cups, but you'll have more fun making them yourself. Plus, you get to lick the spoon."

SERVING SIZE: 12 large peanut butter cups

Ingredients
About 1/2 cup powdered sugar (more or less)

1 cup creamy peanut butter (if you use "natural," which means it has nothing added, you'll have to stir the oil in first)

1 bag chocolate chips (I used Ghiradelli, whose bags oddly weigh 11.5 ounces, but most brands offer 12-ounce bags. Milk chocolate is softest and tastes most like Reese's)

12 paper muffin cups, halved (so they're only half as high)

Directions
Stir the powdered sugar into the peanut butter. The amount you use will depend on how runny your peanut butter is and on how stiff or gooey you want the inside of your cups to be. (More sugar makes it stiffer; less keeps it gooey.) Stir in a couple of tablespoons of sugar at a time; once you have the texture you're looking for, set this mixture aside.

Microwave three-quarters of the chocolate chips at one-minute intervals, stirring after each minute until it's warm enough that it will melt if you stir it for another minute. This should take about three minutes. Then add in the last quarter of the chips and stir until they're melted.

Spread the chocolate over the bottom and sides of the halved muffin papers, making sure to cover all the paper. This tends to get a little messy, but there are worse things than getting chocolate on your fingers, right? Put the paper cups in a muffin tin so they'll harden in the right shape. Freeze the chocolate-coated papers in the muffin tin for 5 minutes.

Take them out of the freezer and spoon the peanut butter mixture into the chocolate cups, spreading it around so it covers the bottom of the cups but still leaves enough space for the top coating of chocolate.

Use the rest of the melted chocolate to cover completely.

Store in the fridge. Once they're set, peel off the muffin paper.

Serve at room temperature so they're soft and luscious.