Peanut Butter Cups

I can’t think of a better way to begin than with a recipe for vegan chocolate peanut butter cups…can you? The idea was born one snowy Tuesday night while I was in class half listening to my professor talking about Frank O’Hara. What I was really doing was browsing the web looking for gluten free vegan recipes I could bake for my friend for Christmas. “What, Christmas?” That’s right, I was temporarily laid off from my job (thankfully I’ve started back again) and as a result, was extremely short on cash over the holidays. One day while I was watching my friend’s eyes glaze over as she ate a gluten free store bought cookie, it hit me. Why not bake her a present? I know how much she appreciates gluten free baked goods, as they’re hard to come by, and who doesn’t love free food? Tonight I made her Peanut Butter Cups, and I have to credit Have Cake, Will Travel (http://havecakewilltravel.com/) for the peanut butter cup recipe, as much as I’d like to imagine I came up with such deliciousness myself.

I made a few changes however. I didn’t have mini cupcake liners, so I used medium sized ones (that just means bigger peanut butter cups…too bad, eh). I also couldn’t find chocolate chips at my grocery store that didn’t have milk ingredients (grrr). So I used some dark chocolate from a box that should have been used for fondue.

Here’s the recipe:

7 medium sized cupcake liners
7 oz of dark dairy free chocolate
½ a cup of natural peanut butter, as well as 2 tablespoons to add to the chocolate you melt to line the cups
1/ 4 of a cup powdered sugar
½ a teaspoon of vanilla extract (hmm as I type this I realize I put 2 teaspoons in due to misreading the recipe…however mine tasted delicious I assure you)
Pinch of sea salt (my peanut butter is salt free, so if your PB already has salt maybe skip this)

First, I chopped up my chocolate, plopped in 2 tablespoons of PB, and microwaved it for 1 minute, stirred it, and microwaved it again for another minute.
Let it cool just a bit if it’s too hot.

Using a teaspoon, scoop some chocolately goodness into the cups, and spread so the shell is covered (not too thickly, not too thinly…just right), making sure to leave a couple tablespoons to cover the filling at the end.

Chill in the fridge while you get the filling ready.

Stir PB, vanilla, salt and sugar, and pack mush into a firm ball in the bowl.

Scoop an even amount into the cupcake liners, and cover with a bit of the left over melted chocolate. Chill it in the fridge for a bit (around an hour) and then enjoy!!!!

So amazingly good, I hope my friend likes them!

All throughout, I was listening to some Lou Barlow, and Mermaid Avenue, the joint effort of Billy Bragg and Wilco I picked up last night at Sonic Boom. Nothing beats good tunes and vegan chocolate!