one thing that everybody here agrees with is that Reeses peanut butter cups are pretty much perfect. Amazingly enough, you can make a pretty good approximation at home pretty cheaply and easily. You can use whatever peanut butter you've got -- doesn't matter if it's the cheapest store brand or low fat or natural etc. But you do need a full cup (which is sort of messy to measure but life is full of messy necessities). You also need one cup of margarine but it can be butter or Smart Balance or some combination and you can skimp and go for 3/4 cup in a pinch. So far, a pretty forgiving recipe, eh? Anyway, melt the butter in the microwave and then stir in the peanut butter. Smash one pack (not the whole box, just one pack within the box) of graham crackers -- don't open the cellophane, just pound it with your fist till it's pretty much all crumbles (but be careful not to REALLY pound it or the cellophane will burst and you'll have graham cracker crumbs all over the floor)(not that that's ever happened to me). You can use the low fat or regular graham crackers but not the cinnamon (unless you love the taste combo of cinnamon and peanut butter). One pack is eight full crackers or about 1 cup of crumbs. Mix the crumbs with the peanut butter-butter mixture and then add in a one pound box of confectioners sugar (about 3-3/4 cups). It's really thick at this point but you can mix it with a big spoon (or well-washed hands if no one is looking). When it's pretty well mixed, dump it into a well-greased 13 x 9 glass baking pan. You can use metal but I always think it tastes a little "tinny" -- the peanut butter lying on the metal picks up a metallic taste. You can line a metal pan with wax paper to get around that. Then press all the peanut butter pretty evenly all over the pan. Now, melt one bag (12 oz) chocolate chips. A mix of half milk chocolate and half regular semi-sweet is best but not always in the cabinet. Melt for one minute in the microwave then stir and put in again till soft (but beware: it will burn if you zap it too long). Pour melted chocolate over peanut butter and put in the fridge for about 15 minutes to firm up so you can score the chocolate before it's hard as a rock. If you forget and the chocolate totally hardens, it will crack on you when you try to cut it. Not good when you're trying to cut even pieces so no one can steal the biggest. And that's my dissertation on homemade Reeses peanut butter cups.
Saturday, January 30, 2010
one thing that everybody here agrees with is that Reeses peanut butter cups are pretty much perfect. Amazingly enough, you can make a pretty good approximation at home pretty cheaply and easily. You can use whatever peanut butter you've got -- doesn't matter if it's the cheapest store brand or low fat or natural etc. But you do need a full cup (which is sort of messy to measure but life is full of messy necessities). You also need one cup of margarine but it can be butter or Smart Balance or some combination and you can skimp and go for 3/4 cup in a pinch. So far, a pretty forgiving recipe, eh? Anyway, melt the butter in the microwave and then stir in the peanut butter. Smash one pack (not the whole box, just one pack within the box) of graham crackers -- don't open the cellophane, just pound it with your fist till it's pretty much all crumbles (but be careful not to REALLY pound it or the cellophane will burst and you'll have graham cracker crumbs all over the floor)(not that that's ever happened to me). You can use the low fat or regular graham crackers but not the cinnamon (unless you love the taste combo of cinnamon and peanut butter). One pack is eight full crackers or about 1 cup of crumbs. Mix the crumbs with the peanut butter-butter mixture and then add in a one pound box of confectioners sugar (about 3-3/4 cups). It's really thick at this point but you can mix it with a big spoon (or well-washed hands if no one is looking). When it's pretty well mixed, dump it into a well-greased 13 x 9 glass baking pan. You can use metal but I always think it tastes a little "tinny" -- the peanut butter lying on the metal picks up a metallic taste. You can line a metal pan with wax paper to get around that. Then press all the peanut butter pretty evenly all over the pan. Now, melt one bag (12 oz) chocolate chips. A mix of half milk chocolate and half regular semi-sweet is best but not always in the cabinet. Melt for one minute in the microwave then stir and put in again till soft (but beware: it will burn if you zap it too long). Pour melted chocolate over peanut butter and put in the fridge for about 15 minutes to firm up so you can score the chocolate before it's hard as a rock. If you forget and the chocolate totally hardens, it will crack on you when you try to cut it. Not good when you're trying to cut even pieces so no one can steal the biggest. And that's my dissertation on homemade Reeses peanut butter cups.
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