Cook: Peanut Butter Cups (Dairy-Free, Soy-Free, Gluten-Free)

For years, I've had a hankerin' for some Reese's Peanut Butter Cups like when I was a kid! Sadly, I can't have them. They contain cow milk products. But I found a recipe online that's supposed to imitate the taste and I tried it out this weekend.

I made a few changes to the original recipe. First, I decreased the amount of peanut butter filling (the original recipe called for too much and we "had to" chow down on the extra because it wouldn't fit in the containers). I used semi-sweet dairy-free chocolate instead of milk chocolate. Finally, I didn't follow the instructions to add extra salt to the peanut butter (there's already salt in the all-natural peanut butter that we bought).

According to the Assessor, my recipe is a good match with the original in terms of taste. The chocolate was a bit harder than Reece's chocolate, but that's probably because it's not milk-chocolate. I might try to make my own goat milk chocolate some time and see if that doesn't help.

Before using my recipe, you might read the original because he gave a good explanation for why you should use high quality chocolate and peanut butter to make the recipe work.

Dairy-Free Peanut Butter Cups

Theses are the brands I used.

Ingredients (as adjusted from the original)

• 12 paper muffin cups
• 1 12 oz package of milk-free chocolate chips (semi-sweet)
• 1/2 cup reduced fat all-natural smooth peanut butter
• 1/4 cup powdered sugar

Instructions

1) Cut the top half off of the paper muffin cups.

2) Heat up all the chocolate for 2 minutes at 50% power in a glass, microwave-safe bowl. Then take a teaspoon full and drop into each paper cup. Spread the chocolate up the sides of the cup.

3) Put in freezer or fridge until hardened.

4) Mix powdered sugar and peanut butter.

5) When the chocolate hardens, heat the bowl of peanut butter for 30 seconds to 1 minute in the microwave and place even amounts into each cup. Make sure to pat the peanut butter down so that the second chocolate layer will cover the top.

6) Let your helpers lick the peanut butter bowl while the half-finished cups are cooling in the fridge.

7) Once the peanut butter has cooled, spread the remaining chocolate over the top. If the bowl of chocolate has cooled and is stiff again, you can reheat it on 50% power in increments of 30 seconds.

8) Decorate your helpers with the muffin tops while the peanut butter cups are hardening in the fridge.

9) Enjoy!

It's so tasty! 

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