Peanut Butter Cups

Well, as if it wasn't bad enough that we had a snowstorm about a week ago that knocked out the power from 67,000 homes in the Asheville area (including mine), we woke up to this on Christmas morning. An ice storm! That knocked our power out! Yeesh! Let me tell you, the grand baking plans I had were entirely thwarted...

We were at my mom's house - about 15 minutes from mine. She lives in the woods, and thankfully has a fireplace and a gas stove, so we had heat and could cook, but that was about it. I won't go into the details of how we spent much of our day melting snow so that we could flush the toilet...

Anyway...

We didn't end up having Christmas dinner until yesterday. I made Mexican Wedding Cookies, a Peanut Butter Truffle Tart and World Peace Cookies, so no new posts from those, but I did whip up some Peanut Butter Cups last night! I had to have something to share with you, I've been so absent lately!

I've mentioned before that I've never been a fan of peanut butter, but there are a few things I really do love it in. A good peanut butter cookie is hard to beat, and you certainly can't go wrong with a peanut butter cup. There is really something about the combination of peanut butter and chocolate.

I really mean it when I say I whipped these up. They couldn't be easier to make, even at the last minute. Below is how I made them, but there is certainly a lot of room for adjustment depending on your personal preferences.

Peanut Butter Cups

12 oz best quality semisweet chocolate

1/4 cup peanut butter

small paper or foil candy cups - the ones I used must have held about an ounce, though unfortunately I threw away the packaging without looking... Next time, I would use smaller foil cups, as the paper ones were a tad difficult to pull off of the chocolate. With the size I used, I got 18 candies.

Melt chocolate in a heat-proof bowl set over a pot of simmering water. When completely smooth, spoon just enough into candy cup to cover the bottom, then place about 1/2 teaspoon of peanut butter on top and cover entirely with melted chocolate so that the surface is smooth and flat. Place in fridge to set.