{"id":375,"date":"2018-05-29T19:18:23","date_gmt":"2018-05-29T19:18:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/trialbyfryer.com\/?p=375"},"modified":"2018-05-30T16:00:08","modified_gmt":"2018-05-30T16:00:08","slug":"homemade-reeses-peanut-butter-cups","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/trialbyfryer.com\/2018\/05\/homemade-reeses-peanut-butter-cups\/","title":{"rendered":"Homemade Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups"},"content":{"rendered":"

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I’ve discovered two things this past week: (1) I have been living in a bland, colorless world for not buying Stella Parks’s incredible\u00a0Bravetart cookbook<\/a> until now, and (2) relatedly, Stella Parks is a freaking genius. I have only made one recipe from this book, having received it last week, and I am already a die-hard fanatic, ready to preach her gifts to the world and prostrate myself at the feet of her baking and candy-making wizardry. How does she do it?? I have no idea, but if I gain even one-quarter of her instinct for creating delectable combinations of sugar, butter, and chocolate, then I can rest a happy woman.<\/p>\n

The item in question that has changed my life forever is the iconic, the unmistakable, the nostalgic Reese’s peanut butter cup. I love chocolate and peanut butter, and I love the Reese’s peanut butter cup. The silky smooth chocolate, slightly waxy, the salty-sweet peanut butter filling that’s a little bit grainy, containing tiny bits of crushed up peanuts, or maybe sugar, or maybe preservatives – I don’t really know.<\/p>\n

\"Caramel-vanilla <\/a>
Caramel-vanilla syrup is heated up <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
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It’s ready when it turns a golden peanut buttery brown <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n
\"Add <\/a>
Add the peanuts to the syrup <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Once <\/a>
Once brittle has cooled, break it up into pieces. Save half the brittle for snacking, then pulverize the other half with peanut butter to create that crackly, slightly crunchy filling <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

All this to say – I know what a Reese’s peanut butter cup tastes like. And I’ve made recipes before that profess to recreate an iconic dessert, only to taste distinctly – and unmistakably – not<\/em> like that dessert. They didn’t taste bad, they just tasted not like the original. Sort of like how you buy those Annie’s organic chocolate sandwich cookies thinking that they’re somehow healthier, but then kind of wish you had just bought the Oreo’s instead (Stella Parks also has a recipe for homemade Oreo’s. I digress). Same same, but different.<\/p>\n

\"Turning <\/a>
Turning solid chocolate… <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"...into <\/a>
…into tempered chocolate. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

NOT THESE REESE’S PEANUT BUTTER CUPS THOUGH. They are the same same, BUT BETTER. Stella Parks writes that Reese’s are fairly easy to recreate, because when you take away all the preservatives, the ingredients are just chocolate, sugar, peanut butter, and peanuts. And trust me – these homemade versions tasted like exactly that – real ingredients, without the preservatives. The peanut butter filling is the same slightly crunchy, slightly gritty version found in the original, but with more caramel, more vanilla, more peanutty goodness that you want to eat it by itself off the spoon (Stella – can I call you Stella? – suggests that if you have leftover filling, you can dollop it on toast or crackers like “peanut butter Nutella.” She means “peanut butter crack.”). The chocolate shell is still silky smooth, but no longer waxy, because you are using excellent quality chocolate that you buy at Whole Foods for $10 a pound which makes your husband give you serious side-eye, but you don’t even care because you’ve just singlehandedly recreated peanut butter chocolate childhood bliss.<\/p>\n

Now the bad news – these are a bit of a time suck to make, I’m afraid, and do involve tempering chocolate, which sounds scary but is not all that bad. I highly recommend you read\u00a0this article,<\/a>\u00a0which has a fantastic amount of information on the details of tempering chocolate, and also suggests some alternative methods. You will need a decent digital thermometer if you temper the chocolate the way I’ve described below. However, you also don’t have<\/em> to temper the chocolate.\u00a0If you skip the tempering, you’ll just have to store the peanut butter cups in the refrigerator and serve them cold, since the chocolate will remain melted at room temperature.\u00a0Also, a lot of the active time is spent on recreating that fluted iconic Reese’s cup look.\u00a0If you’re short on time or don’t care about the cup aspect, there’s an easier alternative described that takes much less time. All this is to say that you have no excuses for not MAKING THESE NOW. If you are a Reese’s lover, you will never go back to the originals again.<\/p>\n

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I die. Even our cat Dorothy loves these peanut butter cups.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Homemade Reese's Peanut Butter Cups<\/h2>\n\t
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Source: Bravetart<\/a>, by Stella Parks<\/p>

To make the peanut butter filling, first you will need to make a caramel-vanilla peanut brittle that you will then grind to a powder and mix with smooth peanut butter. You only need half of the peanut brittle for the Reese's cups, so if you want, you can halve all the ingredients for the brittle. However, the brittle is SO DELICIOUS and keeps up to 6 months in the freezer, so I don't think you'll be sorry if you go ahead and make the whole batch. I definitely wasn't!<\/p>\t<\/div>\n\t

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Ingredients<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t
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For caramel-vanilla peanut brittle:<\/h4>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t