I noticed a quality decline in Reese's® peanut butter cups, gradually, over many years, particularly with the filling. To me it tasted more sweet and less like peanuts. That got me thinking about possibly making peanut butter cups.
I also got annoyed with the "you never know how much you're going to get until the package is opened" problem. It was/is a constantly changing stupid packaging game to fool the consumer into accepting less product while enhancing company profits. The only defense for the consumer is to remember a decent price/weight relationship, do some trivial arithmetic, and respond accordingly ... buy or shun.
I've had notable successes with making chocolate candies so I decided to do a bit of exploring on the Internet and find a decent recipe for making peanut butter cups at home. I found one that looked pretty good so I tried it. Like many Internet recipes I have encountered, there were marked deficiencies.
Okay ... the overall results were okay but the brown sugar wasn't really melted into the peanut butter mixture, so it was noticeably crunchy granular in the final filling. Also, the peanut butter filling was too soft. Beyond that the peanut taste was weak.
I made changes to the recipe (included below) to correct those problems, including eliminating most of the butter, all of the indicated brown sugar and all of the vanilla. I made use of crushed salted dry roasted peanuts, to enhance peanut flavor, along with some concentrated peanut butter flavoring that I bought from OliveNation.com. Both enhancements were great in effects on the final product.
My final filling was a bit soft at eating time, but I decided I like it that way. If you want you can increase the powdered sugar in the recipe using an additional 1/4 cup, and that will make the filling more firm but not too firm.
The chocolate used for Reese's® peanut butter cups remains okay but fine couverture grades of Belgian chocolate (Callebaut® ... buy it via Amazon®), milk and dark, is a definite upgrade. So that is what I use in this recipe. Actually, I decided to try a 50:50 mixture of milk and dark chocolate. That was really nice.
Ingredients: (makes 24 large [each between 1.5 ounces and 2.0 ounces] peanut butter cups)
1 cup of peanut butter (try to get a brand with good peanut flavor and less sugar)
1 tbsp. of softened butter
1 tsp. of concentrated peanut flavoring
1 cup of powdered sugar
1/2 tsp. of sea salt
1/2 cup of crushed, salted dry roasted peanuts
3 cups of high quality melted chocolate (about 5 to 6 cups of shaved chocolate pieces or buttons)
Directions:
Combine all the ingredients except the powdered sugar and the chocolate in an electric mixer bowl and use the mixer on medium speed to beat together those ingredients until they are well-combined, about three minutes. Scrape down the inside of the mixing bowl and mix for one additional minute.
Gradually add the powdered sugar, about 1/4 cup at a time, mixing on low to medium speed until it is completely combined with the peanut butter mixture.
Use a plastic spatula to scrape down the sides inside the mixing bowl to assure all ingredients are combined well. Mix on medium speed for an additional two minutes.
Spoon the peanut butter cup filling into a shallow cereal type bowl and set it aside.
Cover a 12" x 17" baking sheet with parchment paper.
Keep your fingers lightly dusted with powdered sugar and form 24 filling balls about 3/4" in diameter from the peanut butter cup filling, putting them onto the baking sheet in six rows, four to a row.
Put the baking sheet in the refrigerator to chill the peanut butter cup filling balls.
Set out 24 regular size cupcake liners into two, 12 openings cupcake pans.
Put shaved pieces of chocolate (and/or chocolate buttons) into a large microwave safe polypropylene bowl or into a one quart heat resistant sugar cane fiber bowl. The sugar cane fiber bowls can be purchased through Amazon® in units of 50 for 29 cents each, and they are reusable, and they are the right choice for melting small amounts of chocolate, like one cup. Those bowls are the wrong choice if you are trying to melt more than one cup of chocolate pieces at a time, as they can develop hot spots on the bottom, so in that instance use a polypropylene bowl.).
If you plan to melt all of the chocolate at one time then you will need a bowl with a two quart capacity. I recommend doing the melting in two or three additions to the polypropylene bowl. That way you can mix it more easily and better control the temperature of the chocolate while heating it.
Prepare your chocolate by microwaving it in the bowl in one 30 second cycle on full power, and then in multiple 15 second (or less) increments (stirring well between each heating cycle) until the chocolate is completely melted. Do not allow the chocolate temperature to exceed 92 degrees F. You can use an instant read thermometer or a candy thermometer to check the temperature after each stirring cycle.
Spoon about one tablespoon of melted chocolate into a cupcake liner and use the tip of a teaspoon to spread the chocolate so the entire bottom of the liner is covered evenly.
Repeat that step for the other 23 cupcake liners.
Chill the chocolate coated cupcake liners in the refrigerator for ten minutes to partially set the chocolate.
Place a piece of chilled peanut butter cup filling in one of the cupcake pan openings on top of the bottom layer of chocolate, centered. Press on it with your finger to make it flat on top but DO NOT LET the filling touch the paper cupcake liners.
Repeat that operation until all 24 cupcake liners and all 24 pieces of peanut butter cup filling have been used. In the next step you will cover the filling pieces with melted chocolate, but remember the goal is to barely cover the filling pieces, not to fill up the cupcake liner. Doing it right will result in a peanut butter cup size that is generous and with the right ratio of chocolate to peanut butter cup filling. Use too much chocolate early on and you will not have enough chocolate to do all of the peanut butter cups.
Dispense melted chocolate over the peanut butter cup filling using a small ladle or even a soup spoon. But do not dispense more chocolate than necessary. Just barely cover the peanut butter cup filling and assure that melted chocolate has flowed around the filling down to the chocolate base. Use the underside of a teaspoon lightly to smooth out the top surface of the chocolate.
Repeat that step for the other 23 peanut butter cup positions.
Allow the peanut butter cups to sit undisturbed in a cool place until the chocolate has hardened/set.
Enjoy!