Peanut Butter Cups

Good morning, dearies!

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So, it's Monday morning, but it's a special Monday morning. Today is my friend Rachael's birthday, and I managed to do what I've always wanted to do, which is make a friend a birthday present! I'm terrible at remembering birthdays (I swear, if facebook didn't remind me, I'd forget most of em) so as my friend, you're lucky if you get a greeting, let alone a handmade present! But since Rachael and my birthdays are only 6 days apart, and since we're all stations go for her wedding in just 3 weeks, I wanted to make her feel a bit special on her birthday.

(Enter from stage left, peanut butter cups). Rachael and I share a love for chocolate. And peanut butter (crunchy, not smooth). And when I found these Peanut Butter Bars from Our Best Bites, the deal, as it were, was sealed.

However, we all know that I'm not-so-great at following recipes, not least because I just cannot be trusted to always have the ingredients on hand. Such was last night when, after a weekend away in Witsand, I started making these, and realised I had absolutely no icing sugar. Bugrit.. And I'd already crushed the graham crackers (tennis biscuits for my locals), and had dirtied my blender, a spoon and a dish. So there was no turning back. Nope. So I spooned out the peanut butter (and a little bit more, just to be safe) and the butter, willfully ignoring the lack of sugar. And you know what? They turned out just lovely. Peanutty. Chocolatey. And the birthday girl is happy. What more could a girl ask for?

Peanut Butter Cups

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups tennis biscuit crumbs (that's about 375ml - my blender has cup markings on it, which helped)
1 cup and 2 tbsps peanut butter (this turned out to be most of a jar of smooth peanut butter - I know, I prefer crunchy, but the recipe said smooth. I'll try crunchy next time, believe me)
1/2 cup butter, softened (I used margerine, I know I know.. I only had salty butter)
1 cup chocolate chips

Method:

1. Process your tennis biscuits to crumbs, using a blender.
2. In the blender bowl/jug, spoon the peanut butter, and mix together.
3. Add the butter, and mix.
4. Spray 2 silicone mini muffin pans, or a large flat dish with cooking spray. I wanted these to me admin-free, and the original recipe said there were some issues cutting the big one into bars, so I decided to make individual ones, and see how that went. I ended up with more peanut mixture than I have space for, but that's never a bad thing, is it?
5. Take teaspoonfuls of the peanut mixture, and press into the muffin depressions. Aim for a flat top, as the chocolate will go there.
6. Melt the chocolate chips in 30 second bursts in the microwave, stirring between bursts. When the chocolate is nearly melted, stir, allowing the heat in the chocolate to melt the rest. If it's still too thick at that point, give it another 10-20 seconds. Be careful not to burn the chocolate, you want it to be sleek and shiny.
7. Spoon some chocolate over the peanut mixture, and smooth with the back of a spoon. I used two teaspoons, one for spooning it on, and another for smoothing.
8. When all the cups are covered, pop the whole lot into the fridge overnight. 
9. In the morning, pop out of the cups (that's why the silicone works so well for this), and serve. If you'll be serving them later, try to keep them cool if the weather's warm.

Serve with big glass of milk, I promise, you won't regret it!

Enjoy!

PS. Please excuse the phone photography, I wanted to show you what they looked like, and had to take a sneaky pic of them while Rachael was out to lunch. All I had was my phone and not too much time. In other news, you can tell I'm not much of a photographer!!