homemade peanut butter cups

Hold on to your love handles, because I've got a winner here and you're going to love it.

Actually, not much needs to be said except: homemade peanut butter cups. Those four words together trump most things. I imagine any conversation:

So what are you doing this weekend?
Watching the super bowl. Going skiing. Flying to Hawaii.
How about you?
Making homemade peanut butter cups.
Lucky.

And they are as good as you think they would be. I followed this recipe, and used melted chocolate almond bark to dip them in at the end. They're no bake. They're easy peasy. And they're my new go to. Also, I keep mine in the freezer because I like a frozen pb cup. My mom taught me that and she is a wise woman.

Here's the recipe:
1 cup smooth peanut butter
1/4 cup softened butter
2 T. brown sugar
2 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp salt

Mix all of that together in the mixer.

Then add 2 cups of powdered sugar.

Dump the pb mixture into an 8x8 or 11x7 casserole pan that has been lined with parchment (important!) for easy removal later. Put the pan in the freezer (cover with saran wrap) for an hour until hardened.

Use a cookie cutter to cut your hearts or stars or eggs or even just squares. It doesn't matter. No one is actually going to care the shape once they've eaten one.

Then put the cut outs back on a cookie sheet lined in parchment back into the freezer until hard again (maybe an hour? less?)

Melt your chocolate almond bark in the microwave until nice and smooth. Dip your shapes into the chocolate and lay back down on the parchment paper. (I used a cookie rack and regretted it!) Then I stuck mine back in the freezer once more. But you could also just start eating at this point.

So good.

And! I'm going to make little footballs for Sunday. You should too!

Nancy, come on by any time! I've got one here with your name on it. :)