Chocolate Peanut Butter Heaven

It’s been an uneventful week. I haven’t had any run ins with the law and haven’t even been scammed on my dating website. My only excitement was that my computer decided to stop working, so I couldn’t record this. With things this slow, there was nothing left to do but turn to food — chocolate and peanut butter to be exact.

I’ve been having a sizzling affair with chocolate and peanut butter since my teenage years. When I was sixteen, working at Tastee Freeze, I made fantastic sundaes with hot fudge and peanut butter before it became a cool thing to do.

In college, I graduated to peanut butter milkshakes and peanut butter frosted doughnuts, which I shared with my roommate Dawn. She was almost six feet tall, blonde and athletic — I was dark haired and five foot two, with little athletic ability, but a great deal of enthusiasm and an equally voracious appetite.

Dawn and I may have looked like unlikely friends, but we were a total match when it came to food. And thanks to her, I’m posting this great recipe for Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups. I tasted these when we were visiting Dawn and Rob at their cabin in the Adirondacks. They were so good, I ate way too many of them and felt no guilt whatsoever.

I thought it might have been because we were on vacation. Food always tastes  better when you’re with friends, in a beautiful place enjoying life, but Milena and Reef just confirmed for me that the ones I just I made were equally good. These have a wonderful crunch thanks to the crushed graham crackers, and are heaven for chocolate and peanut butter lovers. Plus, they’re really easy to make and “sort of” healthy.
While you work on making these, I’ll do my best to get in trouble again.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups from “The Kind Diet” by Alicia Silverstone

1/2 cup butter (or soy margarine)
3/4 cup peanut butter (I used Laura Scudders creamy)
1/4 cup granulated sugar

3/4 cup crushed graham cracker crumbs (I processed mine in the food processor)
2 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips (I use the chocolate chips from Costco, or Nestle)
3/4 cup soy milk or nut milk  (you could use whipping cream if you want to get crazy)
Chopped peanuts for sprinkling on top

In a small sauce pan, melt together the butter,  peanut butter and sugar. Once melted, add the graham cracker crumbs.

In a separate pan, melt the chocolate chips and soy milk. Use a whisk to make the chocolate mixture nice and smooth. Using a cupcake pan or mini cupcake pan, place cupcake papers in the cups.

Pour the peanut butter mixture in first and fill about 1/3 full, (if you like them more peanutty, fill them half full) then pour the warm chocolate mixture on top. Sprinkle lightly with chopped peanuts. Place them in the freezer or refrigerator and serve frozen or cold. Makes a dozen or more cupcake sized delights, or 30 to 35 mini cupcake sized. You may have some chocolate ganache left over, in which case you should immediately pour it over ice cream and eat it! (I’ve made these three times in the last three weeks — they’re that good.)