Peanut Butter Cups
Makes 20 small cups
For the chocolate, use something with good quality. Good quality chocolate will naturally contain cocoa butter, which will give you a velvety mouth feel. Poor quality chocolate has oil instead of cocoa butter, which gives a greasy mouth feel. This recipe will call for chocolate chips, however you can easily chop a fine quality chocolate bar, such as Lindt, and follow the tempering process listed below.
All chocolate containing cocoa butter must be tempered before making confections. This is due to the instability of cocoa butter. Tempering stabilizes the cocoa butter to prevent white haze on the finished product of your confection. In other words, once the heating and cooling process of tempering is done correctly, the result will be shiny chocolate with a *snap* sound when broken or bitten into.
To temper dark chocolate using the “seeding method”. Place ¾ of the chocolate in a metal bowl. Bring a small pot of water to a boil. Place the bowl over the boiling water and move the chocolate around the bowl with a rubber spatula until it is melted. It is important for the chocolate not to burn. Be careful not to allow the chocolate to stay on the sides of the bowl for too long. Also do not bring the chocolate above 110 degrees.
Once the chocolate reaches 105 degrees Fahrenheit, add the remaining chocolate to the bowl. Fold in the chocolate and continue to stir. Once the chocolate “seeds” have melted, cool the chocolate to 82 degrees. You can do this by moving the chocolate around the bowl and streaming it from your spatula back into the bowl. When you are ready to coat your peanut butter cup molds, warm the chocolate over a double boiler to 88 to 90 degrees. I like to use an infrared laser thermometer to temp the chocolate. Hold the chocolate between 88-90 while you are working with it.
Ingredients
Chocolate chopped or chips 2 cups
Peanut butter, natural unsweet 1 cup
Powdered sugar ½ cup
Corn syrup 2 tablespoon
Pro Seasoning English Flake Salt As needed
Method of prep:
Prepare the peanut butter filling by mixing the peanut butter, corn syrup, and powdered sugar together. Roll the peanut butter filling into thick disks to fit into your molds, set aside. Next, prepare the molds by sprinkling a pinch of English Flake Salt into each mold.
Next, pour the tempered chocolate into the molds, coating all sides. Pour the excess chocolate out of the molds onto a piece of parchment paper or back into the bowl. Chill the chocolate lined molds in the refrigerated until solid, about 10 minutes. Once the molds are fully chilled, fill each with a peanut butter disk. Top off the molds with tempered chocolate and scrap the excess off. Tap the molds on the work surface to agitate the air pockets out of the chocolate. Fill the air gaps with chocolate if necessary. Chill the molds in the refrigerator for about 10 – 20 minutes, or until peanut butter cups are set. Carefully unmold peanut butter cups, store, and refrigerate for up to 1 week.