I’ve always loved Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups.
Cracking open those orange wrappers and then peeling back the black waxy paper from the perfectly formed Reese’s edges is one of life’s simple, but very joyous, pleasures.
Sinking my teeth into the peanut butter cup and making teeth marks into that perfectly smooth chocolate is also high on my list.
Lately I’ve been sinking my teeth into these homemade cups rather than storebought Reese’s Cups.
These aren’t just any homemade peanut butter cups.
There’s a surprise in the center: Ritz Crackers
I combined some of my favorite ingredients and the resulting creation is very puffy.
One of my homemade cups is about twice the height of a storebought cup or about the same height as five Ritz crackers. That just means there’s more to love.
You don’t have to make yours as puffy as mine if you don’t put as much peanut butter on the cracker before you drench it with melted chocolate.
A Ritz cracker smeared with peanut butter and then encased in a chocolate shell using the Trader Joe’s Chocolate score I’ve been loving.
Delicious does not have to be complicated and the proof is in the pudding in the peanut butter.
The saltiness from the crackers and peanut butter is balanced with the semi-sweet chocolate.
The crunchy cracker stopped with smooth peanut butter makes for lots of texture and fabulous chomping.
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Ritz Cracker Stuffed Peanut Butter Cups (vegan, almost gluten free)
Makes 4 Peanut Butter Cups (halve, double, triple, or quadruple the recipe as desired)
8 ounces (1 cup) semisweet chocolate or chocolate chips, melted (for more info on melting, see this post)
4 Ritz Crackers (or similar)
6 teaspoons peanut butter (1 ½ teaspoons per cup), approximately
Place four paper muffin liners inside a muffin tin or on a flat work surface. Alternately, if you have silicone liners, you can use those. Melt the chocolate in a microwave-safe bowl and spoon approximately one tablespoon of melted chocolate into the bottom of each muffin liner. Place them into the freezer for a few minutes so the chocolate sets up. While the chocolate is setting, schmear each of the four crackers with peanut butter, approximately 1 ½ teaspoons of peanut butter for each cracker, or to taste. Take care not to make the peanut butter too dome-like; rather spread it in a manner similar to the white cream center of a double-stuffed Oreo cookie. Remove the chocolate-filled muffin liners from the freezer and carefully place one peanut butter-covered cracker in each cup. Cover the top of each cup with the remaining chocolate, reheating the chocolate in the microwave a bit if necessary. Based on the height of the peanut butter layer on the Ritz crackers, your paper liners may be filled nearly to the top with chocolate in order to fully encase all the peanut butter with chocolate and this is okay. Freeze or refrigerate the cups until the chocolate has set up before unwrapping and eating.
To keep gluten free, use a gluten free cracker such as Mary’s or similar. Ritz Crackers are already accidentally vegan.
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Making peanut butter cups (vegan, GF) at home is something I discovered years ago.
The possibilities to jazz up and get creative with cups are endless, which is where the Ritz crackers came into play.
Ritz Crackers and I go way back. My grandma used to keep Ritz crackers on hand in her cupboard and I used to be able to take down a half tube of those golden crackers in about five minutes right before dinner.
But that’s what Grandma’s are for: to do things that your mom wouldn’t let you get away with, like devouring a sleeve of Ritz crackers right before dinner.
Good thing I purposefully designed the recipe to only make four cups and you even can halve it if you prefer.
These have been a little dangerous to have on hand and will make you forget all about those resolutions. New Year’s what?
If you’re a fan of sweet ‘n salty combination desserts, I also recommend White Chocolate Peanut, Pretzel, & Chocolate Chip Fudge
If you like surprise middles with your sweet ‘n salty, try Pretzel Peanut Caramel Peanut Butter Cookie Dough Truffles
For sweet surprises, the Dark Chocolate Chocolate-Chip Cookies Stuffed with Chocolate Covered Strawberries are fun.
And last but not least, the surprise Snickers bars in Snickers Bar Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies get me every time.
Questions
Do you like peanut butter cups? Have you ever made them at home?
Have you made any stuffed desserts?
I love stuffed desserts because it’s like you get two desserts in one.
I hope you’ve had a great weekend and that your week gets off to a fabulous start!
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