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!
This is seriously my fantasy dessert! I absolutely love eating crackers..and adding chocolate and peanut butter just makes it so much more wonderful!
I love PB cups, but have never made them at home. I have made a few stuffed desserts, such as stuffed cookies, and peppermint patties.
Peanut butter cups are my FAVORITE! I have never made them at home but I would love to. The Ritz crackers are such a great idea – a great combo of sweet and salty!
so easy to make at home…try!
This made me realize how long it’s been since I’ve eaten a Ritz…TOO LONG! Love this salty/chocolate combo :)
I know, I hadn’t had any in…years. We changed that though :)
Ok , how do you do it? How do you stay in awesome shape eating these kind of treats? I’d have to work out for 4 hours a day! I am envious of you!
I love peanut butter cups and I have yet to make them, but I plan on it! Now I want to do it with a ritz, which we just ran out of Trader Joe’s version). Could I use a pretzel?
Have a great week!
Moderation and yes, I work out!
ahhhhhh this is such a perfect combo
Aww yeah, brilliant! Love this idea!
Man oh Man! I will definitely be making this version of your peanut-butter cups when I get home from Maui! We ALWAYS make your regular peanut-butter cup recipe (delicious), so I can only imagine how yummy these will be. Thanks for the great recipes for us sweet tooth folks :)
enjoy your next cooking project!
I have a straight-up addiction. I eat a small Reese’s or two pretty much every day…either that or a piece of dark chocolate or a Yorks. A girl has gotta have dessert…
Your addiction just got even stronger. wait til you try these :)
Holy YUM! I love variations on Reeses PB Cups. Nice job :)
Thanks, Lori. I am still drooling over your recent cake. It’s..perfect. Surgeon’s hands type of precision!
the possibilities are endless for stuffing pb cups. that’s why they’re called cups. lol
And the cups on your header image…get me. Every.time. Ahhh, yes.
I bet this is pass-out-fall-the-floor amazing. WANT!!
No pass out and fall on the floor amazing would be your latest tiffany blue cake that seriously I have been dreaming about. Beautiful beyond all words!
These look AMAZING! There I am giving you caps because you deserve it. The crunchiness of the ritz cracker inside one of my favorite treats, you hit a winner here.
Thanks for the SHOUT :)
This looks so delicious…I do love Reese’s peanut butter cups and I always have to stop myself from eating them in the double digits, but I think the crunch from the cracker is the perfect brain trigger to tell me 1 or 2 is good for the day…save some for tomorrow :)
Hey Averie those look yummy!! My husband took a glance at my laptop and went “ooh” I guess that’s when you know you have a winner right?
I wanted to share my iherb.com $5 off code, since I first used yours and have gotten hooked ordering stuff from there! Every little bit helps nowadays right? My code is PIT248.
If I can get a hubs to look up and comment, it’s a job well done. Thanks for telling me :)
We must be on the same wavelength because I bought everything to make homemade PB cups today! And then I took a nap and forgot about making them… :) Next weekend!
What kind of peanut butter did you use in those? It looks so, so creamy! And I love the Ritz addition.
Generic store-brand PB. I go thru SO MUCH Pb that I buy what’s on sale and in huge tubs. For baking and cooking with, I use cheap stuff. Unless I am eating it with a spoon, I really don’t care if it’s not ‘high end’ designer Pb. :)
Agree completely – no nee for the fancy stuff when it comes to baking! It just looked so creamy, I had to ask… this makes me feel good :)