Peanut Butter Cups, Amuse-bouche Style

It's nice to slip into domestic goddess mode. Knowing that I would not have a lot of time to bake after dinner last night, I took a chance with Nigella. How to be a Domestic Goddess: Baking and the Art of Comfort Cooking has been in my stockpile of cookbooks for years. I recalled a peanut butter cup in the Children section of the book. The basics of the recipe were strong in my mind, so I knew what I'd need to acquire from the market after work.

I love peanut butter. I hold it in high esteem. If ever there was a perfect food. So many uses. I never tire of the flavor and I'm pretty hardcore about it. No commercial grades for me. I like it to be purely creamy, unsweetened, unsalted and organic. The bare bones of peanut butter.

I just hope our friend with the birthday likes peanut butter. I'm planning on giving him the majority of the finished product tonight as a gift.

My recipe is slightly different from Nigella's in that I used semisweet chocolate for the top layer instead of the milk chocolate and light brown sugar instead of the dark suggested.

You'll need:

1/4 cup light brown sugar

1 1/3 cups confectioners sugar

1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened

3/4 cup creamy peanut butter

10 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped or morsels

(I used Ghirardelli morsels)

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

8x8 inch pan

Mix the sugars, butter and peanut butter using the paddle attachment. Firmly press this into the 8x8 inch pan.

Melt the chocolate and remaining tablespoon of butter (I just used a small saucepan) and pour over peanut butter mixture, spreading evenly with a rubber spatula.

Allow it to cool at room temperature a little before you cover the pan with aluminum and set in the fridge to firm up. Once chilled and set you can slice in the pan or on a cutting board.

I found the resulting candy, using unsweetened peanut butter, to be quite sweet. I can only imagine how tooth-achingly sweet it would be with Peter Pan, Skippy or Jif.