Reese's Cups

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Brave Tart: I originally shared this recipe for my column on Serious Eats. Read my Reese's Thesis for a comprehensive review of the peanut butter cup throughout human history. The recipe I posted on Serious Eats has more process photos and consolidates all of the directions into one page, so check it out here for more details if you need ‘em.

Including complete tempering instructions is beyond the scope of this recipe, but if you’d like to learn, please check out my friend Emma’s tempering how-to article on the Kitchn.

You can absolutely skip tempering and simply use melted chocolate instead. In that case, you’ll have to store the finished candies in the refrigerator because untempered chocolate will not hold up at room temperature.

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  • 28

Ingredients

  • Ingredients for Pieces:
  • 1/2 batch Peanut Butter "Nutella" (recipe included)
  • 28 oz milk or dark chocolate chocolate, tempered
  • Ingredients for 'Nutella"
  • 1 vanilla bean, split and scraped, bean minced (directions below)
  • 3 1/2 ounces water
  • 7 1/2 ounces sugar
  • 3 ounces corn syrup or honey
  • 1 1/2 ounces butter (you may omit the butter for vegan/lactose free)
  • 5 ounces peanuts
  • 10 1/2 ounces creamy peanut butter, natural or commercial, your call.
  • 1/2 ounce vanilla extract
  • 1 or 2 ounces peanut or coconut oil

Preparation

Step 1

DIRECTIONS FOR NUTELLA:

Lightly grease a sheet pan with butter and set aside.

To prepare the vanilla bean, split it in half and scrape; add the bean paste into the sugar. Now, cut the bean halves in half, lengthwise. Now mince these four strips as finely as you can. Rub your vanilla coated fingers in the sugar to “clean” your fingertips without wasting the vanilla

Combine the water, sugar and vanilla bean paste, corn syrup, butter, and minced vanilla bean in a sauce pot. Turn the heat to medium and stir gently while heating to dissolve the sugar. Once the mixture starts to boil, stop stirring and let it carry on, undisturbed.

Cook until the mixture has a pale golden color, about 300° on a candy thermometer.

Shut off the heat, add in the peanuts and stir thoroughly. Pour the mixture onto the sheet pan and spread it out with your spatula. Compared to the average batch of nut-brittle, there are a lot of nuts and not so much brittle. So the mixture will seem quite thick, but that is fine.

When the brittle has cooled completely, chop it roughly with a knife to make it a little more manageable for your food processor. Take care if you break it up with your hands. I’ve actually cut myself pretty badly before with a sharp piece of brittle. (Brutal brittle!)

Put about half the brittle in the food processor and begin pulsing to chop it into smaller bits. Add the rest of the brittle in, pulsing the blade all the while, and then just let the processor run until it begins to form a paste.

Shut off the processor, add the peanut butter then replace the lid and continue to run until the mixture is homogeneous. Then, with the mixer still running, slowly drizzle in the vanilla and oil.

If you’re anything like me, you will immediately begin dipping any available food stuffs into the mixture, baguette being the first and best option. Bananas second. Followed by pretty much anything. Once you’ve had your fill, transfer the mixture to jars. You’ll have about 5 cups, depending on how hard you snacked first.

Store at room temperature for up to two weeks. Refrigerate or freeze indefinitely.


DIRECTIONS FOR REESE'S CUPS:

Fit a pastry bag with a large, plain tip. Fill the pastry bag with the peanut butter “nutella” and set aside.

Arrange 28 cupcake liners on a sheet tray. Fill each with a half ounce of chocolate. Then use the pastry bag to pipe about three quarters of an ounce off filling directly into the center of each. This will force the chocolate away from the center and up the sides of each cup.

Use a damp finger to gently pat down the “peak” of each peanut butter center. Top each with another half ounce of chocolate. Take the sheet pan in both hands a gently rap it against the counter to level the chocolate and dislodge any air bubbles.

If you’re using untempered chocolate, refrigerate the peanut butter cups until hardened, about thirty minutes. Tempered chocolate will harden on its own in a few minutes.

After the chocolate has set, peel each peanut butter cup free from the cupcake liners. Store in an airtight container with a piece of parchment or waxed paper between each layer. They will keep for about a month at room temperature or indefinitely in the fridge or freezer. Please remember, if you use untempered chocolate you must store the candies in the refrigerator at all times.

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