Reese's Peanut Butter Cups

Once you’ve made these at home, the supermarket version starts to taste a little hollow. The trick to a great homemade peanut butter cup is the chocolate blend. Mixing semi-sweet chocolate chips with milk chocolate bars in the shell gives you the perfect balance: rich and slightly bitter on the outside, sweet and creamy on the inside. Pure milk chocolate alone gets cloying; pure dark chocolate alone tastes too serious for a candy this fun. Stirring a bit of peanut butter into the chocolate itself is the move that makes everything bond together when chilled. The cups don’t crack along the seam between layers because there’s continuity between the shell and filling. The double-boiler technique (chocolate over HOT, never boiling water) prevents the cocoa butter from breaking and turning the chocolate grainy. Layer chocolate, then peanut butter, then more chocolate. Chill until firm, peel off the liners, and you’ve got a homemade candy that puts the Reese’s original to shame.

Pro Tips

• Use real chocolate, not chocolate-flavored coating. The cocoa butter is what gives the cups their snap when bitten.
• Mini muffin liners are the right size. Regular liners make cups that are too tall and unwieldy.
• Tap the muffin tin gently after each layer to settle the chocolate flat. Air pockets ruin the shell.
• Let the first chocolate layer set partially in the fridge before adding the peanut butter. A fully liquid base means the layers blur together.
• Peel the liners off before serving. Paper liners stick to the cold chocolate and tear if you bite into them.

Variations

• Use natural unsweetened peanut butter for a less-sweet, more peanut-forward filling.
• Add a pinch of flaky sea salt to the peanut butter layer for the salted PB cup look.
• Swap peanut butter for almond butter, Nutella, or biscoff cookie butter for variation.