Homemade Peanut Butter Cups and More

What if I told you that you could make YUMMY homemade peanut butter cups, chocolate and coffee bean cups or fruit, nut and CHoCoLAte cups at home in no time. You would say you're NUTS. I went on a baking frenzy yesterday and made all of this and ate all of this..... but enough about me. Here are the recipes below.


PEANUT BUTTER CUPS

Ingredients 
1 cup confectioners sugar
1 cup creamy peanut butter
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
1/4 cup shortening

1. In a small bowl, combine confectioner's sugar, peanut butter, brown sugar, butter and vanilla; cover and set aside.

2. In a microwave safe bowl, melt the chocolate chips and shortening. Pour teaspoonfuls into 2-inch foil muffin cups. ( I used my silicone cupcake cups for this- if you want to make bite sized peanut butter cups then use mini cups). Drop a rounded teaspoonful of peanut butter mixture into each cup; top each with 2 teaspoons of the chocolate mixture.

3. Refrigerate until set. This is the hardest part of the recipe....waiting to eat one. Store in an airtight container.

Variations: I also made fruit and nut cups. Instead of adding the peanut butter mixture in the middle I added dried cranberries, raisins, sliced almonds, and chopped walnuts. They tasted like a Fruit and nut bar. I didn't stop there. Tonight in my mini cups I lined them with a few coffee beans and added the melted chocolate and made mini coffee bean chocolate cups.