Peanut butter and chocolate. You know the combination. It's one of the best there is. And I can't get enough of it. No one needs to know the amount of Reese's products I have consumed in my lifetime. I used to eat the Fast Break bars for breakfast in college. Let's just leave it at that.
Around Easter, Reese's comes out with its signature peanut butter cups in the form of peanut butter eggs. I'm usually all over them, but this year I decided to make my own. My family has long made peanut butter squares and peanut butter balls to adorn cookie plates at Christmastime, so I took that recipe and rolled with it -- or rather, made Easter eggs with it.
The peanut butter filling is a simple combination of butter and peanut butter (I went with Skippy Super Chunk) melted together and mixed with graham cracker crumbs and confectioners' sugar.
I spread this filling in a pan and used oval-shaped cutters to cut out my peanut butter "eggs." Then I dipped some of the eggs completely in melted milk chocolate and frosted just the tops of other ones. For a little Easter flair, after the milk chocolate set up, I drizzled white chocolate over some of the eggs and sprinkled colored sugars on top. I shook the excess sugar off and was left with sparkly drizzles adorning the eggs.
Peanut Butter Easter Eggs
(I'd give credit, but I'm not sure where the base recipe originated.
You can find it just about anywhere online.)
This recipes takes the classic peanut butter and chocolate combination and dresses it up for Easter.
Prep Time: 1 hour
Cook Time: 5 minutes
Yield: Varies depending on the size of the eggs
Ingredients
2 sticks unsalted butter
1 cup Skippy Super Chunk peanut butter
2 cups graham cracker crumbs
2 cups confectioners' sugar
1 to 2 (11.5-ounce) bags Ghirardelli milk chocolate chips
Melted white chocolate for drizzling (optional)
Colored sanding sugars (optional)
Preparation
Melt butter and peanut butter together in microwave, stirring occasionally, 1 to 1 1/2 minutes.
Stir graham cracker crumbs and confectioners' sugar into melted butter and peanut butter.
Line 13 by 9-inch rimmed baking sheet with waxed paper. Press peanut butter mixture into pan and smooth top with rubber spatula.
Cover loosely with plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm and cool, 15 to 20 minutes.
Line large baking sheet with waxed paper.
Melt half of a bag of chocolate chips in large bowl or liquid measuring cup in microwave, stirring occasionally, 1 to 2 minutes.
Cut out peanut butter eggs using oval-shaped cookie cutters.
Dip eggs in milk chocolate, using baby offset spatula and rubber spatula to turn eggs and push off excess chocolate. Set coated eggs on waved paper on baking sheet. (Dipping the eggs can be frustrating, so you can also just frost the tops with a baby offset spatula.)
Melt more milk chocolate (in half bag increments or less) as needed to finish dipping and frosting eggs. (Peanut butter filling scraps can be saved for snacks or rolled into balls and dipped in chocolate.)
Refrigerate eggs until set.
Optional: Drizzle with white chocolate (I used a pipette of melted white chocolate, but you can snip off the corner of a zipper-lock bag or use a fork to drizzle) and sprinkle colored sugar over white chocolate before it dries. Shake off extra sugar.
Serve. (Keep eggs in fridge but let stand at room temperature briefly to soften before serving.)
I hope you all have a very happy Easter and/or a lovely weekend!