Homemade Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups

Vacation plans got all sorts of wonky this summer for different reasons, and when I found I had some time, but only 2 days to plan, I ended up in chocolate town…literally: Hershey, PA.

Me: “Wait, the town’s actually called Hershey? Because of the chocolate?”

The BF: “Yeah.”

Me: “What do they have there?”

The BF: “A theme park. With rides. A hotel. Chocolate things. You know, stuff.”

The town had me at roller coasters and “chocolate things,” and after a short drive through Deliverance country [which is uncannily similar to my OH hometown] I found myself in one of the nicest hotels I’ve ever seen, even though its name is The Hotel Hershey.

In back of the hotel is the Harvest restaurant

And some fountains

And my duck friends

I felt like Jack Nicholson as I strolled through the lush carpeted floors and grand chandelier decorated hallways, half expecting to see a super hot dead woman sitting in my all-marble bathroom/tub.

Here’s Johnny!

Gorgeous terrace where you can see some of the park in the background

Indoor lounge area

The hotel also boasts 3 restaurants, shopping, a sports center [where I won twice at HORSE, once at tennis and once at bocce, thank you], a massive pool…the list continues. But what was truly unique was The Chocolate Spa.

Year-round skating rink

Goodies

Now, I’m not the kind of girl who gets kicks from naked massages, just never been my thing, even with the vaguely Native American flutes wafting in the background. But milk chocolate bath, you say? How could I not? And from the bits of shaved chocolate soap to the chocolate shoulder waterfalls, it was well-worth being nude in semi-public and figuring out how the lockers worked

So in homage to my mini-vacay there in chocolate land, where the candy is bottomless, the rides curse-word worthy, and the local population toothless, I thought I’d whip out my mom’s old Hershey cookbook and make these homemade chocolate peanut butter cups.

What makes these little guys worth the from-scratch effort is the genuine taste of peanut butter and the double dose of milk chocolate. Did I mention I’ve had 5 hot cocoas, 2 brownies, 2 chocolate croissants, 1 chocolate tart, 1 slice of chocolate coconut pie, and a pack of chocolate Twizzlers this week as well? I think my blood is now semi-sweet

[Makes roughly 14 cups] *Note: You will need to start these the night before serving.

Equipment:

• Mini muffin cups
• Mini muffin liners
• Electric mixer
• Small brush
• Piping bag [optional]

Ingredients:

• 1 bag milk chocolate chips
• 1 cup of creamy peanut butter
• 1 cup powdered sugar, sifted
• 1 Tbl. unsalted butter, softened
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 12-14 Hershey’s milk chocolate kisses

Line small muffin cups with small paper bake cups. In a microwave-safe bowl, heat the bag of milk chocolate chips on medium power for 1 min. Stir. Heat for another min. on medium. Stir. If the chocolate still isn’t melted and smooth after stirring, continue heating on medium power at 20 second intervals, stirring after each.

With a small brush, coat the inside of the muffin bake cups with the melted chocolate. Refrigerate 20 min. Re-heat the bowl of chocolate if necessary [medium power 20 sec], and re-coat the cups, making sure there are no thin spots anywhere.

Refrigerate overnight.

Take out the muffin cups and GENTLY remove the paper liners. *Note: This is tricky. Try not to put too much pressure on the sides of the cups when trying to remove the paper. I had about 4 failures out of my 14, so if you need to make an exact amount, make sure you make a little more to compensate. Place the chocolate cups back in the fridge on a plate or in a container.

In a medium bowl, beat the sifted powdered sugar, peanut butter, butter, and vanilla extract until very smooth. Spoon the filling into a piping bag or plastic bag, cutting off the tip or the corner. Pipe the filling into the chocolate cups [If you don't have any bags, just use a spoon to plop in the filling].

Top each cup with a Hershey’s kiss and place back in the fridge until near serving time. Take out about 5-10 min. before serving.

Yohanca’s Cake Pops

My good friend Yohanca is currently living in Kiev in the Ukraine and decided to venture home for a few days for some family visiting.

“Pryvit, dahlink,” she said as she saw me, her long black hair blowing in the frigid wind as she enfolded me in her mink-covered arms for little cheek kisses, quickly pulling back to take a long drag of her ultra-slim cigarette between her cherry red lips that matched her equally crimson nails. “Ve go see Sergei, tak?” And after a lively night spent racing around on her Ukrainian lover’s snowmobiles at his mountain getaway and downing shots of chilled, crisp vodka by the open fireplace, we told Indiana Jones we’d help him find the Ark and played strip poker with James Bond.

…or we could have sat at the Cheesecake Factory eating fried mac&cheese balls in our flip-flops, then tried on cheap dresses at Loehmann’s while dancing to Britney Spears in the dressing room.

It could have gone either way, really.

“I read your blog sometimes,” she said casually as we sat at Cheesecake, each of us trying to outdo the other in how picky we are about things like vegetables. “Why haven’t you made cake pops yet?”

“You mean the things that housewives post on Pinterest that look like baby ducks and stuff?”

“Yeah. You should make them. I’d read about that.”

Grey, Me, Jen, and Yohanca

Yohanca, Allie, Madeleine, Mari, Me

I aim to please, little ice princess, so here’s to you. I’ll send you these cake pops FedEx if you give me the nuclear launch codes and Bond’s hotel room key. Deal?

[Makes roughly 25-30 cake pops]

Equipment:

• Styrofoam board
• 6 inch lollipop sticks
• 9 x 13 inch baking pan
• disposable gloves [optional]
• Baking sheet
• Parchment paper

Ingredients:

• 1 box of cake mix
• 1 jar of frosting
• Merckens candy melts in your desired colors
• Decorations of your choice [optional]

Preheat oven and bake the boxed mix according to instructions [I used strawberry cake because I wanted a spring pink color]. Let cake cool completely.

Slice off the ends of the cake, and, using a sharp knife, slice off the bottom and top of the cake. While I did have enough sense to cut off the crusty edges of the cake before crumbling, I didn’t think to trim off the top and bottom. If you don’t use JUST the inside of the cake, your balls won’t be uniform and will become unstable.

Don’t let this happen to you!

Crumble the cake into a very large mixing bowl. Pour the jar of frosting [I used a vanilla whipped frosting] into the bowl and mix with the cake [this is where the disposable gloves came in for me, but it's your call]. Mix until cake becomes dough-like and there are no dry bits of the cake left.

Cover a baking sheet with parchment paper. Roll 1 inch diameter balls and place them on the baking sheet. Place the sheet in the fridge and chill about 1 hour.

Melt your Merckens colors [I did about 1 1/2 min. on 50% power, stirred, then did another 1 1/2 on 50% for an entire bag]. I make a point of saying Merckens because a lot of people [including myself] hate to use the cheaper Wilton alternative. Not only do Wilton candy melts taste like crap, they don’t melt well and your coating will become gloopy and gross. Merckens is more expensive, but it you want a perfectly smooth coating that tastes good, this is your best option.

Once melted, take the balls out of the fridge. Dip the end of the lollipop stick into the melts, then place this end about 3/4 of an inch into the ball. Tilt your bowl with the melts towards you a bit and, with your other hand, gently roll the ball in the melt. *Note: This takes a couple of tries to get the hang of. Try not to roll the ball too quickly, otherwise the stick will make too large of a hole in the ball and will poke through. GO SLOWLY. After you’ve coated the ball, leave the ball at an angle as you twirl the stick, watching the way the coating slides over the ball. Once the ball is completely coated and most of the excess has dripped off, place in the styrofoam. Let dry [they dry very quickly!]

The cake is nice and moist without being too sugary.

Now, here’s the crazy part. Everything was perfect, as you can see above, until BAM! An hour later cracks everywhere. This could be due to a couple of things: 1. As the ball starts to un-chill, it begins to expand, causing cracks, or 2. As the coating begins to harden it contracts, causing cracks. Either way, I should have left some melts, re-warmed them, then re-coated. Maybe this is this solution? I read something on a cake pop forum saying store-bought frosting, microwaved [sans top, of course] until it’s fully melted works great too, though it’s not hard like candy coating.

In any case, I could easily cover the cracks because of my decorations. If you get cracks like me, these flower decorations are the way to go! These were made using gum paste.

*Note: The melts will drip down the lollipop stick no matter how much excess you get off first. To remove, scrape the dried drips off with a sharp paring knife.