Peanut butter cups
• 12 5-oz. paper cups • 2 cups smooth peanut butter
• 1 pound semisweet tempered chocolate
• 6-oz. semisweet chocolate coarsely chopped
1. Using scissors cut paper cups to 1 ½ inch height. Line baking sheet with wax paper and set wire rack on top. Using a spoon, fill one cup at a time with tempered chocolate, hold upside down, tap gently and let excess drip back into bowl. Scrape cup rim against bowl rim to make neat edge and place cup upside down on rack. Let cups stand for 5 minutes to firm up.
2. With knife, scrape cup rims to make clean, straight edges; this will also make the cups easier to unmold. Turn cups right side up and refrigerate for 10 minutes. Carefully peel the paper off chocolate cups. Set the cups right side up and store in cool place.
3. In a medium stainless steel bowl set over a pan of barely simmering water, melt the chopped chocolate, stirring occasionally. Remove the bowl from the pan, wipe the bottom dry and stir the chocolate until smooth. Let cool to warm room temperature. Add the peanut butter and stir with wooden spoon until thoroughly blended.
4. Pipe peanut butter and chocolate filling into chocolate cups to rim. Tap cups very lightly to release air. Let stand in cool dry place 1 hour or until set. The filling will be soft and creamy, but will hold its shape.
Tempering tips:
Tempering melted chocolate ensures that it will set up firmly with a glossy sheen. Any leftover chocolate can be tempered again later.
1. Chop 1 pound of room temperature chocolate into ½ inch pieces.
2. Put 2/3 of the chocolate in glass bowl. Microwave at medium-high for 30-second periods, stirring with rubber spatula in the intervals until ¾ of chocolate is melted, about 1-½ minutes.
3. Stir the chocolate until completely melted then scrape into a clean, dry, and room temperature bowl. Measure the temperature of chocolate, it should be between 100 and 115 degrees. Add remaining chocolate in large handfuls, stirring constantly until chocolate is at 88 degrees. If chocolate becomes too cool, melt a few more teaspoons of chopped chocolate and stir them in to raise temperature.
4. Dip the tip of a knife in the chocolate; the chocolate should begin to set within 1 minute. Use at once.
