Giant Reeses Peanut Butter Cup

I found Pimp That Snack last year and spent some time enjoying the pimps. Being inspired myself, I made a giant Reese’s Peanut butter cup as a dessert for Thanksgiving 2006. I failed to document it, so this year I planned to repeat the process, with pictures.

Looking at the other Reese’s pimps, I found that most of them just used regular peanut butter when in fact the inside of a true cup was not peanut butter of the make-a-sandwich variety. I did some research on the net and found several good candidates for recipes, mostly from Buckeyes (chocolate dipped peanut butter balls). After a couple of experiments, which my friends enjoyed critiquing (“too runny,” “pretty good,” “does the burning stop?”), I found the right recipe.

Ingredients:

Milk chocolate chips $4.79 for 20 oz bag
Shortening $1.50 for 16 oz. but you only need about 2 tbls
Peanut Butter $2.39 for 18 oz jar
(I bought the Reese’s brand, to add legitimacy)
butter $3.39 for 1 lb, but you only need about 1 tbls
Graham cracker crumbs $2.50 for 13.5 oz box, but you only need about � of a cup
Confectioners sugar $1.35 for 2 lb bag, but you only need about 4 cups (powdered sugar)

Aluminum casserole pan $1.49 or use whatever seems right for you (it had the right shape).

Parchment paper $2.50 for 24 foot roll, you’ll use about 3 feet.

Total if you bought all items new: $19.91

Total for ingredients used: $ 9.33

You start by preparing the pan for the chocolate. I took the parchment paper, cut a big circle out and figured out the inside diameter of the pan. Then, using a small wooden stick, I proceeded to fold the edge back and forth to get the nice crankily type of edges for the giant cup. I did this the night before, and I went through 1 � episodes of “Dirty Jobs” while doing it.

The next night, I started with the bottom layer. Using a glass, mixing bowl, I poured about 1 cup of milk chocolate chips into it and added 1 tablespoon of shortening. This gets the mixture to flow better when it is melted. Using short bursts on low power, I melted it in a microwave. If you are using baking chocolate, the double boiler over water works better, but chips handle microwaving pretty well. However, they will deceive you as you watch them through the glass by NOT looking melted. Take them out and stir with a spatula to teach them a lesson. When you have it flowing well, give it a few more seconds of radiation, then pour into your mold.

Check the depth of your bottom layer with a toothpick, fork or some other marker. I used a wooden skewer, marked at how deep I wanted the bottom layer. I then gave it some short shakes back and forth to get the layer to even out and the trapped bubbles to rise to the surface. Put it in the fridge to set.

Here comes the good part. The graham cracker crumbs are made for pie crusts. Some of it is fine, and some is course. I wanted much finer grains, so I started by putting about � of a cup in a mini-food processor (you can use a blender or skip this step if you wish) and pushing the “11” button. After a bit of noise, I have molecule-sized crumbs. Set aside for now.

Now, scoop out about 4 full tablespoons of peanut butter into a good size mixing bowl. Add about 1 tablespoon of butter. It may not look like much but we’re about to add more volume. Pour in 3.5 to 4 cups of the confectioners sugar and the 3/4 cup of the graham cracker crumbs. Looks great, doesn’t it? Well no, it doesn’t.

So get mixing with your weapon of choice. You can go electric if you like, but I prefer the control of a good silicon spatula. By the time your arm is getting tired, you’ll find the peanut butter has absorbed the sugar and crumbs into a doughy type of material. If you taste it now you will find it tastes very close to the inside of a Reese’s. THIS was the Holy Grail I was looking for. I put mine in the fridge for about 10 minutes to get it a little more solid to work with.

If your bottom is set, (I mean the chocolate one) bring it out and ready the peanut butter filling. I put out a sheet of parchment paper and put the peanut butter dough on it. Then I semi-flattened it and covered it with another sheet of parchment paper. I used a rolling pin to flatten it out. Then I found a lid that was about the diameter that I wanted the inner disk of peanut butter to be. I used this as a guide to cut out a clean-edged (sort-of) disk and plop it onto the bottom layer of chocolate.

You may have had some chocolate left from the first layer. Add more chips and shortening to mix up more. I’d say about 1.25 cups. Nuke and mix as you did in the earlier step. When it’s ready to pour, go to it. Fill the top and around the edges. It won’t want to flow too well, so you may have to use your handy-dandy spatula to show it who’s boss. I did not have quite enough to evenly make the top layer, so I had to add about another half cup of chips and pour it on top. Again I used the shake & shimmy method to even the melted chocolate and release air bubbles. After it’s done, back in the fridge to set.

When you are ready to serve it, remove it from the fridge and let it thaw a little. Since you won’t be wolfing it down in 1 or 2 bites, I expect that you will be cutting it like a pie. As it thaws, it won’t break apart as much. The final photo shows a cross section of the original and my Pimped version. Next time, I might try slightly less chocolate layers, and slightly more peanut butter. Still, the results were a wonderful dessert that put Aunt Mini’s rhubarb pie to shame.

Enjoy,
Mark Jones