Trick or Treat! Peanut and Pumpkin Butter Cups

So in honor of the rescheduling of Halloween because of Sandy, I decided to make Peanut Butter cups, and since I've been on my pumpkin kick I through in some pumpkin ones, too!
The recipe is super simple. I altered the original recipe it a little to make it somewhat healthier and fit the ingredients I had in my room.

Here's what I did:

Ingredients:Peanut Butter Cups:

• 1/2 cup (125 grams) creamy peanut butter

• 1 tablespoon coconut oil

• Approx. 1/3 cup (55 grams) confectioners (powdered or icing) sugar (I put in the half a cup the original recipe called for, but thought it was too sweet and had to counter it with more PB and cocoa powder, so maybe start with less and add to taste. If it's sweet enough, but not thick enough, add cocoa powder)

Combine the PB ingredients by microwaving a bit to help the PB and coconut oil mix better. I did mine for 30 seconds 2 or 3 times.

Pumkin Butter Cups:

• Use the same pumpkin butter I've been using all week :) (You might want to sub powdered sugar for the agave so it's a little thicker, but I think it will work with the agave too. Stevia should work as well)

Chocolate Coating:

• Approximately 18ish ounces of semisweet chocolate chips (I had no way to measure ounces from my giant costco bag of chocolate chips)

• 1 tablespoon of coconut oil

If you don't like dark chocolate, you might want to sub out half or all of the chocolate with milk chocolate. I LOVE dark chocolate plus it's healthier for you, so I used only semisweet (yes I know semisweet isn't truly "dark", but for tis purpose it counts)

Instructions:

I didn't have a mini muffin pan, so I made GIANT PB cups in a cupcake pan. I melted the chocolate mixture in the microwave, poured some into the bottom of the cupcake liners, put a spoonful of the PB mixture or Pumpkin butter on top...

...and then top it off with more chocolate (enough so that the filling is covered). You can flatten out the top of the cup but holding the edge of the liner and shimmying it back and forth a bit. 

Then put it in the freezer or the fridge for a bit to cool, and there you go! They'll take less than half an hour to harden in the freezer.
Mine were too frozen when I pulled them out, so I'm not sure how long they actually take.I decided my cups had too much chocolate to PB ratio, so you might want to make sure either your chocolate layers are fairly thin and/or you add a very large spoonful of PB.

These were a hit! My friend Abdul said they were the best thing I've made all year! I responded that they're also the least healthy thing I've made all year, but hey, sometimes it's good to treat yourself! It's still a million times better for you than all the deserts at the dining hall.

Here's the original recipe (in case you were wondering)

Ingredients:

Peanut Butter Cups:

1/2 cup (125 grams) creamy peanut butter

2 tablespoons (28 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup (55 grams) confectioners (powdered or icing) sugar

Chocolate Coating:

9 ounces (255 grams) semi sweet chocolate, coarsely chopped

9 ounces (255 grams) milk chocolate, coarsely chopped

1 tablespoon (10 grams) shortening

Instructions:

Peanut Butter Cups: Line 36 miniature muffin cups with paper liners.

Place the peanut butter, unsalted butter, and salt in a microwaveable bowl, and heat in the microwave for about one minute or just until soft, but not melted (check and stir the ingredients every 20 seconds). Stir in the confectioners sugar.

Melt the chocolates and shortening in a heatproof bowl placed over a saucepan of simmering water.

Drop a teaspoon of the melted chocolate into each of the paper lined miniature muffin cups. Top with a scant teaspoon of peanut butter mixture. Then top with another teaspoon of melted chocolate. Refrigerate until set. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

Pumpkin Schmere

So I bought a thing of cashew nut butter from Fairway a while back, and I decided to mix my pumpkin butter into it. It was amazing!! I literally couldn't stop exclaiming "This is soo good!" But I couldn't share my excitement with anyone because none of friends like pumpkin apparently. Now I'm not one to buy into the whole vegan "cashews taste like cheese" thing, because cheese is magical and if it's not cheese usually it doesn't actually tastes like cheese. But this stuff actually almost tasted like pumpkin cream cheese! It was amazing, and simple! just the cashew butter and pumpkin butter mixed together. You could also use almond, peanut or any nut butter. Obviously the flavor would be different, but it'd probably still be delicious.

I ate mine with matzo and pretzel crisps, but it would go well with lots of things, maybe graham crackers, a bagel, or apples! I don't know. Get creative! Let me know what your favorit pumpkin treat is, or how you decide to use your pumpkin butter!

Pumpkin Lovin

So I'm kind of obsessed with pumpkin. I get so excited when pumpkin comes back to Starbucks. I literally walk into the store exclaiming, "Pumpkins back?! I'm so excited!!"

So in light of pumpkin season I bought a can of pumpkin and decided to make pumpkin butter.

This "recipe" is super simple. All I did was take my can of pumpkin and add cinnamon  nutmeg, allspice and ginger (aka pumpkin pie spice), agave, and vanilla. Just stir it up and keeping adding stuff til you like the taste. 

And enjoy....

I can just eat it with a fork, but I also have other things I'm planning to try...

- Pumpkin microwave muffcake (aka a muffin in mug, or microwave muffin, but I don't really think it tastes like a muffin, so I decided to give it a new name)

- Pumpkin chia seed pudding

- Pumpkin spice late

- Pumpkin cereal (I made this last year and was obsessed)

- Pumpkin cashew butter dip

Any other ideas?