Chocolate Peanut Butter Bites

Peanut Butter and chocolate are a match made in heaven. Chocolate candy heaven. Something about that richness of peanut butter goes exquisitely with chocolate. This combination really hits home for me. Why? Because growing up there was a certain candy that little Unmanly Chef HAD to have every time I went to my local 7-11 with my grandfather.

The story goes like this. When I was a kid, I lived within walking distance of a 7-11, like about 5 minutes. And this being the glorious 90’s I would often walk there as a kid by myself or with my friends to go and buy candy from said 7-11. But the memories that I remember the best are the times when I was still a touch too young to walk there by myself and when I would walk with my grandfather (Bobby is what we would call him) to the store. He would walk with me to the store, he would buy me candy and would see my face light up every time I would get to have a Reese’s. For me, Reese’s peanut butter cups were candy nirvana, they were just the right amount (enough to keep you wanting to buy more, but not so much you feel sick) and tasted perfect. To this day, when I see the Reese’s logo and color scheme I have some sort of autonomic response to it that makes me crave the candy.

If you think I’m the only one who had a Reese’s candy obsession growing up, you’d be mistaken.

Reese’s is the most popular candy in the United States of America, and the fourth most popular candy in the WORLD (even though a majority of sales still originate from the USA)! Reese’s started out of H.B. Reese’s basement where he made candy confections.

His peanut butter cups (using Hershey’s Chocolate) were his most popular item, so much so that he discontinued his other candy products and exclusively made the peanut butter cups. Well big chocolate caught on quick to this and Hershey eventually decided it would be wise to merge with the Reese’s Candy Company. In a business deal that should go down in the hall of fame for amazing deals, Reese’s sons negotiated a tax-free stock for stock deal that netted the family  666,316 shares of Hershey common stock. At the time this deal was worth 23.5 million dollars today after numerous stock splits, the deal is now worth $1.8 BILLION dollars with an annual dividend payout of $39 million dollars.

So back to me. I love peanut butter cups, but I’m not smart enough put something in cup form, so I decided to use a silicone ice try instead to great some delicious no-bake desserts for myself. This dessert is perfect for hot summer days where you want a cool refreshing dessert.

Recipe – Chocolate Peanut Butter Bites

Ingredients

16 Ounces of Dark Chocolate (you can make this regular milk chocolate if you prefer, make sure the cacao % is not too high 60% is the max I would suggest) you might end up needing more chocolate depending on your pours.

1 Jar of Creamy Peanut Butter (you can swap this out with any nut butter you want)

Silicone Ice Tray

Method

Step 1 – Create a hot water bath, put the chocolate in a medium sized metal bowl, place the bowl (with the chocolate) in the water, and melt the chocolate slowly. Be careful not to burn the chocolate.

Step 2- In a non-stick silicone tray, fill the bottoms about a quarter of the way with chocolate.

Step 3- Freeze for 30 minutes (or until frozen solid).

Step 4- Add PB layer (half a tablespoon at most if not lest, you have to eyeball it). Freeze again for 30 minutes.  Then add rest of melted chocolate

Step 5 – Freeze again overnight, and enjoy! Keep refrigerated.