Homemade Reeses

As I said in my last post, Saturday was Shawn and I's 1 year anniversary and I made him the candies that he got me a year ago. I made ginormous Whatchamacallits and Reese trees. Whenenver there is a special occasion or a birthday, we normally throw one of each in along with our gift. It's a little weird but thats how we role. I used leftover ingredients to make Whatchamacallit bites and mini reese cups.

He got us tickets to go to the Funny Bone, which I am estatic about! I had mentioned before how I really love comedy clubs and want to go see stand-up with him. He actually listened and got me a really thoughtful gift for our anniversary. We are going January 2nd and I can't wait! You have to go on special/fun/different dates when you are in a relationship to hold on to the excitement and avoid getting to comfortable and into a routine. See? This is that effort thing I was talking about :) He makes me sigh...

Homemade Reese Trees and Reese Cups
Adapted from Allrecipes.com

Ingredients:

3/4 cup creamy peanut butter
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
1-1/2 cups powdered sugar, or as needed
1-2 tablespoons heavy cream
1 (12 ounce) package semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 tablespoon All-Vegetable Shortening
1 (12 oz) bag semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions:

Combine peanut butter, butter, vanilla and salt in large bowl. Beat with an electric mixer on LOW until blended. Add 2 cups powdered sugar, beating until blended. Add cream until desired creaminess is reached. It shouldn't be sticky. If you are making trees, refrigerate dough for 10 minutes. When cool and firm, roll out to desired thickness and cut out trees using a tree cookie cutter. Then, refrigerate the trees for about 10-15 minutes again to firm up the peanut butter.

Place chocolate chips and shortening in microwave-safe bowl. Microwave on MEDIUM for 30 seconds. Stir. Repeat until mixture is smooth. Reheat as needed while coating peanut butter.

To make trees, cover one side in chocolate, refrigerate until firm. Then repeat the process on the opposite side. To make reese cups, put mini cupcake liners in a mini muffin pan. Fill up each liner with chocolate about 1/4 of the way up. Then shape peanut butter into small balls (size them about the same size around as the tip of your index finger). Flatten the top a little bit and place on the chocolate already poured in the liners. Cover the peanut butter with chocolate completely until no longer visible. Refrigerate until firm.

Enjoy!