The Candymom can!!

I love to cook and bake, but there are some things which I do not claim to be able to do. Or to want to get too far into, really. Of those, candy making is pretty darn close to the top. Fiddling around with candy thermometers, boiling sugar, exact timing... not my idea or fun. I am way to clumsy and would probably wind up in the emergency room. But about a year ago I found a recipe for a caramel pie which sounded really good. And I figured, I am not really making candy, just a caramel filling. So I felt safe, and that is a recipe I love to make. (I'll make it for here one day...) Then a couple of months ago my sister learned how to make marshmallows. Wow. Now THAT is candy making! Turns out she got a great recipe that does not require too much in the way of candy making tools or expertise, and I have since learned to make them, too. Ok, this time I felt like I had done some real candy making. Phew. Now fast forward to a couple of weeks ago. On one of my regular trips to foodgawker I saw a recipe for peanut butter cups. That got my attention pretty quickly! much as I might like a good combination of chocolate and peanut butter, that is Hubby's absolute favorite. I knew this was something I wanted to try. And, surprisingly, this was a very doable recipe! nothing scary about it. I just needed the opportunity to do it. That opportunity came today. Since we were having leftovers for dinner, and Hubby was home to play with Little Girl (who decided that napping was not necessary today...) I figured this was as good a time as any.

Using this recipe from Blue Ridge Baker, and my brand new present to myself of a Wilton silicon bite size brownie pan, I gave honest-to-goodness candy making a shot. But, of course, I had to give the recipe my own little tweaks. In my improvised double boiler I melted a combination of semi-sweet chocolate chips and 60% cocoa chips. (I love deep, dark chocolate!) And, with us being a two peanut butter family (Hubby is crunchy, I am smooth), I knew I had to make some with each. And that meant I would need to do something to differentiate between the two... (Ah, if only all of life's problems were so complex...)

Peanuts = crunchy... no big surprise!

I am quite pleased with how things turned out. Both in terms of the taste and the way the candy came out of the silicon pan. I'm might have to invest in some more of those one day... And since both chocolate and peanut butter are things we seem to always have in the kitchen, it looks like these are going to be added to the regular dessert menu!