The One With the Chocolate Peanut Butter Bites

If you like Reese's peanut butter cups, you will certainly like these. They literally taste almost exactly the same.

What I love about these chocolate-covered peanut butter bites is that they are made with things you are (or at least I am) likely to have on hand as it is. They only require:

• 1 cup creamy peanut butter (I used Skippy)
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1-2 tablespoons of water*
• milk chocolate chips*

I was in desperate sorts to make something yummy. I was thinking about making some good old fashioned chocolate chip cookies, but only had one egg. O the tragedy! Fortunately, Pinterest came to my rescue yet again and I found this recipe. 

It's pretty straight forward:
Use an electric mixer to combine the peanut butter, butter and powdered sugar. If it is not moist enough to stick together yet still be soft, add water, one tablespoon at a time, until you have the right consistency. (You're going to have to do some taste testing. How unfortunate.) Once it is a consistency you like, roll the peanut butter into small balls and place on wax paper. (I made the balls pretty small because I wanted my chocolate to peanut butter ratio to be greater.) Place the peanut butter balls in the freezer for at least ten minutes so they will be easier to work with.

Melt your chocolate chips. You can microwave them in a microwave safe dish for 30 seconds, stir, and then microwave in ten second increments until it is melted, stirring intermittently. If you are making a lot of these, say for a party or something, I would suggest melting the chocolate in a double boiler, as it is easier to work with for a longer period of time.

Insert a toothpick into a peanut butter ball and dip it in the chocolate, being sure to coat completely (you may need some more toothpicks to help you out with this part). Set on wax paper, remove toothpick, and allow to harden. Setting your batch in the fridge for a few minutes will really speed along this process.

Enjoy, and most importantly, share! These babies are pretty rich, so I would recommend inviting some friends over to help you consume them. Your friends will like you more and you will avoid becoming sick from a chocolate-peanut-butter overload.

Notes:
In the future I might try these with either dark or semisweet chocolate shells. The peanut butter mixture is so sweet that it can get a little overpowering in just a few bites - hence, the recommendation to share.

*The original recipe I saw used milk instead of water. You can do that if you would prefer, but keep in mind that you must keep these refrigerated since they are not cooked. Also, the original recipe called for using melting wafers. I did this at first and didn't have much luck with them. I think I jinxed my use of melting wafers recently. They keep not working out for me. Anyway, milk chocolate chips are easier to come by and seem to work just as well.