Macaroons and Macaroni: February 2013

Valentines Day gets a lot of hate, you know? I get the arguments.... "It's a product of Hallmark", "More like single awareness day!", and the one that probably rings the most truth: "Why show your love on only one day of the year?" While Valentine's day can sometimes get us down, let's just take it for what it is. A little overdone cheesy love stuff for everyone to celebrate. Let me tell you, I had my fill this year when I had to frost one heart shaped cake after another at work and am now probably getting carpal tunnel from holding my offset spatula. Even so, cheesy heart shaped things are cute. There's no getting around it. I'm bringing you an easy way of showing your love more than one day a year! Homemade peanut butter cups! I made them for my valentine, hence the heart shape. But you can make these in any shape you want. Show your loved ones you care on a day other than February 14! Impress the pants off of them! They don't know these are super easy!

Step 1: Figure out what you are putting them in. You can use cupcake tins and liners, or the mini versions. I lucked out and already had this heart shaped silicone ice tray from IKEA. The silicone helps because you can move it around to unmold your chocolates. I think IKEA still has them. Super cheap!

Step 2: Melt your chocolate in a double boiler, or in the microwave for 30 seconds at a time so the chocolate doesn't seize. I used a mixture of milk and semi-sweet chocolate. Use what you prefer in peanut butter cups. The whole time I was making these I was only thinking about the Milk Chocolate PB Cups from Trader Joes. If you haven't had them, get up, leave, and go buy some. Seriously I don't even love chocolate and peanut butter together, but those get me every time.

Step 3: Brush your chocolate on the bottom and sides of your molds. Make sure it covers the whole bottom and there are no holes. Freeze until the chocolate hardens.

Step 4: Mix peanut butter with powdered sugar. Add some honey or vanilla if you so choose.

Step 5: Take out your chocolate molds. Pipe peanut butter mixture or use a small spoon to fill molds with peanut butter a little less than all the way full.