Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups

This post brings me up to date with everything that went in the Girl's Christmas Presents. Phew! Being a 'wishy washy' fan of peanut butter myself (sometimes I like and other times I'm not so bothered) you will be surprised to know that I've had to freeze the 'leftovers' so as I still have some for Christmas Day, otherwise they just seem to jump right into my mouth one after the other, through no will of my own you understand. Nigella Lawson introduced me to these last Christmas and not only are they so morishly delsih they are also so easy to make. They are now firmly a part of our festive food traditions so much so that I even seem to have developed a tradition for myself in the way that they are made, I set myself at the dining room table with all the components in front of me, pop the 'Holiday' in the DVD player and away I go ;0)

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups

For the Base

50g soft dark brown sugar

200g icing sugar

50g soft butter

200g smooth peanut butter

For the Topping

200g milk chocolate, chopped

100g dark chocolate, chopped

Edible gold buttons and stars to decorate, or other decorations, eg gold dragees, or red, white and green Christmassy sprinkles

48-50 petit-four paper cases

Mix together the brown sugar, icing sugar, butter and peanut butter wither a freestanding mixer to make a sandy paste. This step can also be made either by hand or in a bowl with a wooden spoon but I like to follow Nigella's lead and let the mixer do all the hard labour for me.

Use your hands to form scant 1 tsp discs to fill the base of about 48 petit four cases placed in miniature tart tins or mini muffin tins (each indentation about 4.5cm in diameter). Press the sandy mixture as best you can to form a layer at the bottom of each paper case.

Melt both chocolates very gently, either in a heatproof bowl suspended over a pan of simmering water or, using a suitable bowl, in the microwave, according to the manufacturer's instructions.

Stir the melted chocolates together and allow to cool a little, then spoon 1 tsp into each petit four case, covering the sandy base.

Decorate with a gold button or gold star in the middle of each chocolate covered peanut butter cup. Or sprinkle over any other decoration of your choice. Put in the fridge to set for 30 mins or so before serving.

Makes approx 48 (I always seem to get a lot more out of this recipe than stated though)

Nigella's Christmas Cookbook

This recipe comes with a couple of pointers from Nigella;

* Don't use whole nut or other virtuous peanut butter here, only the regular sort. Nigella uses Skippy and I use the supermarkets own label.

* To make ahead, make cups up to 2 days ahead and keep, loosely covered, in a cool place.

* To freeze, make the cups and open freeze on a baking sheet. When frozen, pack into a rigid container. Thaw overnight in a cool place on a wire rack.

Enjoy!