Diced! Dessert Bracket: Cream Cheese Peanut Butter Cups

I announced earlier that in honor of March Madness, I decided to create a dessert bracket with 16 styles of desserts. I’ve invited 16 great chefs to each take a category and make a recipe to enter into battle. I ranked the 16 based on my view of which was the favorite and like any bracket, the favorites are matched against the lower seeds. I won’t give you my seeding because I do not want to artificially impact your choices.

I will post a pairing each week on Wednesday and Thursday and open the polls for voting. The polls will be open from Thursday until the following Wednesday (before the next pair posts). The winner of each matchup with the most votes will move on to the next round and the chef will produce another recipe for their new matchup. The overall winner will receive any prizes I can acquire. To date the winner will receive:

• Dodo Book for Cooks
• A beautiful Bamboo Cutting Board with a Butterfly Motif, graciously donated by competitor Lindy (The Kozy Nook)

This week’s pairing is:

Candy Bars vs. Pies (Fruit Variety)

Today we have Maggie from Maggie Monday, right here on The Rantings of an Amateur Chef, with an inventive way to cook with candy bars…

When I got Candy Bars as my category, I knew immediately I wanted to use Peanut Butter Cups. My candy bar of choice in the U.S. Yum. Perfect mixture of sweet and salty. They are pretty addictive. Every time I have one, I think of that classic 80’s TV commercial- you know the one where a pretty girl is strutting down the sidewalk wolfing down a jar of peanut butter while a handsome young man is doing the same with a massive hunk of chocolate. They are so into eating their respective treats that they literally bump into one another, instantly mixing the two foods. This happy accident creates the taste sensation of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup. Genius!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJLDF6qZUX0 take a look if you want a good giggle.

I started thinking about some of my other favorite desserts, and anything with cream cheese is usually pretty dang yummy. I thought it would be fun to top a peanut butter cup with cream cheesey deliciousness.

I had to bake these a little longer than I expected to set the cream cheese topping. They smelled so good it was all I could do to not try a warm one. But, I resisted!

Once we got to dig in, the family was in heaven. Theses are uber-rich, so you might want to share one, or at least have a cup of coffee with it. Next time I make these I would consider using a mini-muffin tin and the miniature Reese’s Cups for bite-sized treats. These would be great for a baby or wedding shower, or other celebratory gathering. I took two-dozen of these to a horse show, and pony moms and kids wolfed them down with multiple requests for the recipe. They ate them so fast I wasn’t able to save one for Gluten-Free pony mom. I was not fast enough!

If you like peanut butter cups, you will love these.

Cream Cheese Peanut Butter Cups

What you need:

24 full sized Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups

2 8oz packages of cream cheese, softened

¾ cup sugar

2 eggs

¼ cups sour cream

¾ cup creamy peanut butter

Chocolate Ganache Topping:

¼ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 Tbs butter

1 Tbs heavy whipping cream

2-3 peanut butter cups, chopped

What you do:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Place paper cup liners in muffin tins. Place a peanut butter cup in the bottom of each paper liner.

Place cream cheese and sugar in a stand mixer, and whip until fluffy. Add eggs, sour cream and peanut butter until well blended.

Pour about ¼ cup of cream cheese mixture on top of each peanut butter cup, filling each liner to about ¾ full. Bake for 18-25 minutes or until the cream cheese topping is set and begins to crack a bit.

Remove from oven, and cool completely in the pan. Remove cups from pan and refrigerate for at least one hour, longer if possible.

Remove cups from paper liners.

Melt the chocolate chips and butter in microwave until smooth. Drizzle mixture on top of the cups, and serve with whipped cream, and additional chopped up peanut butter cup bits if desired.