Serves: Makes 24
I am both partial to a Reece’s peanut butter cup and cashew nut butter. These dinky cups marry both loves together. I’ve used mini silicone moulds but you can use mini paper cases-they are just slightly more difficult to paint with chocolate. Green and Black’s Cooking Milk Chocolate and Menier white chocolate are by far the best “high street” brands. If you can bear to share, these cups make wonderful edible presents-especially useful at Christmas.
Ingredients
- 320g milk chocolate, broken up
- 160g white chocolate, broken up
- 100g smooth cashew nut butter ( I like Meridian)
- 25g golden syrup
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 200ml double cream
Method
- Melt 90g of the milk chocolate, either in the microwave in short bursts or in a pudding bowl placed over a pan of gently simmering water. Place 12 of the silicone or paper cups on a baking tray. With a pastry brush, paint the inside of each case with a generous layer of the melted chocolate. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour. Melt the white chocolate in the same way and paint the remaining 12 cases with the melted chocolate. Chill for 1 hour.
- For the filling, place 160g of the chocolate in a bowl with the cashew nut butter, syrup and vanilla extract. Pour the cream into a saucepan and place over a moderate heat. Bring to just below boiling point then pour over the chocolate mixture. Leave for a few seconds then stir once or twice. Leave for a minute or two then stir until you have a smooth paste. Chill for about 1 hour to firm up –but don’t let it harden.
- I do the next bit with a disposable piping bag (Lakeland do at least 2 sizes-well worth investing in) as it is so much quicker and easier. Spoon the chocolate and cashew nut mixture into a piping bag and snip off the end with scissors. Pipe into each chocolate cup to just below the level of the rim. You can spoon in the mixture if you prefer. Level the surface.
- Melt the remaining 70g milk chocolate in the same way as Step 1. Leave for 5 -10 minutes to cool a little then cover the surface of each cup with a layer of chocolate-you can do this with a spoon and palette knife to even out the surface. Chill until the chocolate shell is hard.
- Repeat with the remaining 70g white chocolate. Melt, cover and chill the 12 white chocolate cups.
- When the chocolate is hard, peel off the cases and leave at room temperature for 5-10 minutes before serving.
