Delicious Peanut Butter Chocolate Square Things

Oh, hello there, Food Blog. I just re-remembered that you existed. Again. To make it up to you, here is a recipe for peanut butter chocolate square things.



INGREDIENTS:

1/2 cup creamy peanut butter (you will need extra, so just put in as much as you'd like). 1/4 cup butter or margarine, softened 1/4 cup chopped peanuts 1/2 teaspoon vanilla (I always put in a little extra vanilla) 2 cups powdered sugar Lots and lots of semisweet chocolate or milk chocolate (and I do mean lots).

YOU WILL NEED:

Wax Paper A fork Foil A 8 by 9 pan A Bain-marie or Bain-marie like arrangement A spatula for scraping off wayward chocolate from the sides of the above mentioned Bain-marie.

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. To mash up your peanuts, just put them on a cutting board, cover them with some wax paper, and take a rolling pin to them. Or use crunchy peanut butter. I use the rolling-pinned peanut method for smaller peanut chunks.

2. In a giant bowl, mix the peanut butter, butter, mashed-up peanuts, the butter, and vanilla until well mixed.

3. Mix in the 2 cups of powdered sugar. Mix it in about 1 cup or a half cup at a time. It does not take long for the mixture to become dry and crumbly. If it is too dry to me molded into a form, you will not get good squares. So, as you add in the powdered sugar, if you notice your mixture getting too dry, add more peanut butter. Remember, you do not want your end result to be too dry. So, mix all that together (I use my hands to make sure it's all thoroughly mixed and to mush the crumbled bits together.)

4. Line a 8-9 inch square pan with foil, make sure you have plenty of overhang. Butter the foil.

5. Press your peanut-butter sugary goodness mixture into the pan. Press it down until it looks all even and pretty. To make mine look pretty, I cut out a square of waxed paper and press it over the top. Leave it there. Cover the whole thing with plastic and either do a) leave it in the fridge overnight or b) put it in the freezer for several hours. I do mean several. But not too long.

6. Now for the chocolate-ifying part. This can be an infuriating and messy process, but you get used to it if you chocolate-ify things often enough. You'll need a bain-marie (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bain_marie) or a little metal dealie to melt the chocolate over a pot of warmed water.
For the chocolate, I use up to three boxes of Baker's Semi-Sweet baking chocolate. This brand of chocolate melts the best and doesn't burn or clump easily. It's spendy, but it's the easiest to work with when melting with a bain-marie.

So, take a bunch of chocolate, and put it over a pot of water that's on low-to-medium heat. Not too hot, you will burn the chocolate. Melting and coating the peanut butter squares takes a while, which is why I am glad there's a tv in the kitchen so I can watch MSNBC or a movie or something.
While you're waiting for the chocolate to melt, be sure to stir it often. But while it's still solid and you have nothing else to do but watch it melt, take the peanut butter mix out of the fridge/freezer. Lift it out of the pan using the foil. Unwrap the mix from the foil and cut the mix into squares. If it crumbles while you try to do this, you didn't use enough peanut butter. You should have listened. Now your squares won't be squares. They'll be deformed and made fun of by all the other chocolates. If not, you'll have a bunch of good looking non-crumbly squares. Do not leave them out while the chocolate is melting or they'll lose their integrity and fall apart when you put them in the chocolate. Put them in the fridge until they're ready to be coated.

7. To coat the squares: put a long sheet of wax paper on the counter. Take your plate of squares out and, one at a time, drop them into the chocolate. Using a fork, make sure the square gets coated, then lift the square out of the chocolate, and drop them onto the wax paper.

Continue til they're all coated. If you run low on chocolate, just melt more. Use a spatula to scrape the chocolate that tries to escape by coating the sides of your bain-marie.

8. Let the chocolates sit on the counter til the chocolate hardens. The put them on a plate and put them in the fridge so they stay firm and not moist or anything.

9. EAT THEM ALL.

10. Realize you've eaten them all. Return to step 1.


LAST MADE: Uhhh, I think New Year's Eve Eve? I was watching Zero Dark Thirty and making them, and that was the day before New Year's Eve, I think.
INJURIES: I forget.
END RESULT: I'm pretty sure people ate them and liked them.
FOR NEXT TIME: Remember the existence of your blog.