.mix it up, peanut butter cup.

from pieces, to bite sized, to the real deal, to the easter eggs, oh the easter eggs...reese's has had the market on my heart for a long time. so when i ran across a recipe online for chocolate-coated balls of peanut butter and brown sugar with some crumbled pretzels for crunch, i couldn't resist putting these to the test.

i also knew this would be the perfect opportunity for me to use my new food processor that we got as a wedding gift and the no-stick baking mat i recently purchased. what better is there to break in new kitchen toys than with something sweet?

after throwing the pretzels into the processor, i realized i probably would have had better results with my fist and a ziploc bag. nonetheless, it chopped them up and then i was able to mix in the sugar, both brown and white, as well as the butter, both peanut and plain. if you think forming a peanut butter laden mix into precise little balls may be a sticky matter, you are quite correct. there were frequent trips to the sink and then hand dippings into ice cold water during this process. eventually, they were all laid out in perfect, pretzely rows, ready to put in the freezer to firm.

meanwhile, on the other side of the kitchen, i melted semi-sweet chocolate chips into a gooey mass of dippable chocolate. i read that dipping the balls with a fork and rolling them around in the melted chocolate was the best way to get an even, smooth coating. well, my chocolate must have been super cranky that day because it was determined to leave gaps, clumps, and a mess on each cluster i dipped.

yet in my eyes, i found beauty in each of my rough, pretzel pokey clumps of wannabe smooth spheres and was proud to take them to my friend's house later that evening to share. now, the all important taste component. they were really good, but i have decided that next time i will use a milk chocolate for the coating. that taste will take me back to all those holiday mornings when i would pull from either a stocking, an easter basket or a heart shaped mound my favorite candy. slowly peeling away the wrapper, i would take little nibbles as i savored each bite. yes, that's the taste i'm going for next time.