This homemade Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups recipe will satisfy your peanut butter cravings in just minutes, and they taste just like the real thing!
Peanut Butter Cups, A Family Tradition
We love our peanut butter cups in our family, and take them quite seriously. This homemade Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups recipe came from our grandma, who made them for us for years. The filling has the same creamy texture as the candy you buy at the store, with rich, sweet chocolate on the outside. But these taste even better, because they’re homemade!
What Kind of Chocolate Should I Use for the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups Shell?
While this homemade peanut butter cups recipe calls for chocolate chips (either milk or semi-sweet works great) you can use chocolate melts instead. It won’t be quite as soft as the chocolate on the store-bought brand, but they’ll still taste chocolatey and delicious!
Do Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups Need to Be Refrigerated?
Once the chocolate shell has hardened, there is no need to refrigerate these peanut butter cups. You can store them at room temperature until ready to eat! But if you’re like me and you happen to love cold chocolate, pop a few in the refrigerator. Perhaps hide them behind the veggies so nobody but you knows they’re there!
How Do I Get This Recipe to Look Like Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups?
They may look fancy, but making these into cute cups couldn’t be easier.
- Place cupcake liners into a mini cupcake pan, or regular cupcake pan, depending on how large you want your homemade peanut butter cups.
- Using a paint brush (I like to use a flat brush, about an inch or so wide) paint melted chocolate on the inside of each cupcake liner until about halfway up.
- Place them in the refrigerator to cool.
- Then, put a ball of peanut butter cup mixture into each cup (see recipe for instructions below) and top with more melted chocolate.
- The amount of chocolate needed tends to vary each time, so keep a few extra chocolate chips on hand if you need a bit more.
A Quicker Method for Reese’s Cups
If you don’t have a lot of time or patience to create the “cups” in the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, you can make things a bit easier on your self. Here’s how:
- You can make these “fondue” or “buckeye” style by first rolling the peanut butter mixture into balls.
- Next, dip them directly into the melted chocolate.
- Then, place them on wax paper to cool and harden. You will get the exact same taste and it’ll only take you about five minutes!
More Reese’s Recipes
If you love the taste of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups and candies, check out these delicious recipes!
Peanut Butter Cup
Rice Krispie TreatsCandy Bar Hot Chocolate Really Reese’s Cookies
- Really Reese’s Cookies – With three different types of Reese’s candies, these are REALLY REESE’S Cookies! Chocolate and peanut butter in every delicious bite.
- Chocolate Peanut Butter Fudge Swirl – This fudge is so easy to make and it is incredibly delicious! It tasted like a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup in fudge form.
- Peanut Butter Cup Rice Krispie Treats – It’s so easy to turn a traditional Rice Krispie Treats into Peanut Butter Cup Rice Krispie Treats. Creamy peanut butter and mini Reese’s cups make it an extra special treat!
- Candy Bar Hot Chocolate – You’ve got to try this Reese’s Hot Chocolate. It is amazing how a little peanut butter can give a creamier, richer taste to hot cocoa!
- Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup Cake – This cake is so fun! It is a round cake that looks and tastes just like a giant Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup!
How to Make Homemade Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup graham crackers crushed
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 6 tablespoons butter
- 9 ounces peanut butter either creamy or crunchy is fine
- 4 tablespoons butter divided
- 12 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips you may want to have a little extra on hand just in case
Instructions
- In a medium-sized bowl, combine graham cracker crumbs and powdered sugar until well blended. Set aside.In a microwave-safe measuring cup, heat 6 Tbsp butter and peanut butter together in microwave for 15 second increments until melted. Stir until combined and pour over graham cracker mixture. Continue to stir until well combined. Set aside.
- Melt half of the chocolate chips with 2 tablespoons of butter in a microwave safe bowl in the microwave for 15 second increments (stirring each time) until chocolate is melted. Place cupcake liners in cupcake tin (mini or regular depending on what size peanut butter cups you want to make– makes about 36 mini cups or 18 full-sized cups).
- Using a paint brush (I used a flat brush about 1/2" wide), "paint" each cupcake liner with melted chocolate. Be sure to evenly coat the bottom and half way up each cup (if using the "mini" cupcake liners). If you are using full-size cupcake liners paint about 1/3 of the way up each cup. Tip: You don't need to paint the chocolate super thick, just enough so you don't see any of the liner underneath.Place in the refrigerator to cool for about 5 minutes or until chocolate hardens.
- Press about 1 teaspoon of graham cracker mixture in each mini cup (about 1 Tbsp. for regular-sized cups) making sure the top is somewhat flat (it doesn’t need to be perfect). Just make sure you don’t go above where you “painted” the chocolate on the cup.
- Add remaining chocolate chips to remaining melted chocolate in the microwave-safe bowl and melt together with remaining 2 tablespoons butter (stirring every 15 seconds).Spoon a little chocolate over each peanut butter cup until the peanut butter filling is completely covered (you can lightly shake or tap the cupcake pan to even out the chocolate over the filling). You want the top of the peanut butter cup to look completely flat.
- Place in refrigerator or cool area until chocolate hardens, then serve!
Recipe Video
Nutrition
Brandy says
They’re good! But I didn’t get a wow factor on taste. Like the eye roll when something is so delicious. Once they were put together the peanut butter just didn’t seem right with Graham in it. I may try again using milk chocolate and using a bar vs chocolate chips. Fun to make though!
STEFANINA says
Can you use coconut oil instead of butter for this recipe? I know they are 1:1 with each other. I just wanted to double check
Favorite Family Recipes says
Yes you can! It might change the flavor a little bit, but if you like coconut that should be fine!
Pat says
Taste like the Reeses Peanut Butter Cups you buy in the store. Easy to make. I made them exactly as the recipe said. I used Ghirardelli dark chocolate melts instead of chocolate chips because that was what I had on hand. The chocolate was harder but still very good. Next time I make them I will crush my Graham crackers finer. I crushed them like you would for a pie crust, so If you like the Crunchy Reeses Peanut Butter cups than crush them for a pie crust. I had some filling left over and put in the refrigerator – plan to warm it up and make more cups another day. Will let you know if they are as good as the ones I just made.
Kristen Vales says
Are you using regular peanut butter or unsweetened peanut butter for this recipe?
Favorite Family Recipes says
Regular!
Json says
Try crushing Nutter Butter cookies instead of graham crackers.. put a little carmel in the bottom of the cup, before the peanut butter mixture… Your welcome!!
Favorite Family Recipes says
Yum!
Candyqueen365 says
Really good I’m Irish we don’t have Graham crackers so I used digestive biscuits the only thing is adding butter splits the chocolate and makes it harder to spread
Rachel says
Can I make these with milk chocolate instead of semi sweet?
Favorite Family Recipes says
Sure!
Melissa says
Wow – these are so good, definitely making them again.
Natalie says
It’s dangerous for me to know this recipe! I will want to make them everyday! They are so good & taste even better than the store bought ones!
Laura Reese says
Whoa these were amazing. I loved making and enjoying them.
Kim says
I had 1/4 the amount of dark chocolate in the house leftover from another recipe so I quartered this recipe and made in mini cups. Tasted like the real thing. I must admit I was skeptical about the addition of graham crackers but that did the trick!
Becky Casteels says
Do you use milk chocolate chips or semi-sweet?
Echo Blickenstaff says
Semi-sweet. Thank you for catching that! I fixed it on the recipe.
V wong says
How long can these last outside the fridge? :O
Favorite Family Recipes says
It depends on how warm it is where you are storing them. I would suggest keeping them in the fridge to maintain their shape!
josh says
Although it is not mentioned in the recipe; I think that the quality of the chocolate is critical here. (I guess for experienced bakers/cooks, it’s so obvious that it’s not worth mentioning. LOL). I used inexpensive chocolate chips from Smart and Final. They have always been fine to use in Ch. Chip cookies. But here, there was no place to “hide” the inferior taste. Next time, I’ll happily spend the extra money to buy a much higher quality of chocolate…the “filling” part was indeed delicious and easy to prepare.
Echo Blickenstaff says
Thank you for your comment. Yes! the quality of chocolate makes all the difference. I’m glad you liked the filling!
Patricia D says
Have you tried this using Nutella instead of peanut butter?
Echo Blickenstaff says
No, Nutella has a thinner consistency than peanut butter. I’m not sure if it will set up the same. Thank you for asking!
Veronica Williams says
I feel like I did something wrong. I melted the butter and chocolate chips in the microwave, stirring every 15 seconds, but instead of becoming liquidy and easy to pour, it became a crumbly goo. It was really hard to spread evenly, did this happen to anyone else?
The end result was delicious, though.
Favorite Family Recipes says
Chocolate is so tricky! When I melt chocolate in the microwave I usually stop cooking it when there are still a few unmelted chunks. Then, I keep stirring until everything is melted and smooth. If you overheat it even a little bit it will harden and become crumbly, as you explained. I’m glad they still turned out delicious!
Paige says
I had the same issue where the chocolate turned to more like a dough consistency. As the previous person suggested, the butter mixing with some chocolate brands (I used Ghirardelli) does’t work well if the water content in the butter is high, so I use coconut oil instead.
1 Tablespoon of Coconut oil per bowl with the chocolate in place of the 2 Tablespoons of butter per bowl. Works beautifully. Hope this helps your readers.
Joanne Morgan says
if the chocolate comes into contact with even a drop of water, it will turn out like yours. Butter has a lot of water content. You might try using Crisco instead, or a mixture of half Crisco and half butter. I wouldn’t use oleo. An activated carbon is frequently used for decolorizing, deodorizing and purifying the fatty acids and derived chemicals to make it. I’m no chemist, but I have heard that it is a very few
molecules more and it’s actually plastic!
Elli says
When melting chocolate in the microwave you have to use 50% power. Or sometimes you can half the time, stir, then the other half of time and stir. That takes longer.
Candyqueen365 says
You may have burned the chocolate or the addition of butter took the fat from the chocolate and made it split is suggest using a Bain maire
Heather Rose says
Where the items are measured in ozs, is that fluid or weight?
Favorite Family Recipes says
Weight!
Andrew says
Took me 2 hours to make these! They are freezing right now, cant wait to eat them 🙂 the peanut butter concoction tasted good so Im assuming they will after they are done as well, thank you for this!
Suzy says
LOVE that I can make these in bulk at home! The kids loved them!
Beth says
These look so delicious and fun to make! My daughter love anything chocolate and peanut butter! Can’t wait to make these!
Jen says
Wow, these are a game changer!! So fun to create and even more fun to eat!!
Private Name says
I really want to try this recipe, but unfortunately, I do not have a microwave at all.
Is there a way to modify this recipe to no microwave for those of us without one?
Favorite Family Recipes says
Yes, you can boil a pot of water and then put a glass or other heat-safe bowl over the top of the pot and stir it until it is melted!
Private Name says
Thank You!!
Sydney Sledge says
Cool
Katlyn says
I loved them they were so good and tasty
Sarah says
How much of each ingredient is needed for Reese’s peanut butter cups
Echo Blickenstaff says
https://www.favfamilyrecipes.com/homemade-reeses-peanut-butter-cups/
Ingredient amounts are listed on the recipe. Not sure if that is what you are asking?
Nancy says
Can the powered sugar be left out of the peanut butter mixture.
Favorite Family Recipes says
It won’t be quite the right texture if you leave it out!
Joanne says
you can make your own powdered sugar from granulated, in a food processer or blender.
Elli says
Substitute swerve powdered sugar or another alternative powdered sugar.