Salted Caramel Peanut Butter Cups are a rich blend of dark chocolate with a creamy peanut butter center with salted caramel drizzle. Indulge with these small but satisfying sweets!
Looking for more sweet and savory treats? My Homemade Snickers Bars are a winner and you can't go wrong with these Rice Krispie Peanut Butter Balls!
Who knew homemade candy could be this simple to make and taste so good? The easy comparison is of course Reeses peanut butter cups but Salted Caramel Peanut Butter cups are bit more sophisticated. Let's get into it!
how to make peanut butter cups
I opted for dark chocolate instead of milk chocolate and the peanut butter filling is blended with salted caramel. Adding salted caramel to the top of the peanut butter cups ups the yum factor!
Salted Caramel
For these salted caramel peanut butter cups, I did make my own salted caramel. However, you don't have to.
Salted caramel is simple to make. It only has four ingredients: sugar, butter, heavy cream, and sea salt.If you prefer to skip this step, there are some great salted caramel options. I recommend Smuckers Salted Caramel Topping, Stonewall Kitchen Sea Salt Caramel Sauce, or Williams Sonoma Salted Caramel Sauce!
However, if you want to make it from scratch, I've got you covered! First, pour sugar into a pan over medium heat. Be sure to stir every 30 seconds until the sugar has melted completely. If the sugar begins to clump, stir more often so that it doesn't burn.
Once the sugar is melted, remove it from the heat and add butter, stirring continuously. It should bubble up. Next pour in heavy cream and add salt. Now continue to stir. If the mixture begins to harden, add to low heat to liquify.
Then pour the salted caramel into a heat safe container and allow it to cool.
peanut butter cups
Melt the dark chocolate according to package instructions. My preferred brand is Ghiradelli's Dark Chocolate Flavored Melting Wafers. These wafers melt into a creamy, delicious liquid, making them perfect for peanut butter cups.
Line a muffin pan with muffin liners or silicone muffin or cupcake liners. Next add 1 tablespoon of chocolate to coat the bottom of the liners. Place in the refrigerator for 15 minutes.
Time to assemble the salted caramel peanut butter cups!
Spoon in 2-3 teaspoons of peanut butter and 1 teaspoon of salted caramel. Cover with the remaining melted chocolate. Return to the refrigerator for 20 minutes.
Now remove the peanut butter cups from the muffin liners. Finally, drizzle with additional salted caramel and enjoy!
variations for salted caramel peanut butter cups
I love how creative you can get with this recipe. The possibilities are truly endless but here are some fun ideas if you want some inspiration.
- Chocolate: While I used dark chocolate, milk or even white chocolate would work great too! It just depends on personal tastes and how sweet you want this snack to be.
- Filling: Why not try crunchy peanut butter instead of creamy peanut butter for extra texture? But pretzel bits, marshmallows or even M&M's would be fun inclusions as well.
- Topping: You can double down on the chocolate by adding fudge or white chocolate drizzle. Or get fun and add some crushed potato chips.
If you remix this recipe, I'd love to see what you come up with!
MORE RECIPES YOU'LL LOVE!
- Salted Caramel Macarons
- Salted Caramel Chocolate Tart with Candied Peanuts
- Brown Butter Peanut Butter Cup Blondies
- Salty Caramel Yogurt Shakes
- Honey Peanut Butter Cookies
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Salted Caramel Peanut Butter Cups
Equipment
- 12 cup Muffin Pan
- Silicone Cupcake Liners (preferred) or Cupcake Liners
Ingredients
Salted Caramel
- 1 cup Sugar
- 6 tbsps Butter
- ½ cup Heavy Cream
- 1-2 tsp Sea Salt, add more of less as desired
Peanut Butter Cups
- two 10 oz Packs of Dark Chocolate Melting Wafers (preferably Ghiradelli's)
- 1 cup Creamy Peanut Butter
- ¼ cup Powdered Sugar
- 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
Directions
- To make salted caramel: pour sugar into a pan and heat over medium heat. Stir every 30 seconds until the sugar has melted completely. If sugar becomes clumped together, this is normal, continue to stir so that sugar does not burn.
- Once the sugar has melted, remove from heat and add butter, stirring continuously. The mixture will bubble up quite a bit. Pour in heavy cream and add salt and continue to stir. (If the mixture begins to harden, add to low heat to liquify).
- Pour into a heat-safe container and allow to cool.
- Make the peanut butter filling by mixing together the creamy peanut butter, powdered sugar, and vanilla extract in a small bowl. If peanut butter is difficult to mix, simply microwave for 10-20 seconds.
- Melt chocolate according to package instructions.
- Line a muffin pan with muffin liners or silicone muffin/cupcake liners (preferred). Add 1 tbsp of chocolate to coat the bottom of the liners. Add to the refrigerator for 15 minutes.
- Spoon in 2-3 teaspoons of peanut butter and 1 tsp of salted caramel. Cover with remaining melted chocolate. Return to the refrigerator for 20 minutes.
- Remove peanut butter cups from the muffin liners and drizzle with additional salted caramel.
The caramel sauce was very fiddly and but they came out pretty good.
Caramel sauce can be very fickle, it's all about temperature control. I'm glad you enjoyed them.
These cups were so easy to make and better than anything I've purchased at the store! Everyone was surprised I made them.
These salted caramel peanut butter cups were everything! I gave some to my niece and nephew and they kept coming back for more.
I LOVE these little bites of sweet and salty deliciousness! I will be making these so often when my sweet tooth is getting to me!
I made these peanut butter cups with my little one and she loved every step of making them! Thank you for the clear instructions. They were super easy to make!
Just when I thought peanut butter cups couldn't get any better, you go and add caramel - extraordinarily good!
These were so much better than the store bought stuff. The sweet and salty bites were glorious. Thanks for share.
These were so much fun to make AND eat! Will definitely be making them again!