Valentine GF Peanut Butter Cups

2-12-13  update 

This is a fast, fun and delicious Valentine idea. The younger Mr. Darcey (he's 13) made the recipe and pressed it into a heart shaped pan. It cooled well and dropped nicely out of the pan.

First posted 11-9-11

I want to thank the group of people who fed my g-f missionary. He loved all of the food that he enjoyed in Chugiak and I am grateful to people who care.

The Man-On-A-Mission in Alaska has requested a batch of Reeses Peanut Butter Cups.

Yes, I know, that candy is typically gluten-free and I'm sure he would be happy with a package from the grocery store. But there are a multitude of lessons to be learned in this simple task.

When I was younger, the family suffered through my baking artistic blue period--the time of replicating recipes just to see if I could. While they ate through my failures, eventually they discovered there were recipes that were as good as store bought.

After such heady success, there was waning of the need to accomplish this. But, the youngster wants to make homemade candy so Mr. Darcey Jr. will get the chance to learn the intrinsic value of making food from scratch.

1 cup peanut butter

1 cup powdered sugar

Mix together and knead with hands until well blended. Form into balls and dip in chocolate or press into foil pans lined with chocolate.

Melt chocolate chips in a bowl over warm water, stirring often or nuke in the microwave on low twenty seconds at a time. If you cook it too fast and it gets too hot, it will seize like an Alaska glacier.

Cool the finished product in the refrigerator.

Delicious.

I know why the Alaska man requested homemade. He can't buy these in Alaska because the store cashier doesn't hand them to him with the words, "How are you? and I love you."

And that is why I am making them from scratch today. And I'm making them big and delicious and shipping them off to the frozen tundra in his Thanksgiving holiday package.