Chocolate & Peanut Caramel Cups
I don’t know about you, but since I’m stuck at home, even though I have a lot of time to bake and I love doing it, sometimes I just want to eat some industrial chocolate bars or cookies… But since I don’t want to go out just for that purpose, I decided to make my own chocolate cups!
I was feeling like something crunchy and smooth, with chocolate and caramel… So I made a sweet pastry dough, a peanut caramel and a dark chocolate ganache.
A few tips before starting!
The whole process is pretty fast, especially if you made the caramel sauce the previous day. If not, it’s the first thing you want to do when making this recipe as it needs to cool down.
If you have no time to make a caramel sauce, skip this part and pipe some peanut butter in the center of the cups. Or what about some dulce de leche or raspberry jam?
The dough is very easy to make. The recipe is from a famous french pastry chef, Christophe Michalak.
You don’t need a stand mixer, plus you just have to pipe it straight away in the cups. No resting, rolling and pressing involved!
When it comes out of the oven, simply press a teaspoon in the center to create a hole.
It’s faster to pipe all the different layers in the muffins cups. Although, if you don’t have any piping bags or don’t feel comfortable using them, simply use two teaspoons to push the dough and the caramel into the muffin cups.
For the ganache, if you prefer it sweeter, you can substitute some of the dark chocolate with milk chocolate.
Pour the ganache in the cups when it’s still warm to be able to flatten it. Then, gently press a fork on top to create some light stripes.
Freeze the cups for a couple of hours before un-molding.
You can store them for a few days in the fridge or a few months in the freezer in an airtight container, separated with parchment paper.
Chocolate & Peanut Caramel Cups
Ingredients
Sweet Pastry Dough
- ¼ cup + 1 tbsp butter 77 g – room temperature
- 3 tbsp powdered sugar 30 g
- 1 pinch sea salt flakes
- 1/2 cup flour 70 g
Peanut Caramel
- ½ tbsp peanut butter 12 g
- ⅛ cup salted caramel sauce 75 g – see recipe linked in the notes
- 1 pinch sea salt flakes
- ½ tbsp peanuts crushed
Dark Chocolate Ganache
- ½ cup dark chocolate 85 g
- ⅓ cup whipping cream 85 g
- ½ tbsp honey 8 g
Instructions
Sweet Pastry Dough
- Preheat the oven to 335°F.
- In a bowl, beat the butter with a rubber spatula until smooth.
- Add the powdered sugar, and mix until combined.
- Add the flour and salt, mix until combined.
- Pipe the dough on the bottom of the muffin cups.
- Bake for 20 minutes at 335°F, turning the tray half way.
- Press a teasponn in the dough as soon as it gets out of the oven. Allow to cool dowm.
Peanut Caramel
- Mix all the ingredients together with a spoon.
- Pipe in the hole of the cups.
Dark Chocolate Ganache
- In a pot, bring the cream and the honey to a boil. Pour on the chocolate, and wait a minute before stirring with a spatula.
- Put in a piping bag and pour it on top of the caramel. Tap the tray to flatten the ganache and gently press the top with a fork to make some stripes.
Resting and storage
- Place the muffin trays in the freezer for 2 hours.
- Remove the muffin cups and refrigerate for a few days of store in the freezer.