Chocolate - Peanut Butter Crunch Cups AND Bites

 You've got to try these. 

They are super easy, involve just a few ingredients, and are completely delicious.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Crunch Cups

 Recipe from Iowa Girl Eats

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cups smooth peanut butter

1/4 cup butter at room temperature

1 cup powdered sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups crispy rice cereal

1 3/4 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips (to make dairy free, use dairy free chocolate chips)

Directions:

Grease mini muffin tin with non-stick spray (I didn't do this and had a hard time getting my cups out). Microwave the chocolate chips in a bowl for 30 second increments until nicely melted. Spoon/pour the chocolate inside the bottom of each cup in the pan. Set aside. 

In a large bowl, cream together peanut butter and butter until smooth. Add in powdered sugar and vanilla, then mix until combined. Pour in crispy rice cereal and mix until combined.

Drop heaping Tablespoons of the peanut butter mixture into each mini muffin cup. Smooth with the back of a spoon and refrigerate for at least 15 minutes. Store in an airtight container in the fridge.

One of my proud nearly-perfect cups

One of my not-so-perfect, just-as-tasty cups (here's where my skipping the non-stick spray step kept them from popping nicely out of the pan)

I followed Iowa Girl Eats' suggestion by sprinkling chocolate chips into the leftover peanut butter mixture, shaping them into balls and refrigerating them.

THESE were both Nick and I's favorites! We found the chocolate at the bottom of the cup to be hard to bite through therefore we loved these PB/chocolate bites - next time, I'll skip the cups and just make these balls instead! Half of the work and they taste amazing! You could even roll them in some chocolate almond bark and that might be even more amazing...

These are perfect fresh out of the fridge (maybe even freezer??) for a cold summer snack.

Try them and let me know what you think!