Make Your Own Reese's Pumpkins

I'm a sucker for hyped-up seasonal food.

Cadbury eggs? Yes please. Peppermint ice cream? So exciting. Pumpkin spice anything? Sign me up.

So when you take a Reese's peanut butter cup, a divine creation that I firmly believe was tossed down to feeble mankind from the golden clouds of Mt. Olympus, and you add the word seasonal, well then, you have yourself a little nugget of heaven.

I think the Reese's egg is my favorite seasonal Reese's, but a close second is the Reese's pumpkin. [Yes I KNOW it's all the same stuff, just in different shapes. But some are just better, ok?!?] So of course I thought I'd try making them.

It's really very easy. For any Ohioans/midwesterners/southerners out there, the recipe is the same for making buckeyes or peanut butter balls. So if you already have a favorite tried-and-true recipe, you can use that one.

First you mix up the simple three-ingredient peanut butter dough, roll it out to a generous 1/4" thickness, and cut out your pumpkin shapes with a cookie cutter. I found these great mini autumn cookie cutters at Sur la Table that were the perfect size.

Stick your pumpkins in the freezer for twenty minutes. Then melt your chocolate and give them a nice dunk.

I wish I was that pumpkin.

Lay them out on a parchment lined baking sheet until they cool and set up. Put them in the fridge to speed up the process. And there you go! Homemade chocolate peanut butter pumpkins.

Homemade Chocolate Peanut Butter Pumpkins

Ingredients:

1 cup creamy peanut butter

1/4 cup butter, softened

2 cups unsifted powdered sugar

1 11.5 oz bag semisweet chocolate chips

1 tbsp shortening

1. In a large bowl mix together peanut butter, butter and powdered sugar. You'll probably have to use your hands.
2. Roll dough out on a parchment lined surface to a generous 1/4" thickness. Using a small cookie cutter, cut out your pumpkins. Reroll scraps and cut again.
3. Place cut pumpkins in the freezer. Meanwhile in a double boiler melt chocolate and shortening until smooth and liquidy.
4. Using a fork, dunk each frozen pumpkin in the chocolate, shaking off the excess. Place pumpkins on a parchment or wax paper lined baking sheet and refrigerate until set.