Friday, November 27, 2009

Espresso Crunch Cups

I just love making holiday treats. This is a new recipe that I tried this year and it's really good, it will go into the regular holiday rotation...

The recipe calls for chocolate covered espresso beans. What I found and used were called chocolate covered espresso bits. I found them at Publix near the produce section... there's a small section of nuts and dried fruits and stuff like that.



I tried to give you a view of the inside here.




ESPRESSO CRUNCH CUPS

1/4 cup butter or margarine, softened
2 1/4 cups sifted powdered sugar
3/4 cup crushed chocolate-covered espresso beans (4 ounces)
3 tablespoons Kahlúa
1/8 teaspoon salt
4 cups (24 ounces) milk chocolate morsels
4 tablespoons shortening
48 (1 1/2") paper candy cups (1 1/4" cups will work fine, too)

Beat butter at medium speed with an electric mixer about 2 minutes or until creamy. Gradually add powdered sugar, beating until smooth. Stir in espresso beans, Kahlúa, and salt. (This can be done by hand just as well - go ahead and mix butter, powdered sugar, Kahlua and salt at the same time, then add espresso beans)

Cover and chill 1 hour or until firm. Shape mixture by teaspoonfuls into 48 balls, and flatten slightly.

Melt chocolate morsels and shortening in a small saucepan over low heat, stirring until smooth. (I melted the chocolate in the microwave) Spoon 1/2 teaspoon melted chocolate into 48 paper-lined miniature (1 3/4") muffin pans, turning or gently shaking pans to coat bottoms evenly. Place 1 flattened Kahlúa ball in each cup; spoon remaining melted chocolate over Kahlúa balls, covering them completely.

Cover and chill chocolate cups until firm. Store in an airtight container in refrigerator.

Note: Once I made the 48 Kahlúa balls, I worked with batches of 12 crunch cups at a time. I melted the milk chocolate morsels in the microwave one cup at a time with one tablespoon of shortening at a time. This was enough chocolate to make 12 crunch cups at a time.

Variation: For Butterscotch Crunch Cups, substitute butterscotch schnapps for Kahlúa and Heath toffee bits for espresso beans. (I came up with this one myself! They were really good.)

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