Alicia Silverstone's Peanut Butter Cups That Stay Firm at Room Temperature

These are my version of Alicia Silverstone's famous Peanut Butter Cups. Just one bite will make you forget about Reese's like Romeo forgot about Rosaline. When I first made the original recipe in my early vegan days, I realized that the peanut butter part doesn't stay firm at room temperature. This is problematic if you want to leave them out at a party, or better yet, give them out as a gift. My solution is agar-agar powder. I'm not sure why they named it twice, but agar-agar is a natural stabilizer derived from a sea weed.

The original recipe calls for Earth Balance Butter, but now that I know about the destruction of the rain forests from palm oil production, I use Spectrum Shortening, which uses organic palm oil. It has no transfats and the only ingredient is palm oil. Instead of maple sugar, I've used unrefined cane sugar, but I recently decided to take a chance with maple syrup and it worked great. I'm sure agave or brown rice syrup would work great too. For the graham cracker crumbs, I've used crushed up Annie's Chocolate Chip Bunny Grahams, because they are honey free, but I've recently discovered something even better, which is Barbaras Oatmeal Snackimals. They are whole grain and wheat free for anyone who is intolerant, although they are made in a wheat processing facility.

I made these for Halloween and decided they are now my official Halloween tradition. Same goes for Easter. They are highly addictive though. Jason took most of them with him to work because he knew I would eat them all! I was able to make 21 mini cups. Enjoy!

3/4 cups creamy peanut butter
3/4 cups crushed Barbara's Oatmeal Snackimals
1/2 cup Spectrum Shortening
1/4 cup maple syrup
1 1/2 ts agar-agar powder
1 cup dairy free chocolate chips
1/4 cup soy, almond, or rice milk

• Line a 24 cup mini muffin pan with paper liners
• Prepare your crumbs by putting cookies in a food processor and process until fine. I think about 1 1/2 cups of cookies makes 3/4 cups. Store any leftovers in an airtight container.
• Combine peanut butter, shortening, maple syrup and agar-agar in a small pot over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture starts to boil. Continue to cook and stir for another 1-2 minutes. Turn off heat and add the crumbs. 
• Spoon 1 Tb peanut butter mixture into each paper liner. Allow to firm up in the fridge.
• Combine chocolate and milk in a double boiler, or like me, you can use a glass bowl above a pot of boiling water. Stir until melted and smooth. 
• Spoon a 1/2 Tb of chocolate into each cup. If you have a little left over chocolate, do not hesitate to use every bit of it to top off the peanut butter cups. Allow to firm up in the fridge.