Happy Halloween!

Halloween is still one of my favorite holidays.  I love creating my own costume, getting to dress up and be whoever or whatever I want to be: a rockstar, a spider, Frida Kahlo, a roasting marshmallow...  It's the one day out of the year where you can wear anything you want.  Although, here in San Francisco, people seem to celebrate Halloween all year round with their out-there outfits.  On Halloween weekend, it can be hard to tell if someone is in a costume or just wearing their regular clothes!  That is why I love this city so much. This year, I left my costume designing to the very last minute, so I decided on being something simple: an eggplant.  I had a purple dress and sweater, and tights, and just crafted myself a stem and leaves to wear around my neck.  It was quite elegant, actually, for an eggplant, and healthy too!  I remember trick or treating as a kid, and coming home with bags of candy.  I was allergic to chocolate and milk then, but my mother was nice enough to let me eat a few pieces of candy on Halloween (and I always snuck some more later.)  The best part of the night was trading candy with my friends.  I always wanted the Reese's peanut butter cups, Peppermint Patties, and Kit Kats.  It is has been a long time since I've had any candy, and though I can only handle so much sweet these days, sometimes I crave a Reese's peanut butter cup.  So I made these yummy sugar/wheat/dairy-free peanut butter cups just in time for Halloween. I also tried to make Peppermint Patties, but they turned into a mess.  So stay tuned for the perfect patty recipe!  For now, please enjoy these decadent chocolate peanut butter cups!

Ingredients:

• 8 oz of 100% bitter chocolate
• 1-2 tbs agave nectar
• About 1/8 cup of rice milk
• 1 1/2 cups of peanut butter
• (Optional: 1 more tbs of agave)

Directions:

1. In a double boiler, melt the chocolate and add the agave nectar, stir constantly.
2. The chocolate will thicken from the agave, so thin it down with some rice milk - about 1/8 of a cup.  Just add a little at a time, stir well, and then see how thin it gets.  You want it to be as soft and thin as silky pudding.
3. Line a muffin tin with muffin liners and pour some of the chocolate into each cup.  Use a spoon or spatula to spread the chocolate up along the sides of each muffin liner.  Cover with foil/plastic wrap and place in freezer for about 30 minutes or more.
4. Meanwhile, heat up the peanut butter in the microwave for a minute and then mix together the peanut butter and agave.  (You can also omit the agave in the peanut butter if you want a more salty than sweet treat.) 
5. Take the muffin tin out of the freezer and fill each cup with the peanut butter mixture.  Press each down so it's smooth on top.
6. Re-melt the rest of the chocolate mixture in the double boiler, and pour on top of each peanut butter cup. Smooth down and refreeze for about 30 minutes, covered.
7. Take out and enjoy one of these massively delicious peanut butter cups with a friend!