A few weeks ago I got the idea to make a special treat for our friends. It had to be easy and, since the supermarket was already closed, it had to be made from ingredients already in my house. What do I always have around? That’s easy — chocolate and peanut butter! Even though I had never made peanut butter cups before, they turned out fantastic.

For the chocolate, I used a local supermarket brand, Heinen’s All-Natural Belgian Dark Chocolate with Sea Salt. That little bit of salt is just unbelievable. For the peanut butter, I also used a Heinen’s product, their house-made peanut butter. Ingredient list: Peanuts.

• 3 2-ounce bars dark chocolate (total 6 oz.)
• 6 teaspoons peanut butter  

 Melt the chocolate in a double boiler, and spoon a generous teaspoon of the melted chocolate into each of 6 regular-sized, metal muffin tins. Plan to use about half of the chocolate, but no more. Allow the chocolate in the tins to harden as it cools to room temperature.

Approximately 30 minutes later, drop a scant teaspoon of peanut butter in the center of each muffin tin right onto the hard disk of chocolate. Turn on the double boiler again, and allow the chocolate to melt once again. Then slide a second spoonful of melted chocolate into each tin, enough to cover the lump of peanut butter completely.

Place the metal pan in the freezer and allow to freeze solid for at least an hour. Remove the muffin tin from freezer, turn upside down, and smack sharply on the counter. Each peanut butter cup will slide out easily onto the counter. Serve on a pretty plate.

Yield: 6 large, sumptuous peanut butter cups. Next time I’m going to try making them in mini-muffin tins. They were pretty rich. I’m not complaining.