Peanut Butter Pumpkins

Today ended in me hunched next to a pokey shrub outside of a dark and rickety apartment building: the victim of the classic girl-locks-keys-in-car. It's nearly November now, which means that the night was chilly and spooky, and I tried to busy myself with mobile games of Boggle instead of thinking about how I was pretty sure I  had just seen a werewolf/creeper/ghost lurking in the tree thicket across the street. My super hero husband rescued me. Few phone calls will make you feel more sheepish than requesting your loved one drive out thirty minutes to bring you a spare for the third time that season. That is probably the definition of sheepish.

My point is that chocolate solves things like bad nights. Especially when molded into holiday shapes and filled with your mama's delicious peanut butter mixture. So here is a recipe for you: bring it to parties or stash it in your fridge for nights like tonight.

This is one of those secret family recipes that you blame for holiday weight gain. Traditionally, my mother (I want to point out her name is Candy, so clearly she would make the best candy) uses this filling for peanut butter eggs at Easter. But who wants to wait until spring.

Five ingredients: powdered sugar, creamy peanut butter, butter, chocolate chips, and graham crackers. The Celiac train is still in town over here, so we get to use gluten free everything. Buy the real thing if you can. (But, Kinnikinnick is pretty fabulous, especially their pizza crusts.)

Everything but the chocolate chips goes in a bowl together.

Mix it up. You can try to use a spoon at first, but eventually you will realize that you need to get your hands in there.

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This great little pan was snatched from my parents' extensive Wilton collection. Most craft stores will sell this and other plastic/metal pumpkin molds this time of year. Melt your chocolate chips down and coat the pan. Let it and the batter set in the fridge for a little bit.

When both things have set up, pack the peanut butter filling into the mold. Then just smooth a little bit of melted chocolate over the top to finish it off. Be messy.

At least make the filling to snack on. Just as good as cookie dough, I swear. Here's the (edited) recipe as written in my family cookbook: 

Ingredients: 

-1-3/4 c. powdered sugar

-1/2 c. graham cracker crumbs

-1 stick margarine

-1/2 c. peanut butter

melted chocolate

Mix & knead first four ingredients. Coat pan with chocolate. Chill chocolate pan & filling. Mold filling into pan, cover in chocolate, chill again . Eat.