Bon Appetit is back, and this time, Claire Saffitz is going a little nutty over Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. Saffitz decides to take on the beloved candy, figuring out not only how to make it from scratch, but to make it gourmet. The OG Reese’s, as she describes it, is almost “an assault of sugar.” But the pastry chef is deflated when she realizes that to achieve maximum gourmet, it’s suggested by multiple people that she temper the chocolate and make her own peanut butter from scratch.For the base of the peanut butter filling, she draws inspiration from a Halvah recipe (a Middle-Eastern candy made from sesame paste) using peanuts to get that fluffy texture. She freezes the peanut butter circles, melts milk chocolate, and then attempts the ultimate challenge — achieving the signature smooth top.Safftiz tries everything from canned air, to a heat gun, to a dust blower used for camera lenses, to spreading with a spoon, to using an airbrush machine. Eventually, she just taps the pan down on the table. “Don’t look too close”, she remarks. “It’s a little bit like a Monet.”
