I know I've talked before about my nut butter addiction. Basically, I have a ridiculously large collection of nut butters in my fridge and cupboards because I'm unable to walk past a display and not grab a jar to take home and sample. Sunflower seed, cashew, almond, peanut...I love them all. My latest obsession is chocolate nut butters, where the manufacturers save me the trouble of adding chocolate chips to my sandwiches (true fact) and mix cocoa right into the nut butter itself! I've experimented with chocolate peanut, chocolate almond, and chocolate hazelnut, and they're all pretty amazing.

I first came up with this recipe for Crispy Almond Cups using chocolate almond butter and crispy rice cereal in the filling. It was as simple as that: just mix the two ingredients together, and go! But I realized that most people probably don't share my love of impulse-buying nut butters (I hope not, at least. It's an expensive hobby!) so I tweaked the recipe so that it calls for regular almond butter instead--but you can substitute any nut butter of your choice with good results. The butter is mixed with melted chocolate, a little powdered sugar, and crispy rice cereal to produce a crunchy, rich filling with lots of nutty taste and a hint of chocolate. Use your newfound abilities to make chocolate cups and whip up a batch of these today!

Get the recipe: Crispy Almond Cups

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Crispy Almond Cups Photo ©2011 Elizabeth LaBau, licensed to About.com, Inc.

I love the combination of chocolate and peanut butter (boy, do I!) but I don't particularly like store-bought peanut butter cups. The peanut butter filling always seems too dry and crumbly, and the flavor of the chocolate and peanut butter always seems too artificial. So what's a candy lover to do but make her own? Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups are easy to make and include a handy step-by-step guide with pictures, so you can see how your candies should look at every step. The resulting cups have a strong peanut and chocolate taste, with a creamy filling that melds perfectly with the chocolate.

If the photo tutorial still leaves you with questions, check out this video with step-by-step instructions for Making Peanut Butter Cups. The recipe in the video adds graham cracker crumbs for a crunchy, crispy candy cup.

Get the recipe:
Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups
Peanut Butter Cups Photo Tutorial
Peanut Butter Cups Video.

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Peanut Butter Cups Photo ©2011 Elizabeth LaBau, licensed to About.com, Inc.

Attention, candy cohorts! This week's recipe are all based around chocolate cups--those adorable, edible candy delivery devices most commonly seen containing peanut butter filling. We will be tackling peanut butter cups soon--oh yes, we will--but before we get there, we need to start with the foundational skill of making the cups themselves. To get started, refer to this chocolate cup recipe or the chocolate cup photo tutorial.

Chocolate cups are not just used for making candies. They can also be filled with whipped cream, mousse, small scoops of ice cream, ganache, and any other soft and tasty filling you can think of. You can definitely buy chocolate cups--kitchen supply stores, Cost Plus, and even many liquor stores carry them--but it's several dollars for a dozen and I find mine are frequently broken, bloomed, or both when I open the package. So when I have the time, I save myself some frustration and money and make my own. It is a little time consuming, but they can be made in advance and stored for weeks before you use them, so with some advanced planning you can be rollin' in chocolate cups whenever you want!

Get the recipe:
Chocolate Cups
Chocolate Cups Photo Tutorial

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Chocolate Cups Photo ©2011 Elizabeth LaBau, licensed to About.com, Inc.

Earlier this year, I featured a week of copycat candy recipes, and afterward I took an informal poll asking what other knockoff recipes I should tackle. One reader suggested Frango mints, which are chocolate candies with a firm chocolate-mint center. It took a few months, but I finally got around to trying my hand at a recipe! May I present: Mint Meltaways. There are lots of chocolate-mint candies out there, but these are unique to me because the texture changes so much depending on how they're served. When they are fresh from the refrigerator the filling is firm, almost like a hard fudge, but once they come to at room temperature it's soft, almost like a mousse or frosting. I can't decide which taste I like better, but fortunately I don't really have to choose. Since the recipe makes 4 dozen candies, I can enjoy some cold, and some at room temperature, until--like Goldilocks--I find the texture that is juuuust right for me.

Get the recipe: Mint Meltaways

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Mint Meltaways Photo ©2012 Elizabeth LaBau, licensed to About.com, Inc.