PEANUT BUTTER CUPCAKES WITH FILLING RECIPES

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 350 F. Line one 12-cup standard muffin tin with paper cupcake liners. Gently spray the liners with baking spray and set aside.
• Sift the flour, baking powder and salt over a large piece of paper. In a large bowl, cream the butter and granulated sugar with a hand mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, egg yolk and vanilla. Reduce the speed to low and scrape down the sides of the bowl. Pour in the milk and continue to mix until smooth (the batter may look curdled at first but will smooth out). Pick up the paper with the dry ingredients and gradually pour into the wet ingredients. Continue to mix just until blended.
• Spoon the batter evenly into the prepared tin, filling the cups about three-quarters full. Bake until the tops of the cupcakes spring back to the touch and are not too golden, about 20 minutes. Cool in the tin for 15 minutes, and then allow to cool completely on a wire rack before filling, frosting or decorating.
• Fill a squeeze bottle with the grape jelly and screw on the cap. Carefully insert the tip of the squeeze bottle as far as it will go into the tops of the cupcakes. Gently squeeze about 1 tablespoon jelly inside of each cupcake. Ice the tops of the cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting to cover. Decorate with your favorite candy.
• Beat the peanut butter, butter and cream cheese with a hand or stand mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy. Slowly add the confectioners' sugar and continue to mix until the frosting is smooth. Mix in the milk and continue to mix until it reaches a good spreading consistency.

Steps:

• Bring milk and cream to simmer in a heavy 1-quart saucepan over medium heat.
• Whisk egg and yolk in a medium bowl. Add sugar, cornstarch and flour, and whisk until very well incorporated and almost fluffy.
• Whisk hot milk mixture into egg mixture. Return mixture to saucepan, and return heat to medium. Boil 1 minute, whisking constantly, or until thickened. Remove from heat. Whisk peanut butter into hot pastry cream.
• Strain the mixture through a fine-mesh sieve into a clean bowl, stir in salt, then cover with plastic wrap directly on cream to prevent skin from forming. Chill at least 3 hours, or overnight.
• Prepare the cake layers: Bring a wide pot of shallow water to a very gentle simmer over low heat.
• Place 2/3 of chocolate shards plus solid shortening in a clean 10-inch skillet set over the gently simmering water, and melt slowly. Bring the mixture to 110 degrees, and stir well to create a glossy, uniform consistency. Seed in remaining chocolate shards, and stir until completely melted and glossy, and chocolate tempers to 91 degrees. Remove from heat or turn off simmering water (or both).
• Pulse peanuts in food processor until they’re a coarse meal. Remove, and stir in confectioners’ sugar.
• Drop one wafer sheet into chocolate, giving it a tiny swirl to make sure the entire surface underneath is coated. Retrieve the wafer with tongs, tweezers or two forks, and hover it over the chocolate until dripping stops, then invert wafer, chocolate face down, on a baker’s rack set over parchment to “drain.” You want a film of chocolate to glaze the waffling, but you don’t want to fill the holes enough to pave them over entirely. Repeat with remaining wafer sheets, tempering the chocolate if needed. While chocolate is still tacky, turn wafers chocolate-side up to finish cooling. (Use an offset spatula if needed to gently release wafer from rack.) Before chocolate sets fully, heavily ring edges of two of the chocolate-dipped wafer sheets by sprinkling the prepared peanut mixture in a 1-inch rim. Allow to cool and harden in a cool, dry place.
• To assemble: Pipe or spread 1/3 of the peanut-butter pastry cream uniformly among three of the wafer sheets (on the chocolate-filmed side to prevent sogginess later), reserving one of the peanut-edged sheets as the topper.
• Refrigerate until ready to serve.
• When ready to serve, stack the sheets chocolate-side up, using the peanut-crusted sheet on the bottom, the other two plain sheets in between, and top with the last peanut-crusted chocolate wafer sheet.