RECIPE DOCTOR
Snap, crackle, pop in peanut butter

By Elaine Magee
Knight Ridder News Service

Q. I have a somewhat odd request. I make homemade peanut butter cups every 4th of July, but it calls for butter plus peanut butter and then chocolate! All high-fat ingredients. What can I do to make light peanut butter cups that still taste heavenly?

A. You realize you are asking for miracles here, don't you? I'll tell you what we can do: Use reduced-fat peanut butter (I like the Jiff brand) and take out the butter, powdered sugar and Graham cracker crumbs altogether. And use less of the chocolate.

One technique that works in this confection-making dilemma is to add a totally new ingredient to help "extend" the chocolate and peanut butter — a filler ingredient such as Rice Krispies cereal. The other change I made was mixing the reduced fat peanut butter with the chocolate, then stirring in the Rice Krispies instead of making the traditional peanut butter cup with chocolate on the outside and peanut butter filling on the inside. Everyone that tried these really like this version.

The original recipe contains 215 calories, 15 grams fat, 7 grams saturated fat, 16 mg cholesterol per peanut butter cup.

Peanut Butter Krispy Cups

• 2 cups milk chocolate chips (semi-sweet can be substituted if desired)
• 1/2 cup reduced-fat smooth peanut butter (6 tablespoons of regular can be substituted)
• 2 cups Rice Krispies cereal

Add chocolate chips to an 8-cup glass measure and microwave on 50 percent power for about 2 minutes. Stir to see if chocolate chips are melted. If not, microwave for 30 to 60 seconds more and stir until smooth. Repeat if chips aren't melted yet.

Stir in peanut butter then stir in the Rice Krispies.

Fill (halfway) about 20 cupcake papers with the chocolate mixture. Refrigerate until hardened. Remove from refrigerator right before serving.

Makes about 20 cups

Per peanut butter cup: 125 calories, 3 g protein, 13 g carbohydrate, 7.5 g fat (3.5 g saturated fat, 2.8 g monounsaturated fat, 0.9 g polyunsaturated fat), 3.5 mg cholesterol, 1 g fiber, 35 mg sodium. Calories from fat: 52 percent. Omega-3 fatty acids, 0.1 g. Omega-6 fatty acids, 0.8 g. Weight Watchers points, 3.

Reach Elaine Magee at www.recipedoctor.com. Personal responses cannot be provided.