Homemade peanut butter cups made healthy with real ingredients!
This is about as Halloween-y as I get.
Did someone say weenie?
Moving on; it’s not that I’m above spooky homemade baked goods for Halloween. It’s the homemade part that gets me. I want caramel apple suckers. I want those Butterfinger-Reese’s cup hybrids. I want candy corn (omg not the chocolate kind). I want all the things that don’t come out of my own kitchen this time of year. I’ve got too much respect for mass-produced candy to make my own when we are thisclose to Halloween.
But, when I saw homemade peanut butter cups in Adrianna’s charming new book, The Year of Cozy, I couldn’t resist. I took a quick peek at the yield (9 peanut butter cups), divided that by my usual serving size of peanut butter cups (90), and decided this was the perfect batch of candy for two. Adrianna also has several other small-batch recipes in the book, which just makes my heart smile!
Her book is a big heart-smile for me because it’s basically how to be a cool girl. She has delicious recipes, easy crafts, and pretty things. She also shares her secrets for being happier and doing more of what you love. I’m going to say it first and hold everyone to it: she’s our generation’s Martha Stewart. After reading her book, you just want to be her because she’s so dang cool. Gosh I love her!
I glanced over the ingredient list for her homemade peanut butter cups, and realized that even the chocolate is homemade. I mean, I know Adrianna is amazing and so of course everything she makes is amazing by default, but the ingredient list made me jump into the kitchen immediately. The homemade chocolate part is similar to my homemade candy bars (that just so happen to be healthy and paleo!).
Adrianna’s recipe did not disappoint! Other delicious things from her book that I’ve made and loved: DIY roomspray, golden milk tea (made with turmeric and ginger), and snickerdoodles. Hand to the heavens, those things have been the most delicious part of my week! No, my month! Thanks for that, Adrianna. You da best. xo
Homemade Peanut Butter Cups
These peanut butter cups are the perfect treat and so easy to make.
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup creamy all-natural peanut butter
- 2 tablespoons confectioners' sugar
- pinch of sea salt
- 1 cup cocoa powder
- 1/2 cup coconut oil, melted and warm
- 1/3 cup maple syrup
- 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Instructions
- Place liners into 9 muffin cups.
- In a small bowl, beat together the peanut butter and confectioners' sugar. Add a pinch of salt if the peanut butter is unsalted. Beat until light and fluffy.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the cocoa powder, coconut oil, maple syrup and vanilla extract. Whisk until very smooth.
- Spoon 1 tablespoon of the chocolate into each liner. Freeze for 5 minutes.
- Add 1-2 small scoops of peanut butter on top of the frozen layer of chocolate.
- Top the peanut butter with the remaining chocolate, and place back in the freezer until firm.
- Add additional flaky sea salt on top, if you like.
- Store in the fridge.
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
9Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 273Total Fat: 20gSaturated Fat: 11gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 6gCholesterol: 0mgSodium: 69mgCarbohydrates: 18gFiber: 3gSugar: 10gProtein: 5g
You saved me so much time from thinking about what to make for Halloween!! This is perfect :) The buttercups look divine!!
Haha. Love the chocolate math you did. Makes sense! And I agree with you, I have so much respect for store-bought candy–it’s incredible if you actually think about it. Also thanks for calling me cool!
hmmmmmm. I’ve always loved PB cups but I just got this wild ass idea. What about cashew butter or almond butter? Have you ever tried using either? Gotta calculate the possible carbs……
Both sound DELICIOUS! :)
Peanut Butter Cups are my all time favourite candy…making them at home looks so easy. Thanks for the inspiration!
oh yummy for my tummy!!
I made these with melted butter instead of the coconut oil, and I topped them with a sprinkle of cocoa nibs for a little crunch. So yummy!
The calorie count for this needs to be divided by your yield size! It gave me quite a startle when the healthy cups were listed as almost 3,000 calories each. ;)
You’re so right, Zana! My nutrition calculator doesn’t automatically divide by serving sizes :( I’m going through all 800 recipes on my site and manually doing this. Send help LOL
What if using unsweetened cocoa?
How come my chocolate is turning out super firm?
Let them sit out on the counter for a few minutes. THey’re firm from the cold.
I just made this recipe and my chocolate turned out firm too, almost like a fudge or dough consistency. I think the trick is that you really need to make sure that the coconut oil is warm. Put it into a bowl and then slowly stir in the cocoa powder until it is mixed in. Then add the maple syrup and vanilla. I ended up doing this the second time around and it was smooth and was more like melted chocolate. So my PB cups had firm chocolate on the bottom and on top was the second batch of chocolate I made that I could pour on top. I think the first time I just put everything thing in the bowl as it was listed in the recipe so it went hard instead of a smooth more liquid texture. These PB cups are good but if you are use to the store bought or other homemade PB cups that have tons of icing sugar in them, then they’ll take some getting use to. Definitely a more healthier version of a PB cup. My hubby and kids were not overly fond of them. I’d eat them as a treat once in a while or if I needed something for someone who had dietary restrictions.
Didn’t think they would be so easy to make! Will definitely make this from now on, I hate all the added sugars and palm oil (bad for the environment) in my store bought chocolates. Used melted butter and honey and it still came out awesome. My natural pb already had sugar and salt so I omitted it. Lastly, I used silicone ice cube trays since I don’t have cupcake liners and they popped out nicely. Thank you for sharing your recipe :)