My favorite candies have always been the chocolate-coated variety, with a bit of a salty element– like Snickers, Twix, and Reese’s.
You may recall that I actually made some Healthy Almond Butter Cups several years ago, but Austin and I have always agreed that the mini peanut butter cups are far superior to the full-size cups. I think it has something to do with the peanut butter-to-chocolate ratio. So, this year I decided to try my hand at making a mini homemade version.
What I love about making my own peanut butter cups is that you get to control everything, from how dark the chocolate is to how much peanut butter filling goes into each cup. You can even find dark chocolate that is sweetened with coconut sugar now, to completely eliminate the refined sugar element. Don’t care for peanut butter? Use almond butter, cashew butter, or sunflower butter if you prefer. It’s hard to mess these up!
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Mini Vegan Peanut Butter Cups
Makes 16 pieces
Ingredients:
16 mini paper liners
Chocolate Coating:
1 1/2 cups dark chocolate chips (about 7 ounces)
Peanut Butter Filling:
1/2 cup all-natural organic peanut butter
2 tablespoons maple syrup
1 tablespoon coconut flour
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
Coarse sea salt, for topping (if desired)
Directions:
Line a mini muffin pan with the 16 paper liners and set it aside. Melt half of the dark chocolate (about 3/4 cup dark chocolate chips) over a double boiler. I simply arrange an heat-safe bowl over my 2-quart sauce pan that has been filled with about an inch of water, and then bring that to a boil.
Once the chocolate is melted, use a teaspoon to scoop the chocolate into the bottom of each mini muffin liner, then set the pan aside again.
To prepare the peanut butter filling, stir together all of the ingredients in a medium bowl, until the mixture is thick. Use a teaspoon to measure out the filling, then roll it between your hands to form a ball. I like to gently press each ball between my fingers so that the top and bottom are slightly flattened, that way the peanut butter cups won’t look too round. (See the picture below.)
Press the peanut butter filling into each muffin cup, then melt the remaining dark chocolate to spoon over the top. You want the tops to be flat, just like a Reese’s peanut butter cup, so you might need a little bit more than a teaspoon to fill out the tops. While the chocolate is still melted, sprinkle the tops with coarse sea salt, if desired. (I highly recommend it!)
Allow the cups to cool at room temperature, or put them in the fridge to speed up the process. Because this recipe calls for natural peanut butter, which is normally stored in the fridge, I’d recommend storing these in the fridge if you don’t plan on serving them all within two days. They should keep for a month or more when stored in an airtight container in the fridge– unless you eat them all before then!
Mini Vegan Peanut Butter Cups
Ingredients
16 mini paper liners
Chocolate Coating:
- 1 1/2 cups dark chocolate chips (about 7 ounces)
Peanut Butter Filling:
- 1/2 cup all-natural organic peanut butter
- 2 tablespoons maple syrup
- 1 tablespoon coconut flour
- 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
Coarse sea salt, for topping (if desired)
Instructions
- Line a mini muffin pan with the 16 paper liners and set it aside. Melt half of the dark chocolate (about 3/4 cup dark chocolate chips) over a double boiler. I simply arrange an heat-safe bowl over my 2-quart sauce pan that has been filled with about an inch of water, and then bring that to a boil.
- Once the chocolate is melted, use a teaspoon to scoop the chocolate into the bottom of each mini muffin liner, then set the pan aside again.
- To prepare the peanut butter filling, stir together all of the ingredients in a medium bowl, until the mixture is thick. Use a teaspoon to measure out the filling, then roll it between your hands to form a ball. I like to gently press each ball between my fingers so that the top and bottom are slightly flattened, that way the peanut butter cups won't look too round.
- Press the peanut butter filling into each muffin cup, then melt the remaining dark chocolate to spoon over the top. You want the tops to be flat, just like a Reese's peanut butter cup, so you might need a little bit more than a teaspoon to fill out the tops. While the chocolate is still melted, sprinkle the tops with coarse sea salt, if desired. (I highly recommend it!)
- Allow the cups to cool at room temperature, or put them in the fridge to speed up the process. Because this recipe calls for natural peanut butter, which is normally stored in the fridge, I'd recommend storing these in the fridge if you don't plan on serving them all within two days. They should keep for a month or more when stored in an airtight container in the fridge-- unless you eat them all before then!
Video
Nutrition
Per Serving: Calories: 113, Fat: 8g, Carbohydrates:10g, Fiber: 1g, Protein: 3g
Note: If you’d prefer to make your own chocolate coating, rather than using store-bought chocolate, I’d recommend using my recipe for Healthy Chocolate Bark. I hope this recipe will make your Halloween a little tastier this year!
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Reader Feedback: What’s your favorite Halloween candy?
Yum! I am excited about these! I love PB cups and sometimes the almond butter ones just won’t suffice. Hopefully, this will be the recipe that will convince my husband that he doesn’t need the commercial ones filled with junk 😛
I love all your easy and delicious recipes…especially around the holidays! Thanks!
THis recipe looks delicious and easy! Do you think almond butter would work? I don’t eat peanuts (but I might make an exception)
Almond Butter works!
Just making these right now and although they’re in the fridge at the moment I’ve tasted bits along the way and they are divine. I can’t wait until they’re ready (and neither can my husband!!!) Thanks so much for this quick, easy and delicious recipe.
Hi Megan,
If I wanted to use your Raw Chocolate Bark recipe to make these, would just one be enough, or would I need to double or triple it? Also, would I need to heat it up, or just make it and use it right then to make the peanut butter cups?
Do you know the nutritional value?
These sound great, I’ve been making these for 20 yrs and love them. The recipe I have calls for coconut oil with the chocolate chips and I’ve not tried maple syrup for sweetening the pb, so I’m curious how that will affect the flavor and excited to try it.
These are delicious! A company called “Eat Chic” has a variety of interesting nut butter cups. Would love to see you do your own adaptation of their “cashew matcha” flavor! Yum! Thanks for all the great recipes!
These were so quick and easy to make! This recipe is a keeper for sure.
I’m not sure this is the right place for this comment, but we used the peanut butter filling from this recipe and dropped bits of it into your double-chocolate brownies, and it was amazing!!!
That sounds AMAZING!!
Could you use almond flour instead of the coconut flour?
So delicious 😋 I made them with organic green leaf stevia powder in its purest form (in not addicting like the white processed stevia)
Thank you for the deliciousness😋
Wow, Megan!!! These are AMAZING!!! We made them yesterday and between my husband and 3 boys (and me!!) they were gone by today, so my 4 year old requested we make them again! They are just perfect and I love that my kiddos are going crazy for a healthier dessert. The coconut flour in the pb mixture is genius. For the chocolate I melt unsweetened chocolate and then sweeten it to taste with pure maple syrup. So good!
These came out GREAT! Not sure if my measuring was a little off though because this ended up making 24 for me. Sea salt on top is definitely the move, also added some cacao nibs for texture which I highly recommend! Thanks for the recipe!
Hi! What’s an option to replace coconut flour? I can’t stomach the taste of it. Almond flour just makes everything taste like almonds. Maybe chickpea flour?
I really want to make this recipe but I don’t have coconut flour. Are there any substitutes that you know of that I can use and these will still taste amazing?
These were amazing! I measured each layer by teaspoon, and I ended up with 21 instead of 16…no complaints here! For any reviewers who are concerned about a coconut taste, there was none. The coconut flour seemed to give the PB/syrup blend just enough thickness and chewiness for a mouthfeel that wasn’t sticky or globby.
Delicious, and I loved that they weren’t loaded with sugar! I’ll be making these holiday treats. Thanks for a great recipe Megan!
I make these for my daughter and she absolutely loves them. I am vegan of course so I use cruelty free chocolate
So delicious and so easy!! This recipe takes chocolate peanut butter cups to new heights!