There’s something special about being able to make your own clean version of treats and candy and not having to rely solely on the artificial, chemical mess of food in the grocery stores. Sweets and treats have always been more my thing than savory dishes, so I love holidays that center on the goodies.
Easter is a big one for me. It’s all about the chocolate. I’ll take any excuse to make chocolate candies, and Easter baskets give me just the excuse I need. These little Nut Butter Cups are the perfect little bite-sized morsels to take the place of your previous favorite store-bought PB & chocolate cup.
They are incredibly easy to make. Ready?
Step 1: Melt chocolate, put in molds
Step 2: Put nut butter in chocolate
Step 3: Cover nut butter with more chocolate
Yup, that’s is. Of course, you can add in more steps to make these little guys more fun. I painted the inside of the molds with a little natural gold food coloring before adding the chocolate in one batch. In another, I added naturally colored sprinkles before pouring in some white chocolate. You can also switch out the fillings (I think a fresh raspberry would actually be amazing in there, but I didn’t have any).
And of course, it would be extra fun and authentic if you wrapped each little candy in it’s own gold foil wrapper. It does add an extra step but it takes these little treats to a whole new level. Opening that foil wrapper is half the fun, waiting in anticipation to see what delicious goods lay just beyond that layer of gold.
Chocolate Nut Butter Cups
Ingredients
- Explorado Market Chocolate Chips
- High-Quality White Chocolate, or Lily's for Keto
- Plain Nut Butter, of your choice
- Honey, or powdered Lakanto Monkfruit Sweetener for Keto
- Salt
- Natural Colored Sprinkles (like Explorado Market Sprinkees)
- Chocolate Cup Molds, or any shape of your choice
Instructions
Chocolate Nut Butter Cups
- Melt the Chocolate Chips in a bowl in the microwave on High in 30 second intervals, stirring after each until the chocolate is completely smooth. This will take 3-4 cycles. Transfer the melted chocolate to a ziptop bag or piping bag. Cut a small amount off the tip of the bag and fill your chocolate cup molds halfway.
- Pipe the nut butter directly into the half-filled mold until the chocolate is almost all the way to the top. If you wind up with points sticking up out of the nut butter, gently pat them down with a damp fingertip. Pipe enough chocolate in the mold to cover the nut butter without overflowing in the mold. Tap the mold on the table gently to smooth the backs. Cool in the freezer until hardened, this will make them much easier to pop out of the mold.
White Chocolate Nut Butter Cups
- If you are making the white chocolate cups, add the sprinkles to the molds first, then pipe in the chocolate and nut butter as directed above.
Sweetened Nut Butter
- You can sweeten your nut butter to your liking but this is my preferred ratio:
• 2/3 cup Nut Butter (plain, smooth, no added ingredients - if you make your own, that's even better - should be kind of runny)
• 2-4 Tbsp Honey (4 is pretty sweet, start with 2 and work up from there if you think it needs it)
•1/8 tsp Salt - Stir everything together until you have a thickened nut butter. The honey will cause the runny nut butter to seize up a little (just like adding water to chocolate). This makes it much easier to pipe into the molds, as well as keeping it from oozing out once you bite into the chocolates.
- Transfer the nut butter to a piping bag (I like to fit mine with a large open tip for easier and ore accurate piping but it's not necessary). Cut off the tip and pipe into your prepared molds/shells.
Notes
- White chocolate is rarely pure paleo (most contain dairy). If you can't eat dairy, stick to the semi-sweet chocolate chips from Enjoy Life or Explorado Market.