I am a huge fan of peanut butter recipes, and when I don’t feel like making my no-bake peanut butter bars or my no-bake peanut butter cookies, I make these cups. Most vegan peanut butter cup recipes use a combination of peanut butter and powdered sugar. I prefer refined sugar-free sweeteners and almond flour for a healthier twist. These peanut butter cups are copycats of the classic Reese’s cups. They are single-serve, bite-sized chocolate cups filled with a biscuit-like filling made of sweetened peanut butter.
Ingredients and Substitutions
All you need to whip up a batch of homemade peanut butter cups are:
Natural Peanut Butter – It means unsalted, unsweetened peanut butter with no added oil. If your peanut butter contains salt, you can still use it, but the taste will be a tad salty. Coconut Oil – Or any other oil you like. Other vegetable oil will keep the cups softer as they have a lower melting point. Vegan Chocolate Chips, or 85% dark chocolate, for a dairy-free chocolate with a stronger cocoa flavor. Maple Syrup – or any other unrefined liquid sweetener like coconut nectar or agave syrup. Vanilla Extract – for flavor. Almond Flour – Almond flour is safe to eat raw, unlike all-purpose flour. Sea Salt – Optional but I like to add a pinch of sea salt on top of the cups before serving.
How To Make Vegan Peanut Butter Cups
It’s super easy to make this delicious peanut butter treat at home with the most simple wholesome ingredients. Before you start making this recipe, pick the size of cups you want to make.
Mini Peanut Butter Cups – Use two mini-muffin tins and mini cupcake liners. This recipe will make 24 mini peanut butter cups. Regular Peanut Butter Cups – Use one regular 12-hole muffin pan with regular muffin paper liners.
Now that you have the pans fill each muffin hole with muffin paper liners. Slightly oil the paper if yours tend to stick to food. Set aside. Peanut butter cups are made in 3 simple steps that involve your freezer. This means that you want the melted chocolate to stay fairly liquid between step 1 and step 3. First, melt the chocolate. You have three options to do so:
Microwave – Place the dark chocolate chips and coconut oil in a microwave-safe bowl and microwave in 30-second bursts, stirring between, until the chocolate is fully melted and shiny. This method works pretty well, but since the melted chocolate is used twice 12 minutes apart, it sometimes hardens in between. Double Boiler – You can boil water in a large saucepan, and place a glass bowl with the chocolate chips and coconut oil above the boiled water pan. Then, stir until the chocolate melts. This is my favorite method to keep the chocolate color shiny and also to keep the melted chocolate liquid and warm while the first layers are setting. Stove – Place the chocolate and coconut oil in a non-stick saucepan and warm over low-medium heat. Stir constantly and slowly until the chocolate melts. This method is excellent as the pan stays warm for a while and will keep the melted chocolate liquid between the steps.
Storage Instructions
You can store the peanut butter cups in a sealed box or bag in the fridge for up to 2 weeks. They can also be frozen in zip-lock bags for up to three months. Thaw the cups for one hour or overnight at room temperature before eating.
Allergy Swaps
Below are some ingredients substitution options to adapt the recipe to common food allergies and diet restrictions..
Dark Chocolate – Any vegan chocolate alternatives can be used in this recipe, including melted carob if you have a cocoa allergy. Nut-Free – Replace the peanut butter with sunflower seed butter to make sunflower butter cups. Swap two tablespoons of almond flour for one teaspoon of coconut flour or two tablespoons of sesame seed flour. Coconut-Free – You can use any oil to melt the chocolate, including avocado oil or olive oil. Oil-Free – You can melt the chocolate without oil, but the shell takes longer to firm up. Keto Sugar-Free – It’s easy to use this recipe to make vegan keto peanut butter cups. Simply use sugar-free dark chocolate chips and your favorite sugar-free maple syrup brand.
Below are my answers to your most frequent questions about these vegan peanut butter cups.
More Peanut Butter Recipes
Below are some more peanut butter recipe inspiration for you to try.
