Homemade Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups

These homemade peanut butter cups are dark chocolate and much more healthy (and tasty!) than store-bought.

If you know me well, you eventually learn that I despise most candy. A mouth full of sugar just isn’t appealing to me. BUT one of the few sugary confections that actually tempt me is a peanut butter cup. Unlike most candy, they at least have a bit of fat and protein mixed in with the sugar. But almost all store-bought peanut butter cups are still sickeningly sweet for my tastes. Even some of the organic ones are still SO sweet.

My solution? Homemade dark chocolate peanut butter cups!

I have to admit that before I made the first batch of these, I didn’t think they would be as good as they are. Perhaps they’ll be a good low-sugar substitute for store-bought peanut butter cups, I thought. But lo, they are much better. Much, much better.

Ingredients for Homemade Peanut Butter Cups

The ingredients are really simple. You probably have all of them in your cupboard right now!

• Coconut oil
• Peanut butter
• Cocoa powder
• Maple syrup
• Unrefined salt
• Vanilla extract
• Coarse sea salt (optional but very good)

 

The coarse sea salt on top is just a lovely addition. But if you don’t have any on hand these homemade peanut butter cups will still be delicious!

 

How to Make Homemade Peanut Butter Cups

All you need to do to make the chocolate base is melt the coconut oil and stir in the cocoa powder, vanilla, maple syrup, and salt until smooth.

 

Pour a little bit in the bottom of some cupcake liners. Put in the freezer until solid, about 5 minutes.

 

Dollop a good-sized dollop of peanut butter on top of the chocolate layer.

 

Pour chocolate on top to almost cover the peanut butter. See that peanut butter sticking out?

 

Just push it back under the chocolate. You can get your hands messy, but a small spatula actually works better here.

 

Back into the freezer for a few minutes until the top is semi-solid (if you skip this step, the salt will sink into the cups) Sprinkle some coarse sea salt on top and then pop the whole thing back into the freezer until it’s completely solid, about 1 hour.

 

Because coconut oil melts more easily than cocoa butter, you want to store these in the refrigerator, especially if your house is warm.

Benefits of Homemade Peanut Butter Cups

Since there’s only 2 tablespoons of maple syrup in this entire recipe, each cup only contains half a teaspoon of added sweetener! Compare that to over 1.5 TABLESPOONS of sugar in a Reese’s peanut butter cup. That’s about 10x as much sugar. ?

You might think that a store-bought peanut butter cup is just chocolate, peanut butter, and some sugar. But if you look closer at the package, you might find cheap fillers (such as PGPR) in place of quality fats, or, even worse, preservatives such as TBHQ.

 

So if you find yourself craving that chocolate + peanut buttery goodness, do yourself a favor and make these homemade peanut butter cups! Not only will you be sparing yourself loads of sugar, the taste and texture will be so far above a cheap store-bought cup. They’re so rich and melty.

Be prepared to get your fingers messy! ?❤✨

P.S. – Check out my Homemade section for more better-for-you recipes!

NOTES:

• My favorite natural peanut butter is the Walmart brand organic peanut butter. It’s really smooth for being a natural peanut butter!
• You can use any nut butter in place of the peanut butter if you want.