Homemade Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups

When I first saw this recipe in The Kind Diet, I thought "Hmm this looks good but I bet it's a pain in the rear to make" and skipped right on by. I came back to it later when it was time to do some Christmas baking and decided to take a stab at it. Turns out my first impression was totally wrong. These peanut butter cups were actually pretty easy to make!

Homemade Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups
Makes 12 (or a whole bunch of minis)

1/2 cup Earth Balance butter
3/4 cup crunchy peanut butter
3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs
1/4 cup maple sugar or white sugar
1 cup chocolate chips (vegan or carob)
1/4 cup soy, rice or nut milk
1/4 cup chopped pecans, almonds or peanuts

Line a 12 cup muffin pan with paper liners. Set aside.

Melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Stir in the peanut butter, graham cracker crumbs and maple sugar and mix well. Remove the mixture from heat. Evenly divide the mixture, approximately 2 tablespoons per cup, among the muffin cups.

Combine the chocolate and milk in another pan. Stir over medium heat until the chocolate has melted. Spoon the chocolate evenly over the peanut butter mixture. Top with chopped nuts. Place in the refrigerator to set for at least 2 hours before serving.


My take on it: I made the recipe exactly as directed, except I used mini muffin cups instead of full size cups. I don't remember exactly how many minis I got out of the recipe but it was well over 2 dozen, probably closer to 3 dozen.

It was actually really easy. There's no baking, only melting and layering. The hardest part was getting the stuff into the tiny muffin cups. If I had made these in the regular size cups it would've been a snap. However I'm glad I didn't make the large ones because they are really rich. I don't think I could eat a regular size peanut butter cup.

So I took these to two family Christmas gatherings and they were a hit at both! They were absolutely delicious. We did not have any leftovers to bring home.



Bottom Line: I will definitely make these again, particularly to take to a party.