"HealthY" Homemade Peanut Butter cups

Did somebody say....YUP THEY DID.

 Hellooooo and good morning — I'm posting this winner up on the blog because so many people reached out after seeing my Instagram story (featured above) and wanted a recipe! I wasn't intending on posting anything for this, but it got so many responses that I figured I would go on ahead and post the recipe. 

This honestly took less than ten minutes, and all it requires is six ingredients, cupcake liners and a perfectly functional freezer — I'm pretty sure you could use the fridge too, but the freezer is definitely a move. 

Let's be real, fam, who doesn't like chocolate and peanut butter? And yes, some of you have tree nut allergies and whatnot, BUT you could also fill these bad boys with a little dollop of jam or honey or coconut butter or whatever your heart desires. These are gluten free, refined sugar-free, dairy-free....and are super easy to pull off...and to make it even BETTER...surprisingly enough (or maybe not surprising at all) all of these ingredients are from Trader Joe's! The homeland!

LET US BEGIN. *Quick side note, because I hadn't planned on posting this recipe and only made a single serving, I didn't take any other pictures than the one above. Maybe I'll make more in the future...but I was inspired by these almond butter guys over at  Pinch of Yum. 

Here are some quick little buzz words for all of you wondering what they taste like:

A smidge coconutty (three words, sorry not sorry)
Fudgey
Happy
Lovey
REMINISCENT of real peanut butter cups, but they aren't so that's fine. 
Totally guilt-free
Healthy fats, am I right?

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​Ingredients

You might just want to eyeball some of these to meet your personal taste preferences.

• 1/2 cup coconut oil
• 1/2 cup cacao powder
• 1/4 cup maca powder (optional, you can just supplement with cacao if you want)
• Agave to taste
• 3 Tbsp of flax meal
• 1/2 cup of nut butter of choice — I used Trader Joe's chia and flax peanut butter

Instructions

1. Gather about 12 cupcake liners (more or less depending on how thick you want yours) and place them in muffin tin. 
2. In a small bowl, melt coconut oil in microwave for about 15-30 seconds until liquid. 
3. In small increments, add cacao and maca powders to the melted coconut oil until blended, and add agave as needed (I found I only needed about a tablespoon). Then once evenly mixed, add flax meal. 
4. Using a glass measuring cup or a spoon, pour a thin layer of the cacao-coconut mixture into the bottom of the liners. 
5. Pop those bad boys in the freezer for about 5 minutes or until mostly hard — coconut oil melts and solidifies fairly easily, so this should not take long.
6. Dollop a small spoonful of nut butter (or jam/coconut butter) into the center of the cupcake liners on top of the already hardened chocolate. 
7. Top off each cup with the remaining chocolate mixture and ensure the nut butter is covered completely. 
8. Place them back in the freezer for 5 minutes or until hard, and they are ready to enjoy!

*I might make more this weekend, so I can take nice photos of them all cute and stacked and whatnot..... :)*

Peace, love, and peanut butter cups. 

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