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Are peanut butter cups healthy? Like all food, if eaten in moderation, peanut butter cups are perfectly fine to enjoy and can be considered healthy or unhealthy depending on who you ask. I personally enjoy eating all types of foods and I wanted a healthier peanut butter cups recipe that is still delicious and contains less processed ingredients. Peanut butter cups have been a long time favorite candy of mine and with this recipe you can enjoy a healthier version of the classic Reese’s peanut butter cups! This healthy homemade peanut butter cups recipe uses 5 essential ingredients to create a quick snack or dessert for any time of day.

IN THIS POST

Why You’ll Love This Recipe
What You’ll Need
Equipment Needed
How to Make Healthy Peanut Butter Cups
Substitutions
Recipe Variations
Storage Instructions
Freezing Instructions
Quick Tips

Vegan Peanut Butter Cups

With only a few required ingredients, this recipe for vegan peanut butter cups is easily one of my favorites! I love to make these in large batches and freeze or refrigerate any leftovers. These homemade healthy peanut butter cups also go great with all types of desserts such as cookies, ice cream, no-bake pies, and more.

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

Simple ingredients: To make this recipe, you only need 5 ingredients.
Easy to make: This recipe is overall very easy to make and has only a few cooking instructions.
Freezer friendly: This recipe makes several healthy peanut butter cups; making the leftovers perfect for freezing and enjoying later or to use in other recipes.

What You’ll Need

Non-Dairy Chocolate Chips
Peanut butter (I prefer the natural peanut butter since it doesn’t have added oils or sweeteners but you can use creamy peanut butter if you prefer)
Oat Flour (or an equal measurement of oats, blended into a fine flour)
Maple Syrup
Vanilla Extract
Flaky Sea Salt (optional)

Equipment Needed

Food processor
Sheet pan or muffin pan

How to Make Healthy Peanut Butter Cups

See the full instructions in the recipe card below.

Add all ingredients, except for the chocolate chips, into a food processor and pulse until well combined.
Flatten the filling into individual tablespoon disks or roll the filling out between parchment and cut out small circles.
Chill the filling in the freezer.
Melt the chocolate.
Dip the peanut butter filling into the melted chocolate.
Chill the coated cups in the fridge or freezer until they are ready to eat.

Substitutions

Chocolate Chips: You can use any type of chocolate chips that you prefer, such as dark chocolate chips, milk chocolate chips, or white chocolate chips. I sometimes also use equal weight of chopped chocolate if I don’t have chocolate chips.
Oat Flour: If you prefer not to use oat flour, you can use almond flour or coconut flour instead.
Peanut Butter: You can use equal amounts of any type of nut butter that you prefer to replace the peanut butter within this recipe. My favorite nut butter substitutes for this recipe are cashew butter, almond butter, and sunflower seed butter.
Maple Syrup: You can use honey or your liquid sweetener of choice as a substitute for maple syrup. Please keep in mind that highly concentrated or artificial liquid sweeteners in the same amount will likely be too sweet for this recipe.

Recipe Variations

Crunchy Peanut Butter Cups: Add 1/4 cup of unsalted dry roasted chopped peanuts to the filling and sprinkle a few pieces of chopped peanuts on top of the coated peanut butter cups for a crunchy twist!
Almond Butter Cups: Use almond butter in place of peanut butter within this recipe. For added crunch, top the coated almond butter cups with chopped almonds/almond slivers and flaky sea salt.
Pretzel & Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups: Make these peanut butter cups according to the recipe instructions. Use dark chocolate chips and place a mini pretzel on the top of each peanut butter cup after coating for a crunchier and salty version.

Storage Instructions

When the peanut butter cups have cooled in the fridge or to room temperature, store them in a food safe resealable bag or airtight container. Store in the fridge for up to 2 weeks.

Freezing Instructions

Place the cooled leftover peanut butter cups in a food safe resealable bag or airtight container and freeze for up to 6 months.

Quick Tips

Use a food processor: Although you can definitely make this recipe without a food processor, having one makes this healthy treat so much faster and simpler!
Store the leftover filling for later: If you make this recipe and you don’t want to use up all of the filling and be left with lots of extra peanut butter cups, refrigerate or freeze the peanut butter mixture and use it whenever you want a fresh batch of peanut butter cups.
Use paper liners: If you want to make this recipe even faster, place a muffin liner in each cup of a muffin pan. Pour a small amount of chocolate in the bottom of each liner, place approximately 1 tablespoon of the peanut butter layer in each liner, and top the peanut butter cup with an additional chocolate layer to coat. Chill in the fridge or freezer until they are ready to enjoy.

For more healthy dessert recipes, check out the links below:

Satisfy your sweet tooth with this easy and nostalgic treat! The next time you’re craving candy or a classic chocolate peanut butter combo, make this peanut butter cup recipe!

Products for this recipe (Sold through Amazon)

Non-Dairy Chocolate Chips (V, GF) or Non-Dairy Chocolate Gems (V, GF, RSF, OF)
Natural Peanut Butter
Oat Flour
Maple Syrup

Healthy Peanut Butter Cups

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Yield: 28 – 30 Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups 1x
Diet: Vegan

Print Recipe

Description

These healthy peanut butter cups are vegan and gluten-free and can easily be made refined sugar-free and oil-free. This recipe makes approximately 28 – 30 chocolate peanut butter cups.

Ingredients

Scale

1 1/2 cups Non-Dairy Chocolate Chips (Approximately 1-10 oz. bag)*
1 cup Natural Peanut Butter
1/2 cup Oat Flour**
2 Tbsp. Maple Syrup
2 Tsp. Vanilla Extract
1/2 Tsp. Flaky Sea Salt + More for sprinkling (Optional)

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Instructions

Make and cut the filling:

Add all ingredients, except for the chocolate, to a food processer and pulse until well combined.
Empty the contents of the food processer onto a clean flat surface or onto a piece of parchment paper or wax paper. Cover with a piece of parchment paper or wax paper.
Use a rolling pin to roll the peanut butter filling into a large, flat disk approximately 1/4 inch in thickness.
Use a 2 inch biscuit cutter, glass, or jar lid to cut circles out of the peanut butter filling. Repeat the rolling and cutting until all of the filling has been cut into circles.
Place the peanut butter filling circles onto a baking sheet pan and place in the freezer to chill for at least 15 minutes.

Melt the chocolate:

While the filling is in the freezer, place the chocolate into a bowl and melt in the microwave, stirring every 10 seconds, or place the bowl over a small pot with simmering water and stir until melted.

Two ways to form chocolate peanut butter cups:

Dip in chocolate: The first way to make these is to take the peanut butter filling out of the freezer and dip each circle into the chocolate. Make sure each circle is completely covered with chocolate before placing them onto a baking sheet pan that has been lined with wax paper. Repeat until all chocolate peanut butter cups have been made.
Pour into muffin liners: The second way to make these is to place muffin liners into a muffin pan and pour about a tablespoon of chocolate into each liner. Place the peanut butter filling circles into each muffin liner and drizzle the top with more chocolate until covered. Repeat until all chocolate peanut butter cups have been made.
Use a fork to drizzle any remain chocolate on top of the chocolate peanut butter cups and sprinkle with flaky sea salt (optional).
Chill in the fridge or let sit at room temperature until the chocolate has cooled and hardened. Store in the fridge or freezer.

Notes

*Non-Dairy Chocolate Chips Substitute: If you would prefer to use non-dairy chocolate that is vegan, gluten-free, refined sugar-free, and oil-free, then I recommend using the Chocolate Gems by Hu Kitchen. You can order them on Amazon or find them in some grocery stores. You can also use the Hu Chocolate Bars, but you will need about 5 of them for this recipe.
**Oat Flour: You can order oat flour from Amazon or find it in your local grocery store. You can also make oat flour by simply adding 1/2 cup oats to a high-speed blender until it has become a fine flour.