Thursday, February 2, 2012

Vegan chocolate peanut butter cups

Are you ready for these?


I hope so, because I've been waiting to post about them since last December. They didn't really fit into my pre-Christmas baking, and then I thought rich, chocolatey, peanut buttery snacks might not suit the post-Christmas period very well.

And then I temporarily lost the piece of paper on which I'd scrawled the recipe. This was a very worrying period. Very worrying indeed.

However, the recipe has since been found, Christmas and January are over, and I think the time is now right.


Vegan chocolate peanut butter cups

Adapted from a recipe for the same at Hungry Hungry Hippie
Vegan
Makes 6 large cups or 8 - 10 small

Print recipe

Ingredients

For the chocolate coating
100g 70% dark chocolate (I used Lindt)
1 tbsp stevia or other granulated sweetener
1 tbsp non-dairy spread (I used Nuttelex)
1 tbsp non-dairy milk (I used almond milk)

For the filling
Just under 1/4 cup natural peanut butter (I used crunchy)
1 tsp stevia or other granulated sweetener
Pinch salt
1/2 tsp vanilla

Method

Set 6 large, sturdy muffin liners (or 8 - 10 small) on a plate or on a baking tray.

Combine the chocolate coating ingredients (dark chocolate, stevia, non-dairy spread, milk) in a heat-proof bowl. Melt in the microwave or a double-boiler until just smooth (you want the mixture to be melted but not runny). I used a microwave on low - medium power, stirring in 20 second increments until done.

Spoon half of the melted chocolate mixture into the bottom of your muffin liners. Place in the freezer for ~5 minutes, to semi-set.

Meanwhile, combine the ingredients for the filling. When the bottom chocolate layer is set, place ~1 tbsp of filling into each muffin cup.



Spoon the remaining half of your chocolate mixture over the peanut butter filling, to give six covered peanut butter cups (you may need to return the chocolate mixture to the microwave at this stage, if it has thickened up). 

Set in the fridge until firm, at least 1 hour.



Oh my goodness me.

I had high hopes for these, and my hopes were exceeded. The darkness of the chocolate pairs perfectly with the peanut butter filling.  The firmness of the chocolate coating works to offset the creaminess of the centre. I can't remember why I used stevia over regular sugar (I am guessing because the recipe I adapted did), but it worked.

The overall experience is a shut-your-eyes, breathe in, settle back adventure.








Despite being incredibly delicious, these also have the advantage of being suited to single serve eating. The dark chocolate coating means that one at a time is enough. Just right, but enough.

I no longer need to grieve for the lack of vegan peanut butter cups in Australia. Or pay imported prices for the non-vegan Reese's variety.

These might have been messier than shop bought (and they definitely were messier than shop bought!), but they were oh-so-good.



Have you surpassed your own hopes with something you've made recently, food-related or otherwise?

24 comments:

  1. chocolate and peanut butter have to behave very badly to let you down! I have never got into the reeses but am often tempted to try the home made ones

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    1. They are a pretty amazing match - although not getting into Reese's is probably a good thing as the ingredient list includes some slightly suboptimal items! (Or at least, suboptimal if you don't want ingredients you can't pronounce.)

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  2. Mmm.. homemade peanut butter cups are one of the best things. Store bought are so terrible... the Reese's are too sweet and the other, vegan brand available around me is expensive and not very good. I like to use Alicia Silverstone's recipe, which uses graham crackers (digestive cookies?) crumbs in the peanut butter to give it that Reese's-like texture.

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    1. Ooh! I'll have to look up that recipe. I think I'd love digestive cookies in a chocolate peanut butter combination.

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  3. man I am ADDICTED To the choc + peanut butter combination!

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    1. I did note with considerable interest your bag of Reese's snacks recently ;)

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  4. anything that combines pb and chocolate is always a winner!

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  5. I will just never understand the peanut butter love. It is a mystery to me along with how people can walk about in public barefoot. But being a tolerant sort I will leave it to the rest of you to consume.

    However I did recently decide to make leftover panatone into french toast. That was awesome. Such a great flavour combination, I was thrilled.

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    1. Your tolerance knows no bounds ;)

      I think it was discovering Reese's peanut butter cups as a teenager that actually brought me around to peanut butter. Prior to that I had it perhaps once a year. These days I'd only have it once a month or so, I'd guess, but I have come to appreciate how it pairs with certain flavours - chocolate most definitely included!

      Also, I concur that your french toast experiments are definitely awesome :)

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  6. Oh! When I first came to Australia, I was still vegetarian, and I was so surprised (and forlorn) at the lack of peanut butter cups here that I had my mum send some across. And, being my mum, she went way overboard and sent Reese's, Reese's Bites, Reese's Pieces, and Reese's Cereal. Bless her.

    But, since then, I have really missed an easy, bite sized, choc peanut butter snack like these. Cookies, cakes, and other variations of the flavour combo are just not the same!

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    1. I know! The magic of the combination seems to reduce when you dilute it into cookie or cake form. I smiled at your Mum's overboard Reese's delivery system though :) I bet they'd have been fun packages to receive.

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  7. Suddenly my chocolate chia pudding success doesn't seem very special after all.

    PEANUT BUTTER FOREVER!

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    1. Darling, your chocolate chia pudding success is splenderific! And so much more impressive than these, because these (shh, don't tell) are super easy.

      I bet they'd pair well with chocolate chia pudding too, if one's stomach could be made to fit both in. Mind would try rather hard I suspect!

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    2. Teehee, because stirring together chia seeds, liquid, and sweetener and leaving it in teh fridge is SUPER hard ;)

      Are you serious that you don't think you could fit these in? Golly! But maybe you don't regularly eat half a jar of peanut butter in one sitting like me ;)

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    3. Bless you for checking back!

      My stomach would fit them in, I am quite sure. But whist I can easily eat a family sized block of chocolate, peanut butter does make me nauseausly full quite quickly. I'm capable of pushing past it though ;)

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    4. Okay. We can still be friends.

      (CHECKING BACK AGAIN WOW! :P )

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  8. Mmmm, healthy vegan peanut butter cups, you simply can't go wrong!

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    1. Even unhealthy ones are pretty appealing so these have a special place in my heart!

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  9. Anything described as... "shut-your-eyes, breathe in, settle back adventure".... I think would be ok, very much ok!

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  10. omgsh! haha, how'd you know that I was JUST craving this?!! Although I didn't eat your chocolate pb cups, I know these are tasty. :)

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Ellie - I'm glad these arrived just in time for your craving!

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