These super easy, vegan Almond Butter Cups can be made in 15-20 minutes and with just four simple ingredients. So you can indulge in your favorite Halloween candy treat without all the refined sugar and animal products like dairy. Plus these coconut-oil infused cups are silky, velvet-y and decadent with their rich dark chocolate coating and silky-sweet nut butter filling. Anyone can make these. Seriously, no kitchen skills required! Just grab the ingredients and GO. I even have a helpful video included in this post…
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Yes, these can absolutely be made using peanut butter (and a standard muffin tin too). Watch me make a similar recipe with my friend Vince!..
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Halloween. Candy and costumes. Those are the two main things that excited me about Halloween as a kid. And my neighborhood was epic when it came to candy counts. My pillow case trick-or-treat bag would literally be filled ½ the way, stuffed with heavy, chocolate-filled, sweet and sassy Halloween treats. I remember counting 28 fun sized snickers bars one year, along with all the other goodies.
When I was a little girl running around my neighborhood in my Halloween costume, my favorite candy to find in my trick-or-treat bag was creamy Reese’s peanut butter cups. They were my fave, those crinkly black wax paper wrapped cups sitting on that buttery, waxed-cardboard insert, wrapped in a bright orange-red wrapper. I’d devour each creamy cup in two swift bites. I can just picture myself in one of my fave Halloween costumes: Dorothy, Ginger from Gilligan’s Island, Rainbow Bright, Cleopatra, Marty the Pink Lady, a 50’s girl, a Can Can girl, a b&w tap-dancing kitty cat, a white-sparkle wand princess or a hula girl – peanut butter cup in hand. Boom and its gone. Onto the next treat.
It boggles my mind to think how much candy my friends and I ate on Halloween night, and lived to tell about it.
But these days I still crave those classic candy treats but with healthier, vegan ingredients.
Recipe Notes + Tips:
* You can make however many you’d like using this ratio based recipe. Start with about ⅓ cup of chips + heaping Tablespoonful of coconut oil to make about 12 cups.
* Do not worry about perfection. Seriously, you probably do not even need to measure. Spoonfuls and handfuls work fine for this easy recipe. (see next note)
* The ratio’s of ingredients do not need to be perfect. Basically the coconut oil in the chocolate helps in two ways: 1) thinning out the chocolate when it is heated, making it easier to pour and 2) helping it firm up quickly when placed in the freezer. And the maple syrup does two things too: 1) Adds sweetness. 2) Thins out the nut butter making it easier to spoon into the cups when filling.
* You can use peanut butter or sunflower butter or another nut butter in place of almond if you’d like.
* Vegan chips will be labeled vegan or use dark chocolate or semi-sweet chips that do not contain any dairy in the ingredients (look for milkfat or butterfat especially). You could also just melt down a vegan dark chocolate bar (no chips needed).
* I like to use grade B maple syrup, but agave syrup or another liquified sweetener would also work.
Need the candy molds? Try these from Amazon..
Easy Vegan Almond Butter Cups
Ingredients
Chocolate:
- ½ cup vegan chocolate chips
- 1 tablespoon virgin coconut oil
Filling:
- nut or seed butter, room temperature or warmed – it should be soft and stirrable
Topping:
- try a pinch of sea salt or fleur de sel
Instructions
- Melt chocolate chips in a double broiler over the stove. Whisk until smooth and melted. If you are in a rush, you can use your microwave. Heat for 20 second intervals, stirring between each, until melted.
- Use a peanut butter cup candy mold or you can use a standard muffin tin with paper muffin liners for those signature crimped edges.
- Add 1 teaspoon of melted chocolate to bottom of molds or liners. Swirl the chocolate around so it coats the side as much as possible. Place in the freezer for ten minutes to firm up.
- Add a dollop of the butter filling – about ¾ – 1 tsp. Then add chocolate over top to seal the cup.
- Place cups back in the freezer for at least 15 minutes until completely firm. For easiest removal, freeze for at least an hour. Serve! Store leftovers in freezer or fridge.
