This is a super easy, kid-friendly, gluten-free, absolutely delicious, additive-free recipe for homemade Peanut Butter Cups!
Chocolate and peanut butter are a match made in heaven and whoever first put them together deserves a medal. Thank goodness you can make them at home quickly and easily and avoid all the nasty ingredients like hydrogenated vegetable oil, corn syrup solids (basically dextrose) from genetically modified corn, and GMO soy lecithin. You’ll find all these ingredients in the brand we all know and love but now you can make a clean and almost guilt-free treat for your family!
This recipe is easy to make with only 5 ingredients and no need to temper the chocolate or learn any fancy techniques. They’re basically foolproof and more than likely, you have all the ingredients in your pantry. Kids adore Peanut Butter Cups and they’ll love helping out while you make them. This is a terrific afternoon project to do together!
When it comes to making candy, you can’t get a whole lot easier than Peanut Butter Cups. When you make them yourself, you get to pick what kind of chocolate, peanut butter or other nut butter, and sugar you use so you can make them (relatively) healthy. I use organic, fair trade chocolate, coconut sugar and organic peanut butter. And these are Gluten Free so, enjoy!!
First layer of chocolate ready to be chilled.
A dollop of the peanut butter/sugar mixture. Now, you want to gently drop your baking sheet a couple times to flatten out the peanut butter.
Final layer of chocolate, flatten once more then pop in the fridge for 30 minutes.
Voila! Isn’t that just the prettiest thing?? Tastes AH-MAZING!
Perfect Homemade Peanut Butter Cups
Makes approximately 4 dozen mini or 2 dozen large
- 1 cup of organic creamy or crunchy peanut butter unsalted preferably, or nut butter of your choice
- 4 tablespoons organic unsalted butter or softened coconut oil
- ⅓ cup organic coconut palm sugar or brown sugar
- ⅔ cup organic powdered sugar
- 32 ounces of good, organic chocolate (Use milk chocolate if you want it to taste like a Reese's Cup)
- Mix together the peanut butter, softened butter or coconut oil, and sugars in a bowl.
- Chop chocolate, then melt it in a heavy saucepan over low heat on the stove (or in 30-second increments in the microwave, stirring in between) until smooth.
- Arrange mini cupcake wrappers (I like to use the unbleached ones) on a baking sheet or put large cupcake liners in a muffin tin. Pour just enough chocolate in to fill the bottom of the wrapper. Less than a teaspoon for the minis and a little less than a tablespoon for the large ones. You just want enough to cover the bottom. Lift your baking sheet or muffin tin and drop it gently a couple of times to just flatten out the chocolate. Refrigerate for 15 minutes to set the chocolate.
- Remove pan from fridge and drop teaspoon or tablespoon sized dollops of the peanut butter mixture into each cup. Again, lift your baking sheet and drop it gently a couple of times to flatten out the peanut butter. Chill again.
- Warm up the rest of your chocolate.Now begin to cover all the peanut butter in the cups until just covered. Lift and drop your tray again to make the cups nice and flat.
- Chill for 30 minutes in your fridge and enjoy!
- Store in the fridge or freeze. Take them out for about 5 minutes to soften a little before eating.
Kate’s Tips
- Use coconut oil instead of butter to make these vegan.
- If you use unsalted peanut butter, sprinkle a tiny bit of sea salt (I use RealSalt ) on top of each cup after pouring on the 2nd layer of chocolate. Sea Salt Peanut Butter Cups!
- Use colored sprinkles for a festive touch.
- Feel free to use dark or milk chocolate or a combo of both. White chocolate will work too.
- These work just as well with almond butter or any nut butter you like.
- I adore Justin’s Nut Butter, Chocolate Hazelnut
! It’s like Nutella only organic, good for you and truly amazing. They have several flavors available. Most grocery stores have them or you can buy from Amazon.
Here are the brands I used to make Peanut Butter Cups:
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