These 3 Ingredient Homemade Peanut Butter Cups Will Improve Your Life 10 Fold
Homemade peanut butter cups—need we say more? We will anyway. They’re shockingly easy to put together and will put sad, stale, store-bought PB cups to shame. Get the recipe now and whip up your first batch.
Trust us, there is nothing better to enjoy any time of year than these homemade peanut butter cups made with just three ingredients.
The original Reese’s peanut butter cup is a dessert classic, but we can do so much better – health- and taste-wise. Reese’s cups contain a host of ingredients, three of which are all sugar-based. These offenders (milk chocolate, sucrose, and dextrose) are all processed and heavily refined versions of sugar, which promote insulin resistance, type-II diabetes, belly fat accumulation, and weight gain.1, 2
What Makes These Homemade Peanut Butter Cups Healthy?
These three ingredient homemade peanut butter cups are a far healthier option. Of course, it’s all in the way you make them. Choosing a high quality, organic, fair-trade, and minimally processed dark chocolate will ensure the most health benefits. This includes boosting heart health, increasing beneficial HDL cholesterol, and improving cognitive function and mood.3, 4
Dark chocolate is filled with vitamins and minerals including magnesium for nerve function, and blood pressure regulation, iron, calcium, zinc, and a high concentration of antioxidants.5
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FYI, industrialized and processed milk chocolate lacks all these amazing health benefits. In fact, a study found that milk proteins reduced the antioxidant activity of chocolate compared with dark chocolate that contained no milk.6 In addition to that, the absence of milk makes dark chocolate vegan, and there is evidence that a plant-based diet may help prevent diabetes.
Along with high quality dark chocolate, these homemade peanut butter cups have just two more whole food ingredients: peanut butter and coconut oil. Always purchase organic unrefined coconut oil, which boasts the healthiest fats and beneficial health properties. Coconut oil is a rich source of antibacterial and antifungal lauric acid, along with medium chain fatty acids for providing quick boosts of energy.
There’s even evidence that coconut oil is more beneficial for weight loss over olive oil. (Read up here on how to lose belly fat for good.)
The Shining Star of Our PB Cups
The ingredient extraordinaire of these homemade cups, peanut butter is filled with beneficial fats as well as protein, vitamin E, and magnesium (as are pumpkin seeds). Purchase peanut butter from a reputable, organic company (basically, not Jif or Skippy). Alternatively, you could make them with almond butter over peanut butter if you have an allergy or are just in the mood to mix it up.
Conventional PB often contains hydrogenated oils, refined sugar, and other unappetizing ingredients including soy lecithin, high fructose corn syrup, and emulsifiers. Chose an organic brand that lists one ingredient on the label: peanuts. Feeling crazy? Chose PB with two ingredients: peanuts and salt.
We promise these homemade peanut butter cups are far more delicious than the original neon orange wrapped treat (try these homemade vegan Snickers, too!). Not only are they easy to make, but they’ll totally wow friends and family at any gathering. If that gathering happens to be in the fall, they’d be adorable on the table next to these candy corn rice crispy treats and our no-bake pumpkin spice balls.
How to Make Homemade PB Cups
If you make these, please let us know what you think in the comments below! Or show off your creations on Instagram and be sure to follow and tag us @organicauthority.
Makes 8 Large Peanut Butter Cups
Ingredients
We promise these homemade peanut butter cups are far more delicious than the original neon orange wrapped treat. Not only are they easy to make, but they’ll totally wow friends and family at any gathering. They are the perfect treat. PB cups will keep for two weeks in the refrigerator and multiple months in the freezer.
If you have a peanut allergy, swap peanut butter with almond, cashew, sunflower, etc.
If your PB is unsalted and you’d like a sweet/salty thing going on, sprinkle a bit of flaky sea salt over the top of your cups before setting them in the freezer the last time.
This recipe is adapted from Pure Ella’s peanut butter cups.
Ingredients
Preparation
- Line a muffin tin or mini muffin tin with paper cupcake liners and set aside.
- Using a double boiler, gently melt two tablespoons of the coconut oil with chopped dark chocolate until smooth in texture and completely melted.
- Set chocolate aside to keep warm while you mix peanut butter.
- Mix together the remaining coconut oil with creamy peanut butter until completely incorporated. You want this mixture to be nice and runny. If not, gently warm up peanut butter and coconut oil together.
- Pour a heaping tablespoon of chocolate into the base of each lined tins. Place in the freezer and allow to set for about five minutes.
- Remove from freezer and add a heaping one to two tablespoons of the peanut butter mixture into the center of each cup.
- Place PB cups back in the freezer to set for five minutes more.
- Scoop the remaining melted chocolate to cover the top of each peanut butter cup, about one to two tablespoons.
- Place PB cups back in the freezer to set a final time, about 15-20 minutes.
- Remove peanut butter cups from liner if desired and store in an airtight container.
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Sources:
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19207533
- https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Peter_Havel/publication/11064811_Fructose_weight_gain_and_insulin_resistance_syndrome/links/0912f508ad024cce54000000.pdf
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17513403
- http://www.worldcocoafoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/files_mf/1388091372Scholey2013HumanNutritionCognitiveFunction.pdf
- http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/81/1/298S.full#ref-32
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12944955