Almond Butter Reese’s Cups

Hey there fellow reese’s cup lover.

I feel pretty confident in saying that you are a reese’s cup lover if you clicked on this post or was drawn here by a few simple clicks down the rabbit hole of literal food porn that is the homecooked.love instagram feed. Either way, welcome. You have made a good decision today. So, give yourself a pat on the back.

I am a few days late on the “trick or treat” bag of candy recipes for Halloween being that it is November 2nd. Then again, I was contemplating if giving away homemade candy to trick-or-treaters was really a good decision or not? Speaking of good decisions. I was told to never take candy from strangers, especially tampered wrappers or candy that wasn’t wrapped at all. As a kid, I think candy is candy, but I suppose I could see the concern. Needless to say, whether it be November 2nd or October 31st, the inspiration to recreate the cherished reese’s cups and make them allergen free, vegan, and refined sugar free was inspired by Halloween. And as if it isn’t already too obvious, this recipe is not just for kids.

I have been playing around with making my own chocolates from raw cacao, cacao butter, some coconut oil, and a touch of sweetener for about a year now. After realizing just how simple it was to make my own chocolate with just a few ingredients of which you can flavor to any shade of dark and without all the strange emulsifiers like lecithin… what in the world is lecithin anyway? I started to get a little more creative and adventurous with the flavors – adding in sea salt or dried fruit, orange essential oil. I would literally make my chocolate then pour into ice cube trays, freeze, pop into mouth, and be in total bliss.

Then… I realized I was missing the most important ingredient, a rich nut buttery center.

These reese’s cups vary slightly from my other homemade chocolate in that the base is organic dark chocolate baking chips rather than the raw cacao and cacao butter. With a lot of taste testing, I find that using baking chips rather than raw powder and cacao butter actually renders a much smoother bite and exactly like a reese’s cup bite should be. The homemade chocolate hardens quite a bit in the freezer and can be a little tougher to bite into.

I have done careful research and lots of grocery store chocolate shopping (not that I am complaining) to find a reputable brand of baking chips that doesn’t have soy lecithin in it. Guys, yes, it is exists.  I was even able to find this brand at our local Kailua Whole Foods or click this link here Pascha 100% Cacao Organic Dark Chocolate Baking Chips . Now you might be saying, “Yea right Hannah. I am not going to ship chocolate from online to make reese’s cups. I will just buy something else.” That decision is completely up to you! That’s the beauty of cooking. But I find that online grocery shopping is brilliant. It is brilliant! With as much grocery shopping as I do on a daily basis for my work, and I am sure most of you are as busy as I am. If I can save one trip and have the pleasure of ingredients just showing up at my doorstep, I’m in. It’s like Christmas on repeat. Did I mention how much money you can save? Thank you Amazon Prime. Trust me on this one guys. Take it from someone who has done their fair share of research, clicking, more searching, and comparison. I have got a pretty good grasp on organic responsible brands that you can find online for much cheaper than if you were to shop at Whole Foods or even your local grocery store for anything from nuts, flours, sweeteners, seeds, dried fruits, cooking/baking tools, extracts, spices, the list goes on.

Okay, reigning myself in a bit. I realize you are probably here for reese’s cups, not to hear why I love online grocery shopping so much. But hey, maybe now you are clicking on that link above to check it out. I will note, that yes I have researched, and Vitacost.com is actually much cheaper than Amazon for this brand. Back to the reese’s cups!

The steps to making these is simple with few ingredients. The fun part other than that they are amazingly rich dark chocolate cups filled with nutty buttery filling is that you can use any mold you want. I found these wrappers at a local business that sells baking carriers, molds, baking shells, wrappers, and large production items. O yea, you can find them online! One of my nearest and dearest friends from childhood, Natalie, started making her own reese’s cups from my homemade chocolate recipe and actually uses a reese’s cups silicone tray that I believe is for ice cubes. You can even use my plain Jane square ice cube tray method. Any shape tastes the same :).

The method for melting chocolate is to simply pour your chips into a double broiler (homemade or an actual double broiler) or a stainless steel bowl right on top of the stove with a tablespoon of coconut oil and about 3-4 tablespoons of maple syrup for sweetness. Once the chocolate is melted down and the texture is smooth, I found that actually piping the chocolate (once cooled down of course) into the cups or molds was the quickest method with the least fuss and mess. You can also use just use a small spoon to fill the molds part way. Then the cool part about this recipe is that you can actually make little almond butter balls with the nut butter mixture and plop them right in the center of the cup then fill the rest of the mold with your melted chocolate.

The brilliant part of this recipe is that you can use any nutty filling you desire. I say this time and time again, that’s the joy of cooking! I find it refreshing to add flavors or ingredients that are to my palate’s liking or that I feel will be beneficial to my body. I realize we are currently talking about reese’s cups at the moment, but you know what they say… chocolate is good for you. And I’m going to stick with believing that rather than doing any further research. It makes me happy. That’s enough for me.

Did anyone notice how the reese’s cups dwindled in the sequence of photos? I took one bite to give you an idea of what the filling was like then couldn’t help myself but keeping eating them as I photographed… #foodbloggerproblems.

If you have stuck with me this far in the post, kudos to you! You have made it to the end.

Lo and behold your very own DIY reese’s cup recipe. Considering these are dark chocolate with almond buttery goodness stuffed inside, I’d be as bold to say they are even better than the original.

Hannah

Yields About 60 Reese's Cups

Almond Butter Reese’s Cups

30 minPrep Time

30 minTotal Time

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Ingredients

• 2 cup 100% organic dark chocolate baking chips (lecithin free if possible)
• 1 Tablespoon Coconut Oil
• 3 Tablespoons - 4 Tablespoons Maple Syrup
• 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
• 3/4 cup Almond Butter, smooth or crunchy
• 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
• 1 teaspoon Maple Syrup
• About 60 liners (mini cupcakes, reese's cups, ice cube mold) *See Note

Instructions

1. Using a double broiler or filling a fry pan part way with water then placing a sauce pot inside water bath or using a stainless steel mixing bowl (my preferred method) - fill with 2 cups dark chocolate baking chips, 1 Tablespoon Coconut Oil, 3 Tablespoons Maple Syrup, and 1/2 teaspoons sea salt
2. Continually stir on low heat with a wooden spoon until chips start to melt and become a smooth mixture (careful as chocolate burns easily)
3. While chocolate is melting, combine almond butter, 1/4 teaspoon of sea salt, and 1 teaspoon Maple Syrup in a separate sauce pot and stir on low heat until heated through and combined. *This mixture will start to lose oil and firm up. That's okay as it's easier to work with.
4. Go ahead and have a taste of the chocolate. Add more Maple Syrup until desired bitterness.
5. Once chocolate is completely melted, remove from heat and let cool until you are able to fill a piping bag (don't let sit for too long as it start to harden)
6. Using a round tip, pipe melted chocolate about halfway in each liner
7. Using your hands, roll the almond butter into small rounds about 1/2" in diameter
8. Plop into chocolate filled liners and press down into cup, then using the piping bag with chocolate - fill the rest of the cup and cover the almond filling.
9. Repeat for as many reese's cups as you would like!

Notes

You can always save the chocolate for later use. Just keep stored in the refrigerator and reheat using the same method. You can spread the almond butter on toast, fruit, or eat by the spoonful. After all, it is just maple almond butter. Store reese's cups in an airtight container or packages like photograph in the freezer for up to one month to reserve proper flavor. In the photos above, I used mini packaging and packed by the 3 for trick-or-treat style bags.

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https://www.wilderootsprovisions.com/almond-butter-reeses-cups/