Do you love Peanut Butter Cups? You will love these Homemade Paleo Almond Butter Cups! These cups with their smooth and delicious filling surrounded by rich chocolate not only taste amazing, but they're low-carb and vegan too!

Do you love Reese's Peanut Butter Cups?

I can't imagine anyone saying “no.”

I've got a real treat for all of you Chocolate and Peanut Butter Lovers out there.

Delicious Almond Butter Cups that give Reese's® Peanut Butter Cups a real run for the money.

I've always loved those Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, but my oldest son has a life-threatening peanut allergy and well, as with all of the other things that I like to make from scratch, some of those ingredients in Reese's version aren't too desirable.

Reese's® Peanut Butter Cups Ingredients

Milk Chocolate contains Sugar, Cocoa Butter, Chocolate, Nonfat Milk, Milk Fat, Lactose, and Soya Lecithin and PGPR (as Emulsifiers), Peanuts, Sugar, Dextrose, Salt, and TBHQ and Citric Acid (to Preserve Freshness)

Ugh -what do those initials stand for anyway?

… First of all, TBHQ is tertiary butylhydroquinone, a heavy duty preservative. There is some mixed information on the internet about this substance, but I think I'd rather just avoid it.

Second, PGPR is polyglycerol polyricinoleate. It's a yellowish, viscous liquid comprised of polyglycerol esters of polycondensed fatty acids from castor oil. It's basically used to reduce the fat content of less expensive chocolate products while keeping the “full fat” taste. I don't know about you, but I'd sure rather have the real fat.

So. In case the fun of making homemade chocolates isn't enough for you, I hope you now have more reason to do so :-).

This post may contain affiliate links from which I will earn a commission.

These reese's copycats are easily adaptable for all kinds of special diets. See notes for details.

More On these Paleo Almond Butter Cups

Coconut oil isn't the easiest thing to measure, especially in the winter months (it gets really hard under 76 degrees). I melt mine first and then measure it. Much easier!
I used silicone molds, like this one from Amazon. Of course, you could use any shape, like these cute flower molds. I do not recommend mini muffin tins, however, or some other non-flexible option. The candy is just too hard to get out of them and you end up with a crumbly mess (yummy, but crumbly). Of course, you could also just roll the filling into balls and dip it into the chocolate, to make an alternative to peanut butter balls.

Recipe Notes

Coconut Oil Alternatives: You can use another healthy fat instead of coconut oil if you'd like. Cocoa butter will yield a product that will stand up better to warmer temperatures.
Sweetener Options: Another healthy sweetener can be substituted instead of stevia. 1/2 cup xylitol or other healthy sweetener will work, but you may need to use a different amount if using a liquid sweetener, so read this post for tips on substituting sweeteners.
You can also use any healthy sweetener for the xylitol, you just may need a different amount if using a liquid.
Almond Butter Alternatives: You can substitute any nut or seed butter for the almond butter. See this post for tips on making your own nut or seed butter.
Stevia Tips: See this post for help with using stevia.
Cocoa Powder Alternative: Organic roasted carob powder can be substituted for the chocolate. Carob is inherently sweet so you might wish to reduce the sweetener if you use carob.
Homemade Powdered Sugar: Read this recipe for tips on making homemade powdered sugar substitute.

Finally, after many many attempts at making these chocolates, everyone in my very-patient family said that they were wonderful. I personally (ahem) couldn't really keep out of them, which makes them a winner in my book.

My youngest especially liked the filling. He's had the real thing (should I really call Reese's the real thing?) and said that since I made mine with carob he said that they'll never taste like Reese's. Very insightful. (I'm avoiding chocolate as much as possible since, if you remember from my Facebook page, it is my undoing anytime I eat it and also because the stimulants in chocolate aren't a great thing to eat if you have adrenal fatigue (or boys, for that matter :-)).

I think these stand up well against any store bought filled chocolate and they were sure fun to make!

And I'll keep working on the peanut butter – er – almond butter cup recipe and will be back when it's done.

Looking for some other yummy ways to treat those you love on Valentine's Day?

Other Healthy Treats You Might Like:

Healthy Almond Joy Bars
Amazing Silky Smooth Bean Fudge (I promise – you'll love it!)
Luscious Lemon Bars with special diet options
Healthier Fantasy Fudge

paleo almond butter cups in a pile on dessert plate

Ingredients

Chocolate / Carob Coating

32 oz cocoa butter (see Recipe Notes for alternative)
1/2 cup xylitol (See Recipe Notes for alternatives)
1/8 tsp stevia extract powder (See Recipe Notes for alternatives)
1 cup cocoa
1 cup almond butter (See Recipes Notes for alternative)
1 tsp vanilla
1/8 tsp salt

Filling

1/2 cup almond butter (See Recipe Notes for alternatives)
4 1/2 tsp coconut oil
1/2 cup xylitol (powdered--see Recipe Notes for alternative)
1/2 tsp salt

Instructions

Melt coconut oil over very low heat. (This is important. If you heat the oil too high, your nice chocolate coating will end up as a gloppy mess. Still edible, but not pretty. Not that I ever did that or anything :-).)
Transfer the oil to a bowl, add other ingredients and mix well. I used my Bamix immersion blender to do the mixing. It works great and is my new favorite kitchen tool.
Spoon a small amount of the melted chocolate into your molds. Just enough so you have the thickness that you'd like the chocolate coating to be.
Place mold in fridge to harden while you make the filling.
For filling, combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix well.
Place filling in freezer to firm.
When filling is more firm, remove from freezer and shape into tiny balls.
Place one small ball of filling into each mold, on top of the hardened chocolate.
Spoon the remaining chocolate all over the filling and fill the mold.
Level off the mold with a knife, if desired, for a nicely shaped candy.
Chill until firm and store in fridge or freezer (if you can keep out of them that long).

Tried this recipe?Mention @wholenewmom or tag #wholenewmom!

What is your favorite candy?

Source: Candy Recapper

Almond Butter Cups – dairy free, low carb, paleo