These delicious Vegan Inside Out Peanut Butter Cups are for the peanut butter lover and are incredibly easy to make and are only five simple ingredients!
Who doesn't love peanut butter cups? Honestly, I think if I ever met someone who said that they didn't, I'd have to just walk away. How can you trust someone like that?! Kidding. Kind of...because peanut butter and chocolate is kind of the best combination on Earth. By kind of, I mean totally is.
For the Peanut Butter Lover
I don't do chocolate often, but when I do, it's usually with peanut butter. Because really, is there a better combo out there?
Once you have your Homemade Peanut Butter (or your favorite store bought creamy peanut butter), then it's just another 4 ingredients! That's right, just four!
- Dates - Whole and pitted! We love medjool dates for this recipe!
- Confectioner's Sugar - This sugar will melt with your peanut butter better than a regular granulated sugar.
- Unrefined Coconut Oil - You could also use refined as it will have less of a coconut flavor. Or if you're not a coconut fan at all, sub it for another oil like olive oil or almond oil.
- Cocoa Powder - Unsweetened is what we usually use, but you could totally use sweetened to make the filing a bit sweeter. We've also made this with the super food cacao, too!
Step-by-Step Instructions
Step 1: Melt the coconut oil with the peanut butter and then add the confectioner's sugar to sweeten it up.
Note: You can adjust this based on your peanut butter / tastes. Since I added a little extra honey in this batch of peanut butter, so I used a tad less sugar. Another reason why cooking from scratch is so great - there's so much control in the flavors of what you're eating! You can make subtle changes to fit your mood.
Step 2: Once melted, I then added just a thin layer of it into the wrapper filled muffin tray.
Tip: How much to add? Well, just think of how thick do you want the bottom layer of your peanut butter cup to be. If you want a nice thick layer and then the chocolate, add more. If you want a really thin layer of PB and lots of chocolate, add less. Did I mention how great making things from scratch is because of the control?
Step 3: Put the muffin tray in the freezer so the peanut butter can set.
Step 4: While the peanut butter sets, put the dates and cocoa powder in to the food processor and blended. An incredibly simple, healthy, and delicious chocolately filling.
No food processor? You could also chop it all up by hand by giving the dates a really good chop on a cutting board, until mostly all broken up and then add to a bowl and mix with cocoa powder, mashing it all together with a fork.
Step 5: Once the fist layer of peanut butter has hardened in the freezer, then you can "fill" the center of the cups, with your date mixture by rolling out small balls of the date/chocolate mixture and then added them to the center of the frozen first layer of peanut butter.
Note: It's sticky, but as long as you wash your hands between a few ball rolls, you'll be fine.
Once filled, then you can squish them down into a nice circle.
Again, the beauty of this is you can totally control exactly how much of a chocolate center you want, just keep in mind the bigger the layer of chocolate, the more PB it'll take to cover it to create a nice even layer without chocolate coming out the top.
Step 6: Add the final layer of peanut butter on top and pop 'em back in the freezer for them to harden for about 30 minutes.
And done! Inside Out Peanut Butter Cups - Vegan for the Peanut Butter lover!
I ended up cutting these Vegan Inside Out Peanut Butter Cups up into halves and quarters for portion control and then popped 'em back in the freezer as the perfect snack! 'Cause you know, for some reason eating tiny little pieces of peanut butter cups seems like you're totally behaving, even when you end up eating like 4... ok 8... of them. 😉
More Homemade Candy
Copycat Butterfinger Candy Bites
Enjoy! As always, if you make this recipe or any of my others, I love to hear what you think! Leave a comment below, email me, or you can find me on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest!
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Inside Out Peanut Butter Cups
Ingredients
- 1 cup creamy peanut butter
- 1/2 cup unrefined coconut oil
- 3-5 tablespoons confectioner's sugar
- 10-14 dates pitted
- 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
Instructions
- Line a standard muffin tin with 12 muffin liners.
- Melt the coconut oil over low heat and stir in the peanut butter until fully combined. Whisk in the powdered coconut sugar until smooth. Taste and whisk in more if desired.
- Pour about a tablespoon of peanut butter in the bottom of eat wrapper. Place muffin tin in the freezer for about 10-20 minutes until hardened.
- While in the freezer add the dates and the cocoa powder to a food processor. Blend until it forms a large ball.
- Remove the cups from the freezer. About a tablespoon + (based on preference) at a time, roll date and cocoa mixture into a small ball. Add to the center of the bottom of the muffin wrappers and then flatten so that there's still an edge around the peanut butter layer.
- Top with 1 tablespoon or so of the melted peanut butter mixture to cover the chocolate. Settle and even out the peanut butter by gently tapping the muffin tin on the counter.
- Place in the freezer for about 30 minutes for the peanut butter to fully harden.
- Store in fridge or freezer in an airtight container.
Notes
Adapted from Edible Perspectives
Oooo! Dates and cocoa powder for the filling?! I'm SO all over that combination. I'm going to try this with sunbutter to make it allergy friendly for my family.
Oh these are AMAZING! I'm a total sucker for peanut butter cups and the peanut butter is my favorite part. So these are like a dream. 🙂
OMG, I'm so with you about cutting things into smaller pieces but then eating them all! I would definitely have a problem if a batch of these yummy things was in my house. Thanks for the clever idea and the wonderful step by step. I'm going to wait to make these until I head out to a party so I can leave them there!! LOL.
Hahaha great plan, Debra!!
In my head, I've always assumed that to make homemade peanut butter cups, you would need a fancy pan that was sized and shaped for them. Just being able to use the cupcake wrappers is a stroke of brilliance! I always have the ingredients for these around the house, and this is be the PERFECT treat for my daughter's lunchbox. There is no turning back now, these are a family staple! Thanks for the recipe!
You're going to be the favorite mom at school! 😉
I made these and they were so good. I love Reeses cups and I don't normally purchase candy. Well, once I saw this recipe I knew I had to make them. I let my pickiest grandson sample one and he wanted more. That is a great taste test.
That's great to hear, Marisa!
I absolutely love the combination of dates and cocoa powder together. This recipe couldn't be easier too! How great is it that we can eat a creamy, yummy dessert like this and it vegan?! So cool...thanks for the recipe! 🙂
It's surprising, isn't it?! Enjoy!
I love all things peanut butter and chocolate - it's such a perfect combination of flavours. I love the simplicity of the ingredients, and the twist on the classic combination that you've put together here. The chocolate/date combination for the center is an especially cool idea, and I could see that working in all kinds of desserts. Cheers!
Thanks, Sean!
It's sad people who don't like peanut butter cups! (Though the rest of us are happier since we get more. 🙂 ) And I love your twist on the classic making them inside out with a yummy chocolate filling. They are so easy and tasty looking that I can't wait to make them!
Haha, so true Annemarie!
Oh, wow. Well, trust me, you'll never hear me say I don't love chocolate and peanut butter cups. In fact, I sort of live for them. I'm flipping for this recipe, and I love that the peanut butter is on the outside. And vegan? Are you kidding??? I literally can hardly wait to make these gems. Thanks for the awesome recipe!!
Thank you, Kris!