Healthy Peanut Butter Cups
Healthy Peanut Butter Cups melt in your mouth and are a million times better than the processed sugar-laden version. They have a creamy sunflower seed butter center that is nestled in a stevia sweetened carob shell. The sunflower seed butter center is slightly sweetened with a little bit of salt and the carob coating is sweet and delicious with caramel undertones. If you have never tried sunflower butter or carob you will find that they are a match made in heaven.
Healthy Peanut Butter Cups are a sweet treat that is suitable for numerous diets including anti-candida, nut free, vegan, gluten free, paleo and people with chocolate allergies. You can find lots more recipes like this one in my cookbook Healthy Dairy Free Desserts.
Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups were always my favourite Halloween candy. On Halloween after a long (and cold!) night of trick or treating, my sisters and I poured our pillow cases of candy onto the floor, sorted it into piles and started trading/negotiating. I always did everything I could to get as many Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups as possible. When I realized they contained spooky ingredients like GM soy, preservatives and a ton of sugar, I knew I had to make a healthier version that I could enjoy worry free.
Sunflower Seeds
Sunflower seeds are a nutty tasting seed that make an excellent peanut or nut substitute. They are very high in vitamin E which is an antioxidant that prevents the oxidation of cholesterol. This reduces the occurrence of blocked arteries which can lead to a heart attack or stroke. Vitamin E has significant anti-inflammatory properties that can help reduce symptoms of asthma and arthritis. Sunflower seeds also contain vitamin B1 which, in conjunction with vitamin E, can help retain mental function and reduce the risk of developing Alzheimer’s.
This Halloween, have some fun and get creative in the kitchen by creating your own Halloween candy. Healthy Peanut Butter Cups are a fun way to trick your friends into enjoying a healthy treat! Healthy Peanut Butter Cups are entirely sweetened with stevia so you can throw moderation out the window and enjoy as many as you want guilt free! I like to make a double batch of Healthy Peanut Butter Cups and store them in the freezer where they will last for several months.
Swanson was kind enough to send me the 100% Pure Original SunButter (Sunflower Butter) I use in this healthy peanut butter cup recipe. If you use a different brand be sure to check if it is sweetened, if it is you may want to leave out the stevia or add it a little at a time until you reach the desired sweetness. I like to use stevia in this recipe because it makes Healthy Peanut Butter Cups 100% sugar-free! If you decide to use raw cacao powder in this recipe, I recommend playing with the quantities and using maple syrup as the sweetener instead of stevia. In my experience, stevia and cacao are very bitter when combined together.
Healthy Peanut Butter Cups
(raw vegan, nut free, paleo, sugar-free)
Prep time: 10 minutes | Chill Time: 2 hours | Serving Size: 6 large or 12 small healthy peanut butter cups
Ingredients
Carob Shell
- ½ cup coconut oil, melted
- ½ cup carob
- 15 drops liquid stevia
- ¼ tsp vanilla
Sunflower Seed Filling
- 3 Tbsp sunflower seed butter
- 1.5 Tbsp nutritional yeast
- 1-3 Tbsp coconut flour
- ¼ tsp powdered stevia
- pinch salt
Directions
- To make the carob shell, whisk the melted coconut oil, carob powder, stevia and vanilla together in a small bowl.
- Pour a third of the carob shell mixture into a muffin pan lined with paper or silicone liners and place in the freezer to set.
- While the bases for the healthy peanut butter cups are hardening, make the filling by stirring together the sunflower seed butter, nutritional yeast, 1 Tbsp coconut flour, stevia and salt. Depending on the consistency of the sunflower seed butter you are using, add additional coconut flour until the filling becomes a wet dough.
- Remove the muffin pan from the freezer and roll the sunflower seed filling into balls. Place a sunflower seed filling ball into each base and flatten it into a smooth disk.
- Top the healthy peanut butter cups with the remaining carob shell mixture and freeze for 2 hours to set.
- Store in the freezer in an airtight container and serve cold.
What is your favourite Halloween candy? If you have created a healthier version I would love to hear about it in the comments section!
- ½ cup coconut oil, melted
- ½ cup carob powder
- 15 drops liquid stevia
- ¼ tsp vanilla
- 3 Tbsp sunflower seed butter
- 1.5 Tbsp nutritional yeast
- 1-3 Tbsp coconut flour
- ¼ tsp powdered stevia
- pinch salt
- To make the carob shell, whisk the melted coconut oil, carob powder, stevia and vanilla together in a small bowl. Pour a third of the carob shell mixture into a muffin pan lined with paper or silicone liners and place in the freezer to set.
- While the bases for the healthy peanut butter cups are hardening, make the filling by stirring together the sunflower seed butter, nutritional yeast, 1 Tbsp coconut flour, stevia and salt. Depending on the consistency of the sunflower seed butter you are using, add additional coconut flour until the filling becomes a wet dough.
- Remove the muffin pan from the freezer and roll the sunflower seed filling into balls. Place a sunflower seed filling ball into each base and flatten it into a smooth disk.
- Top the healthy peanut butter cups with the remaining carob shell mixture and freeze for 2 hours to set.
- Store in the freezer in an airtight container and serve cold.
Very irritating to see a recipe with the words peanut butter in the title & none in the recipe. I’ll give you this, you’ve got a lot of chutzpah.
Hi Sam, sorry to disappoint! You can make it with natural peanut butter in place of sunflower seed butter.
Can I substitute anything else for the nutritional yeast?
Hi Leela, You can leave it out and they will still taste awesome!
Will the coconut oil make the candy taste A little like coconut? Cause I’m not a fan of coconut.
I don’t notice the coconut taste Rich because the other flavours are pretty strong, but I love coconut so I might not notice it as much. Make a half batch and let me know what you think!