Peanut Butter and Almond Butter Cups (Vegan)

Ever miss Reese's peanut butter cups, but can't stand the thought of eating them with all their sugar, dairy, and overall unhealthiness. 

Well, now you can make your own peanut butter, or any nut butter, cups! 

Original recipe form My New Roots, found here: http://www.mynewroots.org/site/2013/03/superfood-nut-butter-cups/

Ingredients: 

Basic Raw ChocolateMakes about 1 ½ cups

• 1/2 cup melted coconut oil
• 3 Tbsp. melted cacao butter (I omitted this and they turned out fine)
• ¾ cup raw cacao powder
• 1/3 cup raw honey (sub. maple syrup or agave for vegan)
• 2 Tbsp. lucuma (optional – add 2 Tbsp. of maca or cacao powder if not using) (Again I omitted and used cocoa powder) 
• ¼ tsp. sea salt
• extra sea salt for garnish, if you want

Nut Butter Filling:

I did peanut butter and almond butter to experiment! I used store bought peanut butter and almond butter so I didn't really add any sweetener or salt to my filling!

• 1/2 cup almond butter (or any nut butter: cashew, pecan, hazelnut…) 
• 1 Tbsp. raw honey (maple syrup or agave)
• 1 Tbsp. lucuma powder (optional – add 1 Tbsp. of sweetener if not using) (I didn't use any extra sweetener as I used store bought peanut butter and almond butter)
• sea salt to taste

Instructions: 

1. Start with mixing together the chocolate. I melted my coconut oil for a few seconds in the microwave and then whisked in agave, but you can melt it over a stove top!

2. Once mixed, shift in the cocoa powder, salt, and the lucuma, if using.

3. Add about 1/3 of chocolate mixture into cups and place in freezer to set up, about 15 minutes. It's best to use silicone or paper cup molds so you can easily remove the cups when done!

4. While freezing, make nut butter filling. Again I just put the nut butter in with no add-ins as I thought it would be too sweet and salty.

5. Spoon nut butter on top of set up chocolate. Original recipe says to roll into balls and flatten, but that wasn't working for my store bought as it was too gooey so I went with just straight spooning nut butter into cups.

6. Immediately spoon remaining chocolate on top of nut layer. Make sure to cover nut butter and then return cups to freezer for final freeze.

7. Allow cups to fully freeze so when removing cups there should be no problem separating them form the molds. 

8. Enjoy! Store in container in freezer or fridge!