Even though I’m not a huge fan of candy bars, I have a MAJOR weakness for reese’s cups (anyone else?). What’s weird is that peanut butter is not exactly my jam, almond butter on other hand is like Nutella (I’m assuming EVERYONE loves Nutella?), but give me a reese’s cup and I’m in heaven! I could eat an entire bag of those mini ones in one sitting, yup, when it comes to those, I have a big problem controlling myself. So…..in an effort to stop buying and eating reese’s cups, I made these vegan almond butter cups that are not only super easy to whip up but delicious! Plus, I added plant based protein powder, chia seeds and hemp hearts to up their health benefits and protein content 😉
Here’s what you need (yields about 6 cups):
. 200 gr. chocolate (I used Camino Semi-Sweet baking chocolate which is dairy free).
. 1 tbsp coconut oil.
. 1 cup almond butter (or any butter you like really, I’m sure peanut butter would work perfectly fine).
. 1 scoop plant based protein powder (this is my fave).
. 1 tsp. vanilla.
. 1 tbsp. hemp hearts.
. 1 tbsp ground chia seeds.
. 1/2 tbsp. honey (optional).
What to do:
. Grab a muffin pan and grease it or line it with paper cups (it’s much better to do the latter but if you don’t have any you’ll be totally fine as long as you grease each mold very well, *I did that with coconut oil).
. Melt the chocolate and the coconut oil together and stir to combine (stove or microwave).
. Let a spoonful of the melted chocolate cover the base of each muffin mold and transfer to the fridge.
. In the meantime, combine almond butter, protein powder, vanilla, honey, hemp hearts and chia seeds in a bowl.
. Take the pan out from the fridge once the chocolate is firm (it will take about 15 minutes) and fill each with a spoonful of this almond butter mixture.
. Use the back of the spoon to flatten it out and proceed to fill the molds with the remaining melted chocolate.
. Transfer to the fridge again and allow to set for about an hour before taking out.
. Once set, pop each cup out from the pan and enjoy!
* You’ll probably end up with some almond butter mixture leftover, if so, just use it as a spread 😉 Or, you can try making the mixture with 3/4 cups instead of one full cup.
*If you’d like the mixture to have a little bit more consistency you can try adding some almond flour (perhaps 1/4 cup?).
Let me know if you try them!
