Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups

This is a recipe from Alicia Silverstone's book, The Kind Diet, and they are to die for!!! They are big enough so one (or maybe two) is completely satisfying. If you love peanut butter cups, this is an amazing vegan substitute.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups

Makes 12

Ingredients:

1/2 cup Earth Balance butter

 3/4 cup crunchy peanut butter (preferably unsweetened and unsalted)

3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs or 10 graham cracker squares

1/4 cup maple sugar or other granulated sweetener

1 cup grain-sweetened, nondairy chocolate or carob chips

1/4 cup soy, rice, or nut milk

1/4 cup chopped pecans, almonds, or peanuts

Directions:

1. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners. Set aside.

2. Melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Stir in the peanut butter, graham cracker crumbs, and maple sugar and mix well. Remove the mixture from the heat. Evenly divide the mixture, approximately 2 tablespoons per cup, among the muffin cups.

 

3. Combine the chocolate and milk in another pan. Stir over medium heat until the chocolate has melted. Spoon the chocolate evenly over the peanut butter mixture. Top with chopped nuts. Place in refrigerator to set for at least 2 hours before serving.

 

Note: We use fresh ground peanut butter from Whole Foods that they ground at the store. It's just peanuts and it's delicious. The first time I made this recipe I used vegan graham crackers, which was great. But since going gluten free as well, I had to find a substitute. I found some cinnamon cookies at Giant that are gluten free and vegan, and used those, and it tastes almost exactly the same. I did use maple sugar, which you can get at Whole Foods as well, and I used So Delicious unsweetened coconut milk instead of soy, rice or nut milk. Yum!!