Raw Vegan Peanut Butter Cups

Happy Monday Bloggie Friends!  How are you today?  How was your weekend?  Mine was great!  Let me count the ways.  Some of the cool things included getting together with fellow blogger Madeline, like I mentioned I would be.  Here’s a few pics from our coffee outing.

Skylar with me today and 2 year olds generally last about 3.478 minutes in coffee shops.  Skylar lasted over an hour which was great, but Madeline was awesome with her and humored Skylar by drawing and playing along with Skylar’s “artwork”.

She even let Skylar try on her cool yellow shades.

During the rest of the weekend, I whipped up a few creative vegan chocolate treats, and taught yoga, which still has me grinning from ear to ear!  Tell me about how your weekend unfolded and what kinda trouble you got into stayed out of.

Thanks for the great feedback on enjoying my Weekly Highlights & Recap post that I did.  I’m glad you liked everything from Dark Chocolate Fudge Balls

To Kale Salads

To Raw Vegan Apple Crumble

And a big Congrats to the Winner of the $25 EcoStore USA Gift Certificate…Enjoy it, Sweetie!

But it’s a new week and time to start fresh, so here’s a few things I made this weekend…

Butterfinger Oats
1/3 c dry oats, 2/3 c water (could use almond milk but I didn’t have any open), and then added cinnamon, brown sugar, butterscotch chips, and a smashed mini-Butterfinger (we’re slowly making our way through the excess Halloween candy I purchased.  At this rate we should have it done by Halloween 2010.)

For one of our din-dins I took some of the never-ending bounty of potatoes that I bought on my TJ’s Grocery Haul and cut up some red potatoes + yukon golds, mini-carrots, doused with EVOO, S & P, 1 Tsp Ground Ginger(ginger is a great tenderizer and flavor booster)

Roasted at 400F for about 40 minutes

And served the roasted veggies along side a Hugh Jass Pea kinda Salad of greens, cukes, carrots, tomatoes, peppers with some of my Homemade High Raw Vegan Slaw Dressing

So after all those taters and green goodness, it was time for dessert.  Enter my newest, super easy, 3-ingredient (raw) vegan dessert.  No fancy appliances needed.  A spoon will do.  Curious?

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Averie’s (Raw if You Want) 3-Ingredient, 10-Minute Vegan Peanut Butter Cups

Yields: 2 Peanut Butter Cups.  Intentionally a very small recipe, feel free to mass-produce.

1/2 cup melted chocolate (i.e. 2 Full-Size Squares of Melted Baker’s Brand Chocolate because it’s dairy-free, or melt 1/2 c Chocolate Chips, or a Cocoa Powder/Agave/Coconut Oil Mix)

2 Tablespoons Peanut Butter

1/2 Teaspoon Nutritional Yeast, optional

In a microwave-safe bowl melt the chocolate and spoon a thin chocolate layer into paper muffin liners (two). Allow chocolate to cool in the liners. While it is cooling, prepare the peanut butter and nutritional yeast mixture by stirring to combine it in a small bowl. If you don’t have nutritional yeast, omit it. It simply gives a slightly salty, cheezy, “gritty” and more authentic texture to the filling (similar to the Reese’s filling) but is not essential. Spoon the mixture on top of the cooled chocolate base layer. Melt additional chocolate and spoon melted chocolate over the top to completely cover the peanut butter. Allow cups to set up fully before eating, at least 5 to 10 minutes in the freezer if you are in a hurry.

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First, melt your chocolate (Raw Foodies, use whatever ratios of raw cocoa powder, agave, & coconut oil suits you to keep it raw).  I use the 45 seconds in the microwave trick and melted about 1/4 c worth, which is 1 Baker’s Chocolate Full-Sized Square. (You’ll melt the other square later).

Then, take paper muffin liners and Pour the Melted Chocolate in, just coating the bottom of the liners.

Mix up the Filling
2 Tbsp PB + 1/2 Tsp Nooch
Optional: Dash of Salt, Dash of Agave, Dash of Vanilla Extract.  This is to your taste and highly subjective, so do as you wish friends, but I think my version is quite Reese’s-like.

If you’re having a hard time getting your nooch well-incorporated into your PB, zap in the micro for 15 seconds.

I love how the nooch actually gives the PB that barely there, ever-so-slight chunky factor like the filling in Reese’s Cupsis.

Spoon the Filling into the now-hardened (or somewhat hardened) Chocolate Layer

Transfer your cups carefully to a plate

Put them in the Fridge to Harden Fully

And look at how chilly & yummy that looks!

Unwrap & Notice the rippled or ruffled Reese’s-like edges.

I normally would just make teeth marks, but I used a knife to show you the inner workings of my Vegan PB Cups.

Kinda Highly Addictive.  But the fun stuff usually is.  Feel free to make a larger batch.  There are lots of pics, but the whole thing took less than 10 minutes of active cooking time.  You just have to let them firm up, and I bet that could happen in 15 minutes in the freezer.  So, you’re less than a half hour away from homemade vegan PB Cups!!  What are you waiting for?

They are rich, smooth, and even more satisfying because you made them yourself.  And, you can feel awesome knowing there are no yucky ingredients in them.  And did I mention the pretty rippled edges.  Love those.

Do you like peanut butter cups?

Have you ever made them at home?