Crunchy Almond Butter Cups
My most recent food related obsession are definitely Bon Appetit magazine’s cooking videos. The recipes are always incredibly creative and the people’s passion for food in those videos is just great. They always make me want to film my own cooking videos, which I am probably never going to do, because I don’t actually feel that comfortable in front of a camera. Anyways that’s all beside the point as I am actually trying to get to telling you about how I came up with this recipe.
Yes I am obsessed with Bon Appetit magazine.
So in one of Bon Appetit’s latest videos Claire, one of the chefs in the show, recreated the iconic Reese’s peanut butter cup. Now I have actually never tried one of those, I am not even sure if they are available in Switzerland. Also I don’t really like milk chocolate. Never have, never will, it’s just too sweet for my likings. However, Claire really made me want to create my very own version of peanut butter cups hence I came up with this recipe.
Of course I decided to go for dark chocolate instead of milk chocolate. Then I also decided to use almond butter instead of peanut butter as I actually prefer the taste of almonds over peanuts. Lastly I sweetened with dates instead of sugar and that was it. They probably taste nothing like the real deal, which also wasn’t my intention whatsoever. However, they do taste incredibly tasty and make the perfect healthy and vegan treat.
To temper or not to temper?
Also I decided to not temper the chocolate just like Claire recommended in the video as I personally also really hate tempering chocolate and I also think it is not necessary if I am storing them in the fridge anyways.
My version turned out tasting just scrumptious. They’re actually kind of addicting to be honest. The sweet and slightly salt filling contrasts so perfectly with the slight bitterness of the dark chocolate. And I highly recommend to try this if you happen to have a craving for a delicious chocolatey treat.
Ok that’s it for now. Let’s get cooking!
Crunchy Almond Butter Cups
Crunchy Almond Butter Cups
- 60g date paste (or dates)
- 40g almonds (I used pealed almonds)
- 90g dark almond butter
- a dash of salt
- 200g dark chocolate*
- 10 muffin liners ( I recommend using silicon ones)
- optional: cacao nibs for decorating
- Preheat oven to 150°C. Place almonds on a baking sheet and roast for 10 minutes. Make sure to turn every few minutes. Remove almonds from oven and let them cool slightly before chopping them up into small chunks.
- Add date paste and almond butter into a food processor until smooth. Mix in the chopped roasted almonds and a generous dash of salt. The salt contrasts nicely with the sweet filling. Place the mixture in the freezer for about 1-2 hours.
- After two hours the mixture should be firm enough to be shaped into equally sized discs. They should be about 0.5 cm in thickness and slightly smaller than the diameter of the muffin liners. Place back in the freezer while melting the chocolate.
- Melt chocolate. If you plan to store the almond butter cups outside the fridge you should temper the chocolate otherwise tempering won’t be necessary in my opinion.
- Fill about one tablespoon of melted chocolate into each muffin liner. Place the almond disc in the centre of the chocolate top with another tablespoon of melted chocolate. Decorate with cacao nibs.
- Place almond butter cup in the freezer until set. Then store in the fridge or freezer. *I highly recommend using a dark chocolate with a minimum of 70% cacao as it will be to sweet otherwise.
Crunchy Almond Butter Cups
Crunchy Almond Butter Cups
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