{recipe} halloween treat: chocolate PB & J cups.
Halloween might be my favorite holiday, next to Thanksgiving. As a kid, I ran around the neighborhood with friends, filling up my pillowcase with tons of candy–snickers, butterfingers, skittles, m&ms, kit kats, blow pops, you name it, I had it. I remember being so excited to get home and dump out my sugary treats to see how much I got. It was too much, really. When I think back to how much processed, impure junk I ate back then, it makes me cringe.
You know what’s crazy? I care so much about what I put into my body these days that I am almost NEVER tempted by all of the goodies that line the shelves of CVS and Duane Reade upon checking out. I look at it as a non-food. Something that has absolutely zero nutritional value. Of course, from time to time, I miss my old favorites like Peppermint Patties and Reeses Peanut Butter Cups. But instead of buying the crappy version from a drugstore, I make my own “healthified” version–as my friend Arielle would say 🙂
Which brings me to the subject of this post: Nut Butter & Raspberry Jelly Cups. Yes! PB&J-style inside a chocolate shell. So dreamy and so out of this world that you’ll never want the fake stuff again. The recipe below is adapted from one of my favorite recipes sites, Love & Lemons. My little twist is using both almond and peanut butter, and using raspberry jelly instead of strawberry. What makes this recipe awesome is that there is no added sugar. The semi-sweet chocolate chips, natural nut butters, and jelly are a sweet enough combo.
Chocolate PB & JCups
10 oz semi-sweet (65% cacao) chocolate chips
2 tablespoons coconut oil
2/3 cup organic almond and peanut butter, mixed together
1/4 cup raspberry jelly
A couple sprinkles of sea salt
- Over a double-boiler, melt the chocolate and coconut oil until smooth.
- Line a muffin tin with cupcake liners and fill each one with 2 tablespoons of the melted chocolate mixture, just enough to coat the bottom.
- Use a knife to pull some chocolate up the sides of the liners to create an outer shell, this ensures the jelly & nut butters stain contained in the cup.
- Put the muffin tin in the freezer for about 5 minutes to allow the chocolate to harden.
- Take the muffin tin out and add about a 1/2 tablespoon of the nut butter mixture on top of the chocolate, then add a small dollop of the jelly on top of that. You can use a spoon to even things out if there are clumps, but it should naturally just settle in.
- Next, add about 2 tablespoons of melted chocolate on top, covering the nut butter & jelly completely, and then pop it back in the freezer.
- Just before the chocolate hardens, sprinkle a little sea salt on top of each cup; there’s nothing like salt to bring out the flavor of chocolate.
- Pop back in the freezer for about 1 minute and they’re done!
These are so freaking good it’s ridiculous. Here’s to a healthy Halloween without processed candy! If you try this recipe, please let me know how it goes.
