Chocolate but make it healthy(er)? Enter these Dark Chocolate Almond Butter Cups, dark chocolate filled with a delicious almond butter fudge with a hint of rose! This almond butter cups recipe is dairy free, refined sugar free and gluten free. But if none of that matters to you then they are just the perfect, delicious and healthier treat for your next indulgence.
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Ingredients
There are only 5 ingredients to these simple almond butter cups, all of which are easy enough to find. They are:
- dark chocolate – I like to use an organic, vegan and refined sugar free dark chocolate, but whatever your favourite is will be fine.
- almond butter – to make your own, roast almonds for 10 minutes at 180 degrees celsius and then blend in a high power blender on high until silky smooth. Or buy ready made.
- rose water – I prefer to use a preservative free rose water from the health food store.
- cacao butter – cacao butter is much more readily available these days and can often be found at the supermarket. If you struggle to find cacao butter try looking in a health food store or bulk foods store.
- pure maple syrup – always go with pure maple syrup, not maple flavoured syrup!
The rose water can be omitted if you struggle to find this ingredient, however it is a really lovely flavour so if you can find it, do use it.
How to Make Almond Butter Cups
The process here is really simple. To make this dark chocolate almond butter cups recipe simply:
- Melt half of the dark chocolate and use it to coat the inside (bottom and sides) of mini cupcake papers. Pop in the freezer to set.
- Make the almond butter fudge by melting cacao butter and removing pan from heat before whisking through almond butter, maple syrup and rose water.
- Remove the cups from the fridge and top each cup with almond butter fudge.
- Melt the remaining dark chocolate and use a spoon to pour dark chocolate evenly over the fudge.
- Pop back into the freezer until set (usually about 30 minutes or so).
- Sprinkle with sea salt if you love that salty sweet flavour.
A little fiddly but really so simple!
Tips & Tricks
This recipe is pretty straight forward but here are a few tips to help you along your way.
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- Use a mini muffin pan + mini cupcake papers – if you don’t have a mini muffin pan then that is totally fine and you can just pop the papers onto a tray. However, the mini muffin pan helps the cupcake papers to keep their shape instead of getting all wonky.
- Using Sea Salt? Add once chocolate is almost set! – as you can probably see from the picture above, I added my sea salt when the chocolate was still warm and melted. This meant to get that pretty effect of the sea salt/chocolate contrast I needed to use lots of salt (because it just kept dissolving). Rookie error. When the chocolate is cold and just about set is the time to add the salt.
- If the fudge is still piping hot it will melt the chocolate base – in the recipe I instruct you to remove the melted cacao butter from the heat before adding the rest of the ingredients. If for some reason you add the maple syrup, almond butter and rose water while the saucepan is still on the heat, you may need to wait for it to cool to luke warm before topping the set dark chocolate with it. Otherwise it will melt your dark chocolate base and mess up your cups.
Platter Me Up!
These almond butter cups are perfect to add to a dessert platter for your next movie night or when entertaining friends. You might also like to add:
- strawberries
- blueberries
- raspberries
- assorted chocolates
- little bowls of chocolate tahini sauce & almond butter (for dipping strawberries into)
- toasted coconut flakes
Pin For Later
Love these Dark Chocolate Almond Butter Cups? Try these…
Cranberry Pistachio Homemade Chocolate
Peanut Butter Chocolate Bliss Balls
Dark Chocolate Almond Fudge Cups
Equipment
- Mini Muffin Tin
- Mini Cupcake Papers
- Whisk
- Saucepan
- Spoon
Ingredients
- 180 g dark chocolate
- 50 g cacao butter
- 1 tsp rose water
- 1/2 cup almond butter
- 1/4 cup pure maple syrup
- Maldon sea salt flakes, optional
Instructions
- Line a mini muffin tin with 20 mini cupcake papers.
- Place a glass or steel bowl atop a saucepan of water. Place the saucepan onto the stovetop on a medium heat and bring to a simmer. Add 90g dark chocolate, broken into pieces, into the bowl and stir occasionally while melting.
- When the chocolate is melted, turn the heat off and add around 1-2 teaspoons of chocolate to a cupcake paper and swirl it around so that the chocolate goes up the sides of the paper, all the way around, about half way up the sides. Return the paper to the tin and repeat this step until each cupcake paper is used. Place the tray into the freezer so that the chocolate can set.
- Meanwhile, melt 50g cacao butter in a small saucepan on the lowest heat. Once melted, turn the heat off and add the almond butter, rose water and maple syrup. Whisk to combine.
- Remove the tray from the freezer and top each chocolate base with around 2 teaspoons of almond butter fudge. It is important that when filling the cups with fudge, the fudge remains just below the top line of chocolate. Once all cups have been filled with fudge, return the tray to the fridge.
- Add the remaining 90g of dark chocolate to the bowl previously used. Place the bowl atop the saucepan of water and bring back up to a simmer. Stir until the chocolate is melted.
- Remove the tray of fudge cups from the fridge and top each with a teaspoon full or two with the melted dark chocolate. Return to the fridge or freezer to set.
- Once the chocolate is almost set on top, remove from fridge or freezer and sprinkle each cup with a few flakes of sea salt (optional). Return to the fridge or freezer to set completely before eating.
Notes
Storage
Store in an airtight container in the fridge for 2 weeks or freezer for 2 months. Nutrition Facts are an estimate only.Nutrition
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