Healthy Peanut Butter Cups
Published 6/8/2024
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These healthy peanut butter cups are nutritious, delicious and made with good-for-you ingredients. All you need are a few simple ingredients including all-natural peanut butter, cocoa powder, maple syrup, and Himalayan sea salt! You read that correctly, there are no chocolate chips or refined sugar involved!
These healthy peanut butter cups are an FFF OG recipe and reader favorite. This recipe was originally published in 2013 (how has it been over 10 years?!) and they’ve been made and rated 5-stars by so many of you and we can’t wait for you to make them.
Why are these healthy peanut butter cups?
This peanut butter cup recipe is amazing for so many reasons, but mostly because everybody loves peanut butter cups. I’m totally the type of person that always needs something sweet after dinner and these for sure hit the spot.
These healthy peanut butter cups double as a healthy freezer fudge because, well, they’re made with coconut oil! They live in the freezer until you need to sink your teeth into them, but don’t worry, they don’t even need to thaw in order to eat them!
Last and most certainly not least, we love that these healthy peanut butter cups are made without chocolate chips or any refined sugar. They’re actually sweetened with maple syrup and the base is made from coconut oil.
Ingredients for Healthy Peanut Butter Cups
You need 6 total ingredients for this healthy dessert recipe.
- All-Natural Peanut Butter – make sure to use drippy, all-natural peanut butter. The kind that you can easily stir. We love Smuckers or Kirkland brand.
- Coconut Oil – you’ll be using coconut oil in both the chocolate and peanut butter layers. JUST TRUST US.
- Maple Syrup – maple syrup is an all-natural sweetener that adds warmth and the perfect sweetness to this recipe. We’ve also made these with honey, but we love the warmth maple syrup adds.
- Unsweetened Cocoa Powder – make sure to buy unsweetened cocoa powder.
- Himalayan Sea Salt – don’t skip the salt! Salt will bring out the peanut butter + chocolate flavors of these peanut butter cups.
- Vanilla Extract – vanilla is like the cherry on top. It adds just the right flavor profile.
ingredient swaps
peanut butter – can’ t do peanut butter? Feel free to use any kind of drippy nut butter such as cashew or almond.
maple syrup – honey is an easy 1:1 swap for maple syrup.
Homemade Peanut Butter Cup Tips
Since these are a fan favorite and have been made time and time again, I thought I would give some tips on how to have the most success when making these homemade peanut butter cups.
Coconut Oil: Unfortunately we don’t recommend swapping any other oil for the coconut oil in these healthy peanut butter cups. The only other alternative that I can think of is using extremely oily peanut butter, which essentially has more peanut oil in it than actual peanut butter!
Peanut Butter: We recommend using an all natural, drippy peanut butter for this recipe. Brands we love include Smuckers All Natural, Trader Joe’s All Natural, or Fresh Thyme All Natural.
Freezer: You’ll notice in the recipe that these homemade peanut butter cups need to live in the freezer. This is because they are part coconut oil, which can melt easily at room temperature. With that said, these cups will last in the freezer for up to 3 months!
Consistency: If your peanut butter cups are too thick, add a tablespoon more of coconut oil. If they are too thick add a tablespoon more of peanut butter!
Storage
Once your peanut butter cups have frozen, we suggest transferring them out of the muffin tin and into a large, freezer-safe gallon-size bag and storing them in the freezer. They should last for about 3 months or longer.
Healthy Peanut Butter Cups
Ingredients
Bottom Layer (chocolate)
- 1/3 cup all-natural creamy peanut butter*
- 2.5 tablespoons melted coconut oil
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
- 2 tablespoons maple syrup
Top Layer (peanut butter)
- 1/3 cup all-natural creamy peanut butter
- 2 tablespoons melted coconut oil
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 tablespoons maple syrup
- Himalayan sea salt
Instructions
- Line a muffin tin with 12 muffin liners and then spray with coconut oil cooking spray and set aside.
- In a medium bowl, stir all ingredients for the bottom layer (chocolate) together until smooth. Set aside.
- In another medium bowl, stir all ingredients for the top layer (peanut butter) together until smooth. Set aside.
- Scoop a heaping 1/2 tablespoon of the chocolate layer into each muffin cup. Repeat until you’ve filled 12 cups. Then, pick up the entire muffin tin and shake/tap it until the layer is set evenly.
- Repeat the same thing with the peanut butter layer, adding around a heaping 1/2 tablespoon on top of the chocolate layer. Pick up the entire muffin tin one more time and shake/tap it until your cups are even.
- Finally, sprinkle each cup with some Himalayan sea salt.
- Place the muffin tin in the freezer for 30 minutes or until firm. Enjoy!
- Store healthy peanut butter cups in the freezer to enjoy for later.
Tips & Notes
- Make sure you are using an all natural, drippy peanut butter for this recipe. We recommend Smuckers All Natural, Trader Joe’s All Natural, or Fresh Thyme All Natural.
- Store healthy peanut butter cups in the freezer to enjoy for later.
Watch It
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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My family love these! So simple to make, no cooking and so tasty! Way better than store-bought candy! Wondering why I didn’t make them sooner!
Woo hoo!
These were fireeee!! Such an enjoyable treat.
OMG right?! So glad you love them as much as we do 😀
A friend brought these to a potluck, and everyone was super amazed because they were better than Reese’s cups. I want to make them myself, but here is my question — Do you think this would work sweetened with Dates? I figure I could know out how much to use by taste. I’ve done that before.
DELICIOUS! I made them first following the recipe exactly, and they were so good. the second time, I really wanted more chocolate, so I doubled the chocolate layer and made them chocolate cups. OMG, I was really questioning if they were healthy(they are, ofc). It has a light coconut flavor, which I enjoy, and I brought it to a party in a cooler and in the first five minutes they had all been eaten. 100% recommend!
Oh YUM! That’s such a great idea, Sophie!
Delicious! They are more like fudge than peanut butter cups and do need to live in the freezer, so not a super durable desert. But the flavor was 10/10! Definitely would recommend using a mini-muffin tin. Coconut flavor is subtle! Even my friend who doesn’t like coconut enjoyed these!
YUMMMMM! These are even BETTER than reese’s. My boyfriend (who is way picky) loves them and so do his kiddos. I love that I can feel so full off of just one. Really takes care of my MAJOR chocolate cravings.
PB CUPS FTWWWW!
What’s the best way to store in the freezer and keep freezer burn / taste away?
Probably just freeze them until they’re solid and then cover the pb cups with plastic wrap or store them in an air tight container.
They get eaten so fast they don’t have time to freezer burn! After they are frozen cover with foil.
Hi so I really want to try the peanut butter cups and I’m going thru an ed with my dieting, would these make me gain weight like fat, and how much can I eat like 1 or 2?
Hi! Our motto is everything in moderation. We like these peanut butter cups because they’re made with an all-natural sweetener!
Can you tell me the sodium amount, these look amazing, cant wait to try!
I was confused by the peanut butter in the chocolate portion of the recipe, but I went ahead and did it. I am here to say that it is good. The finished product is a little slimy, not dry like the store-bought peanut butter cups, but it’s okay. The taste is amazing. I’m going to be sick eating them.
Several people have asked if there is an alternative to coconut oil, but the author and no one else seems to acknowledge the question. I too am allergic to coconut everything. I guess I try another recipe…too bad.
Hey Beverly! Unfortunately, there is no substitute for coconut oil.
I used olive oil and it worked, melted then cooled butter probably would work too.
You might try Ghee. It is as shelf stable and has a similar melting point as Coconut oil.
You can use plain cacao butter as a substitute for coconut oil. The same amount should work. Cacao butter is generally an off white colour.