I am in love with raw chocolate and it’s something I consume on a regular basis. It’s one of my favourite ingredients to add to my morning elixir. I also like to add raw cacao powder in my smoothies, blend it in my hazelnut fudge recipe, sprinkle cacao nibs on my super-powered porridge, and toss whole cacao beans to my superfood trail mix. Chocolate is a very special thing indeed – and these dark chocolate almond butter cups are superb and way easier to make than you might think.
This decadent recipe for homemade, dairy-free, vegan dark chocolate almond butter cups puts the traditional peanut butter cup to shame. I always look forward to making and eating this recipe, and because it’s very low in sugar, I can make adjustments as needed to suit my sugar-free lifestyle.
What Makes Chocolate Nutritious?
Chocolate can function as a health food. It’s rich in an array of supportive nutrients, including:
- Antioxidants
- Iron for energy
- Magnesium for muscle relaxation, cardiovascular support, and bone health
- Fibre for good digestion
- Anandamide, also called ‘the bliss chemical’, which – as the name suggests – helps us feel euphoric
- Flavonoids that help improve our mood, memory, and cognition
- When applied topically in beauty care products, cacao butter or cocoa butter can be very moisturizing
Not all chocolate is created equal, though. Learn all about the types of chocolate and what to do with the different parts of the bean here.
Should We Be Worried About Lead and Cadmium in Chocolate?
In the grand scheme of our overall health, I am not massively worried about lead and cadmium in chocolate. I explain why here, in this quick Instagram video.
And for a full deep dive into this issue, check out Lead and Cadmium in Chocolate: Do We Need to Stop Eating It?
Dark Chocolate Almond Butter Cup Variations
There are many ways to play with this recipe and customize it to your tastes. Instead of almond butter, try:
- Hazelnut butter
- Cashew butter
- Brazil nut butter
- Macadamia butter
- Walnut butter
- Tahini
- Sunflower seed butter
- Pumpkin seed butter
- Coconut butter
If you’d like to flavour your chocolate in the coating, go for:
- Cinnamon
- Peppermint
- Sea salt
- Dandy blend
- Maca
- Lucuma
- Matcha
Top your chocolate almond butter cups with:
- Cacao nibs
- Large flake sea salt
- Shredded coconut
- Chopped goji berries or cranberries
- Bee pollen
So many options – you can switch things up every time or keep making your favourite flavour combos! These are simple to make and very kid-friendly (they may want to help prep them!).
Rich, decadent and delicious, if you enjoy chocolate, you will love these!
Dark Chocolate Almond Butter Cups
- Total Time: 25 mins
- Yield: 12 cups 1x
Ingredients
- 2 100gram bars dark chocolate, roughly chopped – 70% or greater (or 1 cup unsweetened or bittersweet dairy-free bakers chocolate)
- 1/2 cup almond butter (smooth or crunchy depending on your preference)
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract, or 1 tsp fresh vanilla bean
- Pinch sea salt (plus more if you want to sprinkle on top)
- 3 Tbsp arrowroot or tapioca flour, or more if needed
- 2 Tbsp cacao nibs (optional)
Instructions
- Create a double boiler by filling one larger pot with water and placing a smaller one inside. Make sure no water gets into the inside pot as this will turn the melting chocolate.
- Add about 1/3 of the chocolate into the small pot and stir as it melts.
- Once melted, pour into 12 muffin liners. You may wish to place the liners into a muffin tin for added support.
- Chill the tin in the fridge or freezer, until the chocolate has hardened a little (about 10 minutes).
- Mix together the almond butter, salt, vanilla, arrowroot flour and optional cacao nibs until the consistency is such that you can form little round doughy balls. You may need more arrowroot flour but best to add 1 Tbsp at a time to be sure.
- Make 12 small ‘patties’ and place on the chocolate base in the muffin liners.
- Melt the remaining chocolate and pour into the cups, covering the almond butter.
- You may wish to sprinkle sea salt or cacao nibs on top.
- Keep in fridge or freezer and best to hide way at the back.
- Prep Time: 25 mins
More Chocolate Inspiration
44 responses to “Dark Chocolate Almond Butter Cups”
Mmm..these look delish! I love how simple the ingredients list is.
This is super great!
I made some bars the other day with chopped nuts, almond butter, coconut oil, chia seeds, flax seeds, and some other stuff. Afterward I thought it would be a good idea to put chocolate on, so I had some powdered cocoa in my pantry. I read that 1 T of oil to 3 T of cocoa makes a liquid. So I did that with some melted coconut oil. IT WAS SO BITTER. I scraped the top off! Lesson learned. ;) I’ll just buy some Green and Black’s!
You can do it… you just have to add your sweetener of choice- a little sucanat or palm sugar maybe…
Actually if you add carob powder it kills the bitterness. A recipe I use is 1T coconut oil, 1T cacao powder, 1T carob powder, 1T coconut, 1 scoop vanilla rice protein powder. its fantastic!
WOW! I wish I had thought of this!
Now you can just enhance and improve it… as long as you share your secrets.
These look amazing! I’m almost out of almond butter, but when I pick some up, this will be the first thing I make!
These look amazing!!!!!!!!!! I love PB cups.. or DID love them (back in the day)! Now I can enjoy these healthier ones!
Looks great. I was wondering if you could recommend a couple of brands for raw cacao powder and raw cacao nibs. They are pretty pricey, and I would hate to buy a brand that turns out to be lower quality/taste. So am hoping for your expert advice :)
I heart Navitas and Sunfood- you can link to both from this site and order online too. If you are in Toronto, ChocoSol is a great local supplier.
What a wonderful idea…I can taste it now!
Thanks for the chocolate love today :)
Thank you so much for responding to my question :) I am in Washington, DC, but now that I have two brands to look at, I am good to go :)
Meghan, you’re going to get yourself arrested if you keep posting food porn like this. I thought I was done drooling until I got to the “sprinkle sea salt or cacao nibs on top” bit at the end. Good thing hiding them at the back of the freezer is part of the recipe!
My jaw dropped when I saw this! Dark Chocolate Almond Butter Cups = Perfection!!
Yep. I have to agree.
And with so few ingredients! Looks AMAZING.
Yummm!! Can’t wait to make these! Thanks Meghan!
Oh yum, I would definitely be feeling the love if someone made these for me! Looks amazingly delicious, and the combo of chocolate and nut butter just can’t be beat.
These look incredible. I’m off to the shops to whip up a batch of love!
Mmm, thanks so much for such a scrumptious recipe! The bit about the sea salt on top is pure genius! I love the fleur de sel dark choco mixture…and then to add nut butter. Yum.
Oh man that looks good! Tweeting!!!!!!
Drooling. :)
This was recipe was made for you Heather!
Ok, got to look for arrowroot flour now. I’m drooling.
These were FANTASTIC Meghan.. and they are hiding WAY WAY back in the freezer! lol.. i actually cut them in half so I wouldn’t be straying TOO far even when I had one! lol.. delish though! super super delish and very easy!
Yes. Yes they are fantastic!
Meghan ~ You are seriously a genius!!! I came across this recipe when I was trying to figure out the ratio of how much chocolate to add to almond butter to make Dark Chocolate Almond Butter. I ended up making these instead for my friends birthday and they were a HUGE hit! I am posting about them tomorrow and linking up to you :) Thanks again – you are AWESOME!
Danica
Wow, I am late to the game – these look amazing! Any tips on where to find arrowroot / tapioca flour? Can it be substituted with a different type? Thanks!
Yeah- ground coconut works… you just need something to thicken the almond butter a little. And those flours can be found at most health food stores.
Hmm.. if I don’t have arrowroot or tapioca flour, can I sub in some Maca? like 1 tbsp?
Looks yummy!!!
Try dried coconut- purpose is to thicken up. Maca wouldn’t work out too well! Good luck, let us know how it goes.
Hi, what kind size bars are we talking about? Do you have the grams or cup size?
Also with using coco flour what do advise to thicken n could vanilla protein powder b added in 2?
What size Choc bars? Your reply didn’t answer question
Thanks
What size chocolate bars do you use? I used 100g and found I only had enough chocolate for 6 (delicious!) cups.
Oh yes, and I was out of almond butter. Rather than making more, I decided to use cashew butter. Oh. My. Heaven.
These are amazing, I didn’t have any chocolate bars so I used cocoa butter, raw dark cocoa powder, raw honey, and vanilla to make the chocolate. Wow the texture was kind like “Icy Squares” the way they melt in your mouth. They are so good right out of the freezer, also helps slows you down. :)
[…] By Meghan Telpner […]
I just read your article on bee pollen. Have you tried incorporating bee pollen into this recipe? I recently tried homemade raw chocolate with bee pollen. It was quite nice, so thought it might work well with this recipe.
[…] Almond Butter Cups Recipe […]
Hey, awesome recipe, but I was wondering if i could add almond milk to the dark chocolate to make it creamier sort of like milk chocolate, to make it taste sweeter and keep the carb count low, so do you think this is a good idea?
I made these today with a substitution of “Rainforest Nut Butter” (cashew, brazil & coconut blended with coconut oil) because I don’t have a blender able to grind nuts to a butter, and almonds make me ill. I made them in silicone mini-cupcake cups and the recipe made 24: a perfect bite size. Now I just have to keep from eating them all at once! Thank you so much for posting!
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Glad you liked these as much as we do! The nut butter you chose sounds absolutely delicious.
They look so mouth-wateringly good!
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