I don’t know if I’ve met anyone that doesn’t like Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. Can you really go wrong with little cups of chocolate and peanut butter? Nope! With Halloween looming, the treats are everywhere. While I don’t think its a bad thing to have those treats you love in moderation (I do!). But, what I don’t enjoy is the sugar crash following the rush! So it was my task to come up with a sugar-free version.
I’m not going to lie…these are dessert. They are rich, decadent and satisfying. Still, they’re a great alternative to the original, and fun to make at home! With so few ingredients, they come together really quickly.
Side note: I trialed this recipe a few times. Originally, I had planned on doing a combo of cocoa powder, coconut oil and stevia as the chocolate base, but I didn’t like the flavor at all. It didn’t taste anything like milk chocolate, and had a gritty-ness I didn’t like. By far, I got the best result using a sugar-free chocolate bar melted down. I’m definitely no Chocolatier, so I figured, why not leave that to the experts. I’ve been seeing many sugar-free chocolate options lately, including some chocolate made with stevia, and its delicious!
In this recipe, I used the Simply Lite Milk Chocolate (found at Trader Joe’s for the US folks) as that’s what I had on hand, but I’ve also tried this brand of stevia chocolate (found in Canada), and it was great too. There’s also this brand called Lily’s, but haven’t tried it myself yet, but they look to only offer dark chocolate. At the bottom of the recipe, I’ll include the nutrition of the Simply Lite bar, so if you use a different brand, you can compare to see if it has around the same nutritional values.
I also got questions about where I got my cute little silicone muffin cups…
They are actually from a tea company called Steeped Tea. They can be ordered directly through me (send me an email [email protected]). They are $13.99 for 12. Alternatively, any type of silicone mold would do. If you don’t have silicone molds, plastic wrap to line the muffin cups would work just fine.
- 2 x Simply Lite Milk Chocolate Bars (100 grams each bar) (Or your favorite sugar-free chocolate bar)
- 1 scoop (1/4 cup) whey protein, vanilla
- 2 Tbsp milk (I used unsweetened almond milk)
- 20 drops vanilla stevia (I used NuNaturals)
- ¼ cup natural smooth peanut butter
- Break up 1 of the chocolate bars and melt over LOW heat in a small pot. While its starting to melt, make sure you stir frequently. Once its just about melted, pull off the heat and keep stirring until the last of the pieces melt down.
- Spoon the melted chocolate into your silicone molds. Place in the freezer until it hardens.
- Meanwhile, in a small bowl, stir together the protein powder and 1 Tbsp milk. Once its the consistency of a paste, add the other tablespoon of milk. Add the stevia drops. Mixture will be runny.
- To the protein mixture, add your peanut butter. You'll want the peanut butter to be room temp, or it will be hard to mix it (also depends on the brand, I find some easier to stir than others).
- Once the chocolate has hardened in the silicone molds, pull them out of the freezer, and using a teaspoon measuring spoon, place 1 tsp of the peanut butter mixture on each of the chocolate cups. Press down so it covers the whole surface of the chocolate.
- Then, melt the other bar of chocolate, and once melted, spoon on top of the peanut butter mixture. Return to the freezer and allow to fully harden (at least an hour).
- Best stored in the freezer, and can be eaten directly from the freezer.
*Net Carbs: 3.75 g (as the other carbs are from sugar alcohols minus 3.5 g fiber) Sodium: 57 mg Protein: 6 g
Nutrition Facts – Simply Lite Milk Chocolate Bar
