Dark Chocolate, Almond Butter, and Raspberry Cups

For times when you crave Reese peanut butter cups but don't want your health to pay the price that comes with them, you might find all the satisfaction you're looking for with the following simple recipe for chocolate, almond butter, and raspberry cups.

Listed ingredients will make about 5 large dark chocolate cups, assuming you use regular muffin/cupcake liners.

Ingredients:

200 grams (about 7 ounces) of dark chocolate chunks/chips

3 tablespoons of smooth almond butter

2 tablespoons of almond milk

Your favourite raspberry jam

Small handful of fresh raspberries

Sea salt

A few tablespoons of icing sugar (optional)

Directions:

1. Melt about half of your chocolate chunks in a heat-safe glass bowl that sits over a pot of simmering water. Be mindful about not using any more heat than you need to melt the chocolate, and avoid having steam and water droplets mix in with your chocolate, which will cause your chocolate to harden and take on a grainy texture. You want to watch the chocolate as it's melting and stir gently with a stainless steel spoon to ensure that it doesn't burn. If you have never melted chocolate in this way before, please do a simple google search on how to melt chocolate with a water bath before beginning, and please be mindful about using a heat-tempered bowl and not using too much heat.

2. Line a cupcake/muffin tray with five or six liners, and place one tablespoon of melted chocolate in each liner. Gently swirl the convex surface of your tablespoon to create space for the almond butter and raspberry filling - as you swirl, you can gently push the chocolate up the sides of the liner to create the sides of your chocolate cups. Strive to keep the sides relatively even. Once completed, you can put your tray of chocolate-lined cupcake liners into the freezer for 10 to 15 minutes to harden.

3. In a small bowl, mix together your almond butter, almond milk, and a pinch of sea salt. If you prefer a dense nut butter filling, then use just one tablespoon of almond milk or none at all. If you want the same level of sweetness found in Reese peanut butter cups, you can add about two tablespoons of icing sugar and whisk together. If you prefer not to add any sugar, rest assured that your cups will still be somewhat sweet from the chocolate and raspberry jam.

4. In a separate small bowl, mash together raspberry jam and raspberries. You want to use one flat teaspoon of jam and one small raspberry for every chocolate cup you make.

5. Take your dark chocolate cups out of the freezer and fill each with one tablespoon of almond butter filling, gently spreading it evenly within each cup.

6. Add a little more than a teaspoon of your raspberry filling on top of the almond butter filling, and gently spread it evenly.

7. Melt the second half of your chocolate chunks/chips and put enough on top of each cup to cover almond butter and raspberry filling - it will be about one flat tablespoon of melted chocolate per cup.

8. Place your completed cups in the freezer for 30 minutes to set. They can be devoured at this point with a soft filling, or kept in the freezer in an air-tight container until needed - just let them thaw for 30 minutes or so before enjoying. The filling will approach the same density of the filling in Reese peanut butter cups with about 24 hours of freezing. After 24 hours of being in the freezer, if they still exist, keep them in an air-tight container in the refrigerator.

Note: It's fine to skip the raspberry portion if you prefer chocolate almond butter cups.

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Dark Chocolate, Almond Butter and Raspberry Cups Recipe