Healthy Peanut Butter Cups!
We have been on a crazy and tortuous quest for health this month. Well, I guess it's actually a pretty sane thing to do and we've gotten very creative with our meals, so it hasn't been that tortuous. But what is life without hyperbole?
Since the beginning of April, we've completely cut out sugar to see if it helps me to kick my migraines and makes us generally crazy healthy super humans that annoy everyone with their preachy healthy ways on Instagram. Sadly, migraines are still very much here, but other than that, we have had a lot more energy so we're sticking to our guns and avoiding sugar anyway. Plus, at the end of the month, we can say we didn't eat sugar for a month! Not something either of us could have ever said in the past. It's not that hard, so why not stick to it? Except of course when there's dessert on the line! Then it is very freaking hard.
We can have fruit, which is great but you know, it's also fruit. Only crazy people eat a piece of fruit and call that a satisfying dessert. So I did some experimenting in the kitchen and came up with these delicious (and healthy!) peanut butter cups. They're made with extra dark chocolate and regular PB2. If you don't know what PB2 is, and you're on a diet, prepare to receive some of the best news of your life. PB2 is powdered peanut butter that has like a bajillion less calories than regular peanut butter. It clocks in at 50 calories per 2 Tbsp serving with only 1.5g of fat and 2g of sugar (OK, so it has some sugar but come on, we're not saints. Plus 2g is basically 0g. Trust me, I'm a scientist, I know how math works.)
They're quick and easy to make. Plus they're fun because you'll probably spill a tiny bit of chocolate on your fingers as you make them which is like free bonus chocolate (aka the best chocolate)! So give them a shot. Each one clocks in at about 80 calories, depending on how much chocolate you use. Plus, they're hearty as heck so one peanut butter cup is actually very satisfying. You don't need any special equipment to make these, either!
Chocolate PB2 Cups
8 oz dark chocolate (70-85%)
10 Tbsp regular PB2 powder
5 Tbsp water
16 mini muffin liners
1. Set up a double boiler and melt down your chocolate, stirring regularly with a silicone spatula.
2. Mix PB2 powder and water in a bowl, put in freezer.
3. Once chocolate is melted, use the spatula to place some in each of your muffin liners to make the bottom portion of the PB2 Cups. Place these in freezer to harden.
4. Wait 5 minutes while everything firms up then take it all out of the freezer
5. With a spoon (or let's be real, with your fingers) make little PB2 balls and place each ball on top of the chocolate in your muffin liners.
6. Decision time! If you want your PB2 cups to have a big bump on top, you can leave the balls as is. Or if you want them to have the more classic peanut butter cup flat top style, push the balls down flat. It can help to put them back in the freezer for another five minutes so the PB2 stiffens up again and is easier to flatten without sticking to your fingers.
7. Use the spatula or a spoon to pour more chocolate on top of the PB2 until it's covered.
8. Put in the freezer 5 minutes to stiffen, then move to the fridge for storage. This chocolate was not tempered, so it will melt faster than your typical bonbon, hence the fridge storage suggestion. If you want to temper the chocolate (I'll cover this in a later post), doing so will add more steps to your PB2 cup making process, but will make the cups look shiny and be more temperature stable.
Enjoy your delicious PB2 cups healthily! and heartily!
