Raw Peanut Butter Cups - Veganized!

I saw a recipe for Raw Peanut Butter cups (think Reese's!) pop up in my news feed on Facebook a couple of weeks back.  I figured it was worth a try!  First, I had to get a couple of the ingredients because I don't normally keep them on hand.  They're really quite easy to make though!

You'll need 1/2 cup cacao powder, 1/4 cup coconut oil (I had to heat mine up a tad to liquefy it), 1/4 cup pure maple syrup, 1/4 cup all natural organic peanut butter (or any nut butter of your choice), and 12 mini-cupcake wrappers (the size of the bite size Reese wrappers!).

Mix the cacao powder, coconut oil and maple syrup in a bowl until it's a smooth consistency.  You may need to heat your coconut oil to liquefy it (because I don't care how much you "mix", you're never going to get that hard pressed coconut oil to liquefy without a little heat).  Scoop the cacao "chocolate" mix into the bottom of each of the 12 wrappers.  Layer a scoop of the natural peanut butter on top, then top with a scoop of the chocolate mixture and smooth out on the top.  Immediately place these into the freezer and let them set for at least an hour.

I may have placed a little too much chocolate mixture into the bottoms of the wrappers, because I ran out of the chocolate for the top layer.  Mine were nowhere near as good looking at the photo I saw on the recipe (which you can find HERE), but I'm pretty sure the taste was the same.

Even if yours turn out as ugly as mine did, don't let that deter you from trying them!  Mine sat in the freezer for two and a half days before I worked up the "courage" to try them.  OhMyGoodness!  They were BETTER than the store bought peanut butter cups!!  My kids loved these too, and they were super easy to make!