Chocolate Almond Butter Cups

~Amanda~

Chocolate is my number one favorite food in the world, hands down. It’s almost impossible for me to resist and I hardly go a day without eating it (doing the Whole30, my biggest struggle is always giving up chocolate)! When Halloween rolls around every year, I am so tempted by all the delicious candy in stores. But rather than eating all that processed store bought stuff that has way too many ingredients in it, I like to make my own treats to indulge in. Homemade treats taste just as good, or even better than store bought and because you have control over every ingredient that goes in them you know they’re not so awful for you and then they’re that much more enjoyable to eat – but in moderation, I have to remind myself of this often. 

My favorite candy is a delicious chocolate peanut butter cup! The combination of chocolate and peanut butter is absolutely heavenly to me – Jaclyn on the other hand will not even eat them! This is by fat the biggest difference between the two of us, I have to sometimes wonder what is wrong with her, who doesn’t love these?! 😉 Chocolate Peanut Butter cups are amazing, but when I make them at home, I like to switch it up and use almond butter instead. There are so many articles debating whether peanut butter or almond butter is better for you; I think there are great benefits to both, but some research does show almonds are the most nutritionally dense nut (for every calorie consumed, you are getting more vitamins and minerals when you eat almonds than other nuts out there). For my purposes here, I use almond butter because it’s something different than the peanut butter cups in normally buy in the store and I love the flavor!

Another reason I love these homemade Chocolate Almond Butter Cups so much; coconut! I add unsweetened shredded coconut and coconut oil to my ingredient mix. The shredded coconut adds great texture to the almond butter mixture, and a hint of coconut flavor. You can hardly taste it, but for me, it makes all the difference and I love it. The coconut oil really helps everything hold it’s shape and stay firm when chilled. I also add in a little honey and some salt (sweet and salty is key) and these cups are ready. They are simply amazing and will not last very long – speaking from experience.