Almond Butter Cups with Sea Salt (Vegan, GF, & Paleo)

1/25/2021

Almond Butter Cups with Sea Salt (Vegan, GF, & Paleo)

Anyone who knows me, knows my love for sweets. I mean just take a look at the Desserts section of my recipe box - it's 2 or 3 times longer than any other recipe category. I truly LOVE desserts. They bring so much happiness to my life, and my day just feels incomplete without a little something sweet. But I also realize that eating a whole bunch of sugar every day isn't ideal for our health, so my strategy has always been to create healthy modifications to my favorite treats. That way, we never feel deprived, and we can satisfy our sweet tooth without the sugar crash! ​

As many of you know, I'm currently in school to be a nutritionist, and I've had several assignments of putting together meal plans for clients. My meal plans always include something sweet because I want it to be realistic for my client, and I believe they should be able to enjoy a dessert if they're really craving it. So I always provide an "approved" list of desserts (most are WNB recipes), and these Almond Butter Cups w/ Sea Salt definitely make the cut! Especially because the ingredients in these little cups have some serious health benefits. Let's talk about Cacao - it's is the purest form of chocolate (comes from the Cacao tree) and it's loaded with antioxidants, magnesium, iron, and potassium. Cacao powder is an amazing substitute for cocoa powder or processed chocolate because it gives you that delicious chocolate taste without the added sugar. Win win!

Ingredients
For the Chocolate coating:
1/2 cup + 2 tbsp cacao powder
1/2 cup (melted) extra virgin coconut oil
1/4 cup 100% pure maple syrup
Pinch of sea salt flakes (I use Maldon)

For the Filling: 
1/4 cup creamy almond butter (make sure there's no sugar added!)
1/2 tbsp melted extra virgin coconut oil
1 tsp 100% pure maple syrup
½ tsp vanilla extract

Yields 10-12 mini-muffin sized Almond Butter Cups

1. Line a mini muffin pan with paper liners.
2. Mix together all of the chocolate coating ingredients (except salt) and stir until smooth. 
3. Spoon about 1 tsp of the chocolate mixture into the muffin liners. Place in freezer for about ​10 minutes until hardened.
4. While chocolate is in the freezer, mix filling ingredients together. 
5. Remove pan from freezer and spoon about 1 tsp almond butter mixture in the center of each cup. Note: Make sure the almond butter is centered and isn't touching the liners too much so that you can fully pour chocolate over the filling.
6. Pour remaining chocolate into the cups, filling them enough to cover the almond butter. 
7. Sprinkle each cup with sea salt, then place in freezer for another 15 minutes before devouring. Store in the fridge or freezer.
   

How easy is that?? I'm literally eating one of right now and I'm the happiest girl in town. I know you'll love them as much as I do!