Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups

These popped up on preventionrd's blog a few days ago and came in handy the other day when Eleanor was in the mood for something a tiny bit sweet...but she was on a sugar taper.  For the uninitiated, it is a decreased consumption of sugar as part of readying yourself for a swim meet.  It isn't too different from an athletic taper....where the base is built for an event and then there is a decrease to give the body a rest prior to a big race.  The sugar taper is just a decrease in the consumption.  It's probably a bit more mental than physical, but that's OK.

Anyway, we were both craving ice cream on a hot day.  Since that would be a bit too sugar-laden we made these instead.  Ah....slightly sweet.  Two of these seemed to fill our cold sugar craving without being too sweet.

I did not have coconut oil so I did a hybrid of canola and melted butter for the oil.  Also, I do use stevia to sweeten hot tea; however, I substituted sugar by using 1 T sugar for the packet of stevia.  That's a bit less sweet than conversion charts would recommend but was perfect for us.

Healthy-Enough-For-Breakfast Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups(Adapted slightly from Lisa’s recipe for Double Peanut Butter Chocolate Cups on Thrive Style and adapted by preventionrd and adapted by me!)

Yields 12 chocolate peanut butter cups

Bottom Layer:

2 T canola oil and melted butter (1 T each)

1/4 c smooth peanut butter

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

2 T sugar 

Line a mini muffin tray with paper liners.  Stir all ingredients together until smooth and divide between the mini muffin wells (each should be about half full).  (Try not to dribble on the sides since it will give your candy a streaked look.)  Put the tray in the freezer on a flat surface and freeze until solid (about 15 minutes, give or take a little while depending how cold your freezer is).

Top Layer:

2 T melted butter and canola oil to equal total

1/4 cup smooth peanut butter

1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla 

1 T sugar

Stir all ingredients together until smooth and divide on top of the set chocolate mixture.  Transfer back to the freezer and freeze until partially solid (about 5 minutes),   Return to the freezer and freeze until solid.

Store the treats in the fridge in an air-tight container between layers of wax paper.

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