RAW VEGAN PEANUT BUTTER & CHOCOLATE BUTTER CREAM CUPS

I know. They sound amazing. They look orgasmic. But guess what - they taste EVEN BETTER. Plus: gifs. I was having a busy afternoon in the kitchen a couple days, whipping up a raw vegan cake (which will be coming soon, don't ya worry babe), and I ended up with an extra container of raw vegan chocolate "butter cream". I don't usually like calling my recipes after their non-vegan conventional counterparts BUT in this case, this recipe ACTUALLY tastes just like chocolate butter cream... but of course it's vastly superior because it's cruelty-free and HEALTHY. So much caps lock today. What's goin' on.

Hey, guys. Back to the story, you're getting me off topic. I ended up with all this extra chocolate frosting - not the worst problem in the world (in fact, it's probably the greatest) but I still had to figure out what to do with it. I also promised my lover that I'd bring them some kind of chocolate delight when I saw them the next day. I decided to make inside-out Reeses cups. Yeah, man. It's happening. It HAPPENED.

For the filling, as I hope you already surmised, I used my *famous* chocolate butter cream recipe (it's not truly famous, but I just love it a lot so it's a celeb in my world). To make the outside of the cups, I combined tahini (sesame seed butter) with peanut butter and coconut oil. The coconut oil allows the nut/seed butter to become solid when refrigerated. Heh heh heh - I'm so clever. Not really but this is what I tell myself in order to get up every day; the sunshine and chirping birds help too. The final result is simply to-die-for. I mean I'd seriously consider sacrificing my own life so more people could get this in their mouths. The thing is: I cannot fathom in what world I would have to die so people could eat chocolate... that makes zero sense. And thank goodness! This means we can all shove these things in our faces, mouthgasm into nirvana and still LIIIVE. Yesssss.

RAW VEGAN PEANUT BUTTER & CHOCOLATE BUTTER CREAM CUPS  

Filling:
This chocolate butter cream recipe.

Outside:
3 tablespoons coconut oil
3 tablespoon peanut butter 
3 tablespoons tahini 

Note: you can use whatever nut/seed butter(s) you want. Also: try to be patient and let the butter cream sit in the fridge overnight, it becomes exactly 1 million times more amazing.

Stir the outside layer ingredients together in a bowl over steaming water until melted and combined. Pour 1/3 of this into the bottoms of cupcake papers and try to get some around the sides. Freeze until solid. Pour a little more around the sides and freeze until solid again. Fill with the butter cream then cover with the remaining nut/seed butter mixture. Freeze for 10-30 minutes then GOBBLE. 

reeses pie

this is really yummy and pretty darn healthy. it's not raw because it has tofu, but hey, in my books - tofu is A-OK. the crust is mostly peanuts and as you can see the filling is chocolate, so it's like a giant reeses peanut butter cup!

sorry the pictures aren't very good today... long story short, my camera has been stolen! along with many other valuables. i guess that's why you don't leave important possessions in your car when you go camping in the wilderness. lesson learned.

here's some lovely music to stream while you make this pie. the album is brand new and beautiful.

reeses peanut butter chocolate pie: makes one pie

crust:

1 cup peanuts

1 cup walnuts

1 cup dates

1 tablespoon peanut butter (if needed)

filling:

1 package firm tofu

2 tablespoons honey/agave/maple syrup

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/8 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons cocoa

1 1/2 cups vegan chocolate chips (or broken up chocolate bars)

to make the crust, blend all the ingredients together in your food processor until it forms a crumbly ball. press into a pie plate and refrigerate. to make the filling, melt the chocolate, then blend all ingredients together until smooth. spoon the filling into the crust and let it chill for an hour or two. this is good with bananas... but isn't everything?

bananas, peanut butter & chocolate - OH MY!

I've learned that I'm definitively addicted to kale chips and exercise, and in the past two days I've realized the combination of peanut butter, chocolate and banana is also a substance I cannot resist. That's right - today I have made MORE peanut butter cups for you (see my other recipes here, here, and here)... enjoy.

SIDE NOTE: This is my 100th post! Hurraw!

I don't know what it is... but all those components together create something so beautiful, delicious, perfect... so right. Peanuts are chocolate's best friend. Somehow they taste better together than chocolate does with any other nut or seed butter. I guess they're soul mates? When I made PB cups two days ago they were amazing (duh) but I had an epiphany. "Why don't I add banana to this!?" So I did.

Yes. I put a slice of banana in these peanut butter cups. 

You know it's genius. 
-

This recipe isn't raw, but you can make it so really easily. Just use raw peanut butter and chocolate! Pretty simple. I have cashew butter so I used some of that along with PB (I have jungle peanuts but I wanna use my cashew butter up before I make raw PB), and I don't have any raw chocolate currently so I used the dark Lindt we have. Mmm.

Jungle Peanut Butter Cups: makes 2-3, they're really big

1 bar dark/raw chocolate

1/3 cup raw nut butter/jungle peanut butter (I used a mix of PB and raw cashew butter)

1 sliced banana

Melt 2/3 of the chocolate and cover the inside of pliable cupcake molds with it. Refrigerate until they're hardened. Now spoon 1/2 the nut butter into each one and layer on a slice of banana. Put on the rest of the nut butter. Melt the rest of the chocolate and pour on top of the cups. Garnish with a jungle peanut, coconut flakes, or a goji berry if you have it. Perdy. Refrigerate until they're solid, take them out of the molds, eat! 

peanut butter cups... gone wild!

Get it? Because they have no tops. Ha-ha. I should really spend more time developing my comedic talents, and less time making peanut butter and chocolate concoctions.

On second thought... bad idea. PB and chocolate always comes first. Last night I was thinking of ways to use the raw mesquite powder my parents got me for x-mas (buy it here). It has a light flavour of cinnamon and cocoa. I love chocolate, and I add cinnamon to everything, so it's perfect for me!

I decided to make peanut butter cups. But of course, forgetful me... I spooned out all the chocolate mix for the bottoms, and had none left for the tops. Woops. So they're wild and topless pb cups.

Deal with it.

They're still just as delicious and comforting as regular ones. And WAAAY more nutritious than Reeses.
To compare, here's the ingredients in a Reeses:

Milk Chocolate (Milk Chocolate contains Sugar, Cocoa Butter, Chocolate, Nonfat Milk, Milk Fat, Lactose, and Soya Lecithin and PGPR (as Emulsifiers), Peanuts, Sugar, Dextrose, Salt, and TBHQ and Citric Acid (to Preserve Freshness) ---> Freshness??? What's fresh here?!

Here's the ingredients and recipe for MY "Reeses", enjoy, guilt-free! 
(Aside from the PB, they're raw. If you can afford raw jungle peanuts, go for it!)

topless peanut butter cups: makes about 10 normal or 25 small

chocolate:

4 Tb cacao

2 Tb raw mesquite 

1/4 cup melted coconut oil

1/4 cup agave or maple syrup 

Pinch of salt

1 t vanilla extract

3-4 dates, if you want

peanut butter: 

3/4 natural peanut butter (I make my own) - you can use other nut butters if you want

3 Tb agave, if you want

2 Tb nutritional yeast, if you want

NOTE: My "chocolate" ended up not being very hard, like real chocolate. Still mind-blowingly good, but if you want harder chocolate use more coconut oil and cacao/mesquite OR simply melted dark chocolate.

Blend all ingredients from first list together until you have a smooth, chocolate mixture... I couldn't stop eating it right out of the food processor. Spoon one teaspoon or so into the bottom of several cupcake papers, until you run out. Set aside.

Mix the PB, agave and nooch (if using) and then put a dollop of that onto each of the chocolate bottoms. Stick 'em in the fridge for a few hours and then serve! YEAH BABY!