If you were already a fan of peanut butter cups, you're going to love this Candida Diet friendly alternative. In fact, these almond butter cups are so delicious you won't believe they're sugar free!
I love this no-bake chocolate treat – it’s easy to make, tastes delicious and best of all can be enjoyed in next to no time at all!
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🥣 Instructions
These almond butter cups are so simple to make and will be ready to enjoy in next to no time!
The only piece of “equipment” (if you can call it that) you’ll need are ultra mini cupcake cases, otherwise known as Petit Fours cases. They are around 30mm in diameter and 20mm tall. This is the secret to achieving the classic cup shape.
The bottom layer of the cups is as simple as using a layer of almond butter. Be sure to use 100% almond butter with no added sugar or oils. You can add a pinch of salt to your almond butter; however, I prefer to keep things simple in this recipe with an unsalted version.
Next you will need to add the chocolate topping. To avoid the added sugars and emulsifiers usually found in packaged chocolate, we will be making our own sweet yet sugar free chocolate topping.
I use a ratio of 2:1 for these cups, which means that we need double the amount of almond butter to chocolate topping.
If you are not following a Candida Diet protocol, then you can simply melt your favourite dark chocolate to use instead.
The trick to assembling your cups is to make sure that you have placed your Petit Fours cases on a plate, baking tray or chopping board. This is so that they can be easily lifted and popped into the freezer once filled and prevents them from spilling over when lifted!
📋 Ingredients
To make your Candida Diet friendly chocolate you will need the following ingredients:
Organic Cold Pressed Coconut Oil
Coconut oil is going to form the base of our chocolate. Coconut in all its forms is a fantastic addition to a Candida Diet. It is a good source of calories on an otherwise high fibre, low carbohydrate diet.
Plus, coconut has fantastic anti-fungal properties to help in the treatment of Candida. It also tastes much better in chocolate than garlic in my opinion 😉
Although you will notice a subtle coconut flavour, it is nowhere near as strong as you would imagine, and is easily masked by the cacao powder.
Just bear in mind that because the melting point of coconut oil is quite low, it means that our finished chocolate almond butter cups will not be able to be stored at room temperature.
Raw Organic Cacao Powder
Next on the list is cacao powder. This needs to be the unsweetened 100% cacao variety. Cacao is rich in several micro-nutrients including potassium, magnesium, iron, zinc and copper. Did you know it is also a plant-based source of protein?
And if you’re wondering what the difference is between cacao powder and regular cocoa powder. And no, it’s not just a typo. Cacao is in fact the less processed version of the bean, so will retain more of its nutrients. Therefore, if your budget allows, try and opt for cacao powder. It can be used in a wide variety of recipes and a little really does go a long way!
In fact, I have a recipe for Sugar Free Hot Chocolate that uses cacao powder. You can find it here.
Coconut Flour
This acts a bit like an emulsifier to help to incorporate the xylitol. It also gives the chocolate a bit more of a bite, and offsets the oily texture of the coconut oil.
You can buy coconut flour easily in the baking aisle of most supermarkets. Did you know you can also make your own coconut flour at home?
Check out my post about how to make Homemade Coconut Milk Using Desiccated Coconut where coconut flour is one of the bi-products! Winner!
Pure Vanilla Powder
Our next ingredient is vanilla powder. The addition of vanilla is surprisingly important. You assume that most of the flavour of chocolate comes from the cacao, but the vanilla actually plays quite a major role in the softly sweet flavour!
You will want to use a vanilla product that is alcohol and sugar free. This can be surprisingly difficult to find, however, so I like to make my own instead. You can find the recipe for my zero waste vanilla powder here.
Roasted Almond Butter
Finally, we have the almond butter which will be the base of the cups. I like to use roasted over raw for a subtle toasted flavour. It should be easy enough to drizzle fresh almond butter into the cases, however, if your almond butter has gone too hard to handle, keep reading for the solution!
How to Make Almond Butter Runny Again
It’s much easier to have runnier almond butter that you can easily pour into the Petit Fours cases.
But what if your almond butter has gone hard?
Almond butter can solidify slightly in the fridge because of the cold. It can also harden because of natural oil separation. The almond oils tend to sit at the top of the jar, so unless it is well combined each time you tuck in, you may be left with a less oily (and thus harder) serving when you get to the bottom of the jar.
Don’t panic though! Your almond butter can still be revived to be used in this recipe!
Simply add your almond butter to a hot water bath. To do this, add your almond butter to a bowl, and then place this bowl into a larger bowl filled partially with hot water. Heating the almond butter up slightly will help to soften it and make it runny again.
If your almond butter is REALLY hard, however, you could try re-blending the almond butter with some extra coconut oil.
Xylitol
Our sweetener of choice here is xylitol. Xylitol is a natural sweetener that is usually derived from birch trees. In moderation, and if well tolerated, it can be safely included in a Candida Diet protocol because it is completely sugar free.
You can find xylitol in the baking aisle of most supermarkets and health food stores alongside other sweeteners. It is normally found granulated and has an equal sweetness to regular sugar.
❓ How to Make Powdered Xylitol
So that we can create a smooth texture to the chocolate, we will first powder the xylitol using a mini blender, coffee grinder or pestle and mortar.
You don’t have to do this step, but if you don’t, you will find the xylitol easily separates in the melted chocolate, and it will be more difficult to evenly distribute the sweetness.
You can either make up enough powdered xylitol for this recipe, or you can create a bigger batch of powdered xylitol to store in the same way as you would granulated for future recipes. If you do this, I recommend creating batches on the smaller side, however, as the powdered sugar will stick together over time.
Whether you use granulated xylitol or powdered xylitol, know that the quantities used need to be adjusted accordingly. Please make note of the following substitution:
1 tablespoon of granulated xylitol = 1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon powdered xylitol
OR
3 teaspoon of granulated xylitol = 4 teaspoon powdered xylitol
🥡 Storage
Although the chocolate layer will easily set in the refrigerator, the almond butter base will still remain too soft to remove from the case. Therefore, these treats are best kept frozen so as to retain their shape.
Once set (in as little as 15 minutes!), these cups can be enjoyed straight from the freezer, and they will still be deliciously soft. Alternatively, you can remove them from the freezer a couple of minutes before you want to enjoy them, however, note that they will melt quite quickly.
I hope you love this recipe as much as I do! Let me know if you give it a try!
Did you make this recipe?
Please let me know how it turned out for you! Be sure to rate and leave a comment below, and tag @anti_candida_kitchen on Instagram with the hashtag #anticandidakitchen. Happy cooking!
Sugar Free Chocolate Almond Butter Cups
Equipment
- 24 Petit Fours cases
Ingredients
- For the chocolate topping (makes around 60g chocolate):
- 25 g organic cold pressed coconut oil
- 20 g raw organic cacao powder
- 10 g coconut flour
- 2 teaspoon powdered xylitol or ½ tablespoon granulated xylitol
- ½ teaspoon pure vanilla powder
- For the base:
- 120 g roasted almond butter
Instructions
- For the chocolate:
- Blend the xylitol into a powder using a small blender or food processor, coffee grinder, or pestle and mortar.
- Add the coconut oil, cacao powder, coconut flour, powdered xylitol and vanilla powder to a bowl.
- Place the bowl over a larger bowl filled with freshly boiled water - you will need enough water to surround the smaller bowl, but not so much that it will go inside.
- Slowly stir the ingredients as the heat from the boiled water melts the coconut oil.
- Once the mixture is smooth, set aside.
- For the almond butter base:
- Place 24 Petit Fours cases onto a tray or plate - this step is important as it will be difficult to pick the cases up once the fillings have been added!
- Evenly distribute the almond butter into each case - this will be around 1 teaspoon each.
- Once all of the cases have their almond butter base, top them up with the liquid chocolate mixture.
- Next, add your plate or baking tray to the freezer to set the cups for at least 15 minutes.
- When the cups are completely frozen, they can be removed from their cases (if desired) and stored in an airtight container.
- The cups need to be stored in the freezer (not the refrigerator) in order to maintain their shape. Consume within a few weeks.
Notes
Last step! If you make this recipe, will you do me a huge favour and leave a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ review letting me know what you thought? It really helps! Thanks for your support!!
Disclaimer: Nutritional info is approximate and for general guidance only. Unit conversions are automatically generated and may not be accurate.
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Did you make this recipe? Let me know!