Vegan Peanut Butter Cups

Name: Vegan Peanut Butter Cups
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 60 min
Total time: 30 min
Ingredients: 2 1/4 cups vegan chocolate chips ((about a 14.5 ounce bag)); 1/2 cup peanut butter ((or any nut/seed butter)); 1 teaspoon coconut oil; flakey sea salt ((optional))

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These are the best Vegan Peanut Butter Cups. They only require 3 simple ingredients and take less than 30 minutes to make.

Close up macro image of Vegan Peanut Butter Cups stacked on top eachother.

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Why you will love this recipe
Ingredients
Variations
How to make these Vegan Peanut Butter Cups
Expert Tips
Recipe FAQs
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Vegan Peanut Butter Cups

Why you will love this recipe

Quick and Easy: Homemade Vegan Peanut Butter Cups only needing 3 ingredients that you possibly have on hand in your kitchen right now, taking less than 30 minutes to make.
Perfect taste: These Vegan Peanut Butter Cups wake up your tastebuds with indulgent chocolate that’s sweet and delicious alone but adding peanut butter giving it a creamy nutty flavor makes it a very satisfying chocolate cup.
Excellent treat: Peanut Butter and chocolate is one of those treats you’ll want more than just one of, it’s creamy peanut butter and that rich chocolaty cover is a melt in your mouth satisfaction.
Vegan: It's the perfect dessert for all occasions and it’s a favorite of mine, its quick and easy to make, fast clean up and you’ve got yourself a perfect chocolate vegan peanut butter cup that tastes amazing.

If you love no bake desserts try my other vegan no bake recipes like these Chocolate Peanut Clusters, Chocolate Coconut Haystacks, Coconut Cookie Bites, Vegan Fudge and Caramel Coconut Donut Holes. Or if you just like easy vegan dessert try my crumble recipes, Vegan Apple Crumble, Apple and Blackberry Crumble and Blueberry Apple Crumble.

Ingredients

For a full list if ingredients and quantities to make these Vegan Peanut Butter Cups be sure to check the recipe card below.

Cupcake Liners: Don't skip these unless you are using a silicone mole other wise you will not be able to remove them from the muffin tin.
Peanut Butter: I like to use creamy peanut butter but feel free to use all natural if you prefer. You can also swap for any nut or seed butter you like best.
Coconut Oil: Keeps the chocolate smooth.
Vegan Chocolate Chips: I like Enjoy Life or Tollhouse plant based chocolate.

Variations

Perfect dessert or treat: Be sure to have extras on hand for a quick grab anytime of the day. These delicious vegan chocolate peanut butter cups are a perfect quick treat, snack or after meal dessert.
Chopped nuts: Rich chocolate and peanut butter are excellent together but if you like a little crunch you can add chopped nuts like pecans, almonds, walnuts or others nuts you like generally added to the creamy center but you could sprinkle chopped nuts on top or mixed into the chocolate. Be sure to chop them very finely.
Size: You can definitely adjust the size of these cups, if you’d like smaller bite sized cups and you’ve got a mini tin to use get mini cupcake liners and adjust the amounts of chocolate and peanut butter you put in each liner. Also if you have a king size cup cake pan you can certainly make some king size cups of course you’d need to probably triple the recipe.
Add to peanut butter: Yes, you can easily add into the creamy peanut butter mixing in other ingredients ranging from pretzels, candy like vegan "M&M’s" such as the UNREAL brand, cereals you like such as peanut butter puffs or rice puffs. This will definitely adjust the taste and texture but also give you a different Vegan Peanut Butter Cups (if you still want vegan be sure ingredients you add are vegan).
Nut butter: If you’d like you can swap the peanut butter for almond butter, cashew butter, walnut butter, pecan butter, hazelnut butter or even sunflower butter, just know that any swap will change the taste and texture of these Vegan Peanut Butter Cups and they obviously won't be peanut butter centered flavor any more.
Change up the chocolate: Yes you can change the vegan chocolate chips to vegan white chocolate chips or any other type of chocolate you’d like, possibly even dark chocolate and you can mix the chocolates to make a swirl. But if you’d like it to still be a vegan cup be sure your grabbing vegan chips. Yes this will change the taste to the type of chocolate you use.

How to make these Vegan Peanut Butter Cups

Prep: Line 9 muffin tin holes with cupcake liners.

Glass bowl with vegan chocolate chips and coconut oil ready to be melted.

Step 1: In a microwave safe bowl add the vegan chocolate chips and coconut oil. Melt in the microwave in 15 second intervals stirring each time until completely melted and smooth. You can also melt on the stove top if you prefer.

Smooth melted chocolate!

Bottom layer of chocolate added to the cupcake liners.

Step 2: Using a small spoon, spoon a small scoop into the bottom of each cupcake liner and use the back of the spoon to coat the bottom and about halfway up the sides. Place in the freezer to set for about 5 minutes.

Peanut butter added to the cupcake liners.

Step 3: Scoop about 1 tablespoon of peanut butter into each cup and smooth it out evenly, if the peanut butter is too hard you can microwave it until it melts and gets smooth.

Top layer of chocolate added to the Vegan Peanut Butter Cups.

Step 4: Coat the tops of them all with the remainder of the chocolate and sprinkle with flakey seat salt if you desire.

Flaky sea salt added to the top of the Vegan Peanut Butter Cups.

Step 5: Place in the freezer to set, about 15 more minutes. Store in the fridge for 1 week or freezer 1 month.

Expert Tips

Keep Extras: Amazing Vegan Peanut Butter Cups I like to keep some on hand for a quick tasty afternoon snack or a treat, like a after dinner desert. They stay good in the freezer for 1 month (sometimes longer if stored properly and they don't get freezer burnt).
Customization: You can easily adjust some of these 3 ingredients in this recipe, yes any change you make will affect the flavor and texture of these chocolate cups but changing the size, changing the vegan chocolate chips to another different vegan chocolate, adding ingredients to the creamy peanut butter, changing the nut butter or adding your favorite cereal should work out well.
Stays fresh for days: These peanut butter cups stay delicious for 1 week in the fridge in a container and 1 month in the freezer in a sealed container.
Directions freeze cups: Follow recipe directions closely, its important to freeze these cups more than 1 time as directed so your able to get these cups layered together correctly and they don’t smear together.
Anytime of the day: Nothing better than these Vegan Peanut Butter Cups any time of the day, as a quick tasty afternoon snack/treat or an evening after dinner desert.
Don't overfill: Be sure you don’t overfill your cup liners, it may look like you’ve got lots more room to add extra chocolate on that first layer fill but don’t because you’ll be adding two more layers, when using full size cupcake liners you'll only be filling them half ways with this recipe. (you can double the recipe for thicker peanut butter cupcs)

Recipe FAQs

Why do vegans not eat peanut butter?

Vegans do eat peanut butter but they check the ingredients closely. Some brands of peanut butter do use ingredients that some vegans will not eat, a few items are cane sugar, honey and the facility it’s made at isn’t on a non-vegan production line with the risk of cross contamination.

Can peanut butter be eaten on a plant-based diet?

Yes peanut butter is a powerful plant food. If you are vegan you do need to read the ingredients label on the peanut butter though because some peanut butter has ingredients in it that are not vegan based.

Can you get dairy free peanut butter?

Most peanut butter is dairy free, but there are some specialty peanut butters that may contain dairy so always read the ingredients label.

Four Vegan Peanut Butter Cups stacked o top each other sitting on a marble table.

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Vegan Peanut Butter Cups

These are the best Vegan Peanut Butter Cups. They only require 3 simple ingredients and take less than 30 minutes to make.

5 from 5 votes

Print Pin Rate

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Diet: Vegan, Vegetarian

Prep Time: 10

Cook Time: 1

freezing: 20

Total Time: 30

Servings:

Calories: 320kcal

Author: Michele

Ingredients

▢ 2 ¼ cups vegan chocolate chips (about a 14.5 ounce bag)
▢ ½ cup peanut butter (or any nut/seed butter)
▢ 1 teaspoon coconut oil
▢ flakey sea salt (optional)

Instructions

Line 9 muffin tin holes with cupcake liners.
In a microwave safe bowl add the vegan chocolate chips and coconut oil. Melt in the microwave in 15 second intervals stirring each time until completely melted and smooth. You can also melt on the stove top if you prefer.
Using a small spoon, spoon a small scoop into the bottom of each cupcake liner and use the back of the spoon to coat the bottom and about halfway up the sides.
Place in the freezer to set for about 5 minutes.
Scoop about 1 tablespoon of peanut butter into each cup and smooth it out evenly, if the peanut butter is too hard you can microwave it until it melts and gets smooth.
Coat the tops of them all with the remainder of the chocolate and sprinkle with flakey seat salt if you desire.
Place in the freezer to set, about 15 more minutes. Store in the fridge for 1 week or freezer 1 month.