This old fashioned peanut butter cup recipe by Mindy’s Meals on Heels is a new favorite of mine. The chocolate cups garnished with almonds are a naturally gluten free treat to take with you when you need to bring something to a party. Not only are all the ingredients relatively easy to find, but the old fashioned peanut butter cups are actually quite elegant once they are taken out of the paper liners. With natural peanut butter, I recommend decreasing the amount of sugar a little because my peanut mixture was a little too crumbly.
To make Mindy’s recipe gluten and dairy free, I would use:
- 1 cup organic peanut butter
- 3/4 cup confectioners sugar
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons Spectrum shortening or Earth Balance soy free spread
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 2 cups of Enjoy Life chocolate chips
- 1/4 cup Spectrum shortening or Earth Balance soy free spread
Click here to go to Mindy’s website and see the full directions and the original ingredients.
The first time I made these, I wanted to have chocolate on the bottom as well as the top, but actually they taste better if you just put a spoonful of the peanut butter with chocolate on top, as directed in the original recipe. Once they firm up in the refrigerator, you don’t notice that there isn’t chocolate on the bottom, because they are so rich and satisfying. With chocolate on the bottom, they are too sweet.
Mindy’s Meals on Heels is a great website full of inspiring recipes. Check out her seasonal fall recipes–especially the Thanksgiving Feast. I plan on trying out gluten free, dairy free versions of these recipes in the coming weeks in preparation for Thanksgiving. I had the pleasure of meeting Mindy while planning an upcoming event for Harvest Home Farmer’s Market. She brought samples of her old fashioned peanut butter cups and they were a huge hit.