Valentine’s Day is just around the corner. Holidays with SIBO can be super tricky, especially when the holiday is centered around food and candy. To help keep you on track on your SIBO diet, yet allow you to indulge in the decadent and chocolate-centric holiday I thought I would share my Peanut Butter Cups recipe with you.
This recipe comes from the Extra Treat recipes section in my smoothie ebook. I have a super scrumptious “chocolate” peanut butter cup smoothie recipe that accompanies these treats. So if you like these you should buy my book!
For these Peanut Butter Cups the “chocolate” is made with raw cacao powder and the peanut butter is sweetened with honey. Almond butter is easily substituted for the peanut butter in this recipe for a more friendly bi-phasic diet version.
Raw cacao powder is often labeled simply as “cacao” powder. Cacao is the raw form of cocoa which we commonly know as the main ingredient in chocolate. Cacao powder is made from cold pressed cacao beans while cocoa is made from roasted cacao beans. Because cacao has not undergone roasting at high temperatures it retains the antioxidants and nutrients in the beans. Thus cacao powder contains more nutrients and is often considered a superfood.
Peanut butter cups are really easy to make. Simply add some honey and vanilla to peanut butter and mix together. Then create a melted chocolate out of SIBO-friendly cacao powder (I recently bought mine at Costco but also love this kind on Amazon), coconut oil, and honey. Next place a gob of the melted chocolate into each cup in a silicon mini cup tray (mine is just like this one) and spread the chocolate around the bottom and up the sides. Then drop a small dollop of the peanut butter honey mixture and smooth over the top with more chocolate. Because the “chocolate” is created using cacao powder, the melted chocolate can be a little grainy, especially when it begins to cool. So be sure to move quickly once you are assembling the cups or place the chocolate back onto the stove to melt until smooth partway through assembly. Once you have all of your peanut butter cup assembled place the tray in the freezer for at least 20 minutes to solidify. Store in the ridge or freezer as these will get pretty melty at room temperature.
As we know very well, serving size with SIBO is all of the difference between symptoms and no symptoms, so using a mini silicon cup mold for the peanut butter cups is a must. While you could create this recipe with a large cup mold, it is easier to control serving size and prevent symptoms with the smaller tray. For this recipe I get 25-30 mini peanut butter cups that store extra well in the freezer. Stored in the freezer you can grab one for a quick and tasty treat.
Peanut Butter Cups
Ingredients
For the peanut butter center
- 1/4 cup pure creamy peanut butter
- 2 tsp honey
- 1/4 tsp pure vanilla extract
For the “chocolate”
- 4 Tbs coconut oil
- 4 Tbs honey
- 1/2 cup raw cacao powder
- 1/8 tsp pure vanilla extract
Instructions
In a small bowl mix the peanut butter, 2 teaspoons of honey and 1/4 tsp of vanilla with a whisk and set aside.
In a small sauce pan melt the coconut oil and remaining honey over low heat.
Add the cacao powder and whisk until smooth.
Add the remaining vanilla and mix well creating a melted chocolate.
Remove from heat.
Using a small spoon, scoop a small amount of the melted chocolate into each cup in a silicon mini-cup candy tray. Scrape chocolate up the sides of the cups.
Scoop a small bit of the peanut butter mixture into each cup containing chocolate.
Add enough melted chocolate over the top to cover the peanut butter and fill the cup completely.
Once the entire tray is complete, place the tray full of melty peanut butter cups into the freezer for at least 20 minutes to harden.
When the peanut butter cups have solidified, remove from the freezer and individually pop the peanut butter cups out of the tray.
Store in the fridge or freezer until ready to serve.
