These are the best low carb peanut butter cups, with a sugar-free dark chocolate shell and a creamy peanut butter center. You won’t believe they are good for you! The best keto peanut butter cup recipe.
Peanut butter is my Achilles heel. It’s my weakness, my downfall, my greatest temptation. It is like crack to me, the more I have, the more I want. An open jar of peanut butter in the cupboard is a cruel torment, and I often have to physically restrain myself from digging in a spoon for yet another taste. This is only more true since I developed diabetes, since compared to other sugar-laden snacks, peanut butter is a relatively harmless treat. Not so harmless, however, when you are tempted to devour huge amounts in one sitting.
How To Make Low Carb Peanut Butter Cups
My go-to low carb dessert when I don’t have anything prepared is a single square of 90% cacao chocolate smeared with peanut butter. Peanut butter cups have long been one of my all-time favourite treats, and this is my way of getting a little bit of that heavenly flavor combination without totally falling off the wagon. But I’ve recently found myself yearning to have real peanut butter cups again, where the chocolate shell is a little softer, and the peanut butter center is a little sweeter. I’d made a low carb version quite some time ago and they were good, but I found myself wondering if I could do better.
Now that there are so many great sugar-free chocolate options out there, I knew I could improve the shell of these keto peanut butter cups. But I thought I might also be able to improve the peanut butter center too. Instead of just plopping some peanut butter in straight from the jar, I wanted to make it somewhat sweeter and also add a touch of vanilla. I’ve found that vanilla seems to almost intensify the peanut-buttery goodness in desserts.
In the middle of making these, I also hit upon a way to make it easier on myself to get the peanut butter filling into the cups. In the past, I wanted to make the peanut butter stiffer, so it didn’t ooze out everywhere when you took a bite. But that makes it difficult to spread nicely into the prepared cups. So it suddenly occurred to me to melt the peanut butter before I stirred in the sweetener and the vanilla. That way, it was almost liquidy when I put it in, but firmed up nicely when chilled. Because I wanted them to look more like traditional peanut butter cups, I made them in some 1 1/2 inch candy papers I found at my local craft store, that had a plasticated inside so that they could hold their form when brushed with warm chocolate.
These were definitely everything I was hoping for, the perfect marriage of chocolate and peanut butter, without the sugar. They do need to be stored in the refrigerator, otherwise they get too melty. But they are heavenly and I won’t wait long to make them again.
UPDATE: I have updated this recipe to make it easier to make. The cups are also a little larger too. I had trouble finding the little candy cups I originally used so I just went with parchment paper muffin cups, which are a bit wider. I used Lily’s Dark Chocolate and a little cocoa butter for the coating instead of making my own chocolate shell. If you want the old shell recipe made with unsweetened chocolate, I have provided that below!
These are the best low carb peanut butter cups, easy to make with only 6 ingredients! You won't believe this keto treat is good for you!
- 6 ounces sugar free dark chocolate chopped
- 1/2 ounce cocoa butter
- 1/2 cup peanut butter
- 2 tbsp butter
- 1/4 cup powdered Swerve Sweetener
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
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Set 12 parchment or silicone muffin liners into a muffin pan.
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In a heatproof bowl set over barely simmering water, melt the chocolate and cocoa butter together, stirring until smooth.
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Use the back of a small spoon to spread about 1/2 of the chocolate mixture on the bottom and partway up the sides (about 1/4 of the way) of the prepared muffins liners. Freeze 10 minutes.
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In a microwave safe bowl, heat peanut butter and butter on high for 1 minute. Whisk in the powdered sweetener and vanilla extract.
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Remove chocolate cups from freezer and fill almost to the top with peanut butter mixture, leaving enough space to cover with remaining chocolate. Return to freezer for another 10 minutes or so.
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Rewarm remaining chocolate gently over low heat and stir until smooth. Spread over peanut butter filling to the sides of each cup. Chill until set, 20 minutes.
Makes 12. Each peanut butter cup 4.72g NET CARBS.
Food energy: 149kcal Total fat: 13.38g Calories from fat: 120 Cholesterol: 6mg Carbohydrate: 8.09g Total dietary fiber: 3.37g Protein: 3.12g
Old Chocolate Shell Recipe:
- Chocolate Coating:
- ¼ cup butter
- 3 oz unsweetened chocolate
- 2 tbsp powdered erythritol (I used Swerve)
- 2 tbsp cocoa powder
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/8 tsp liquid stevia extract
- In a small saucepan over low heat, melt butter, unsweetened chocolate and powdered erythritol together, stirring until smooth. Stir in cocoa powder, vanilla and stevia extract. Let cool 5 to 10 minutes, until somewhat thickened.
- Use back of small spoon to spread chocolate mixture on bottom and up sides of twelve 1 ½ inch plastic-lined candy cups or candy molds (whatever you use needs to be firm enough to stand up against the warm chocolate and not lose its shape). Place on baking sheet or platter and freeze until firm, about 20 minutes.
Karen LowCarbOneDay says
Definitely one of my favorites! I make my coating with coconut oil. That makes it healthy, right? LOL
Carolyn says
It’s all healthy, as long as there’s no sugar 😉
Katrina @ In Katrina's Kitchen says
Another stellar recipe! I miss peanut butter!!!
Carolyn says
Whaddya mean, you miss peanut butter! Are you no longer eating it???
Karen says
Oh my goodness, Carolyn. There’s not a thing I don’t love about these…I think I’d need to make a double batch at least!
shelly (cookies and cups) says
So these are basically diet food, right? I can totally diet on peanut butter cups for everrrr!
Carolyn says
Yes, it’s called the Peanut Butter and Chocolate Diet. I am right there with you!
[email protected] says
Yum! Great idea to add vanilla to the peanut butter filling!
Jennifer Eloff says
Wow – love this creative confection!
Cassie says
Oh, me too, Carolyn, PB is a weakness for me. I adore these too. How fun! I bet I would eat every last one.
JulieD says
Ooh sounds so good! Your pb cups look amazing! Love that you added vanilla too!
Meghan says
Have you ever used Somersweet? It’s the sugar substitute sold by Suzanne Somers on her website. I used to use it, but have not tried her new formula. It is a bit cheaper than Swerve. Worth a try. These PB Cups look amazing, definitely need to make them! I’m always looking for good low sugar Chocolate PB treats!
Alyssa | Queen of Quinoa says
Great minds think alike! I just posted my recipe for Dark Chocolate Almond Butter Cups on my site today. Chocolate and nut butters are simply a match made in heaven 🙂
Jeanette says
What a fun re-creation of a childhood favorite treat!
Amber {Sprinkled With Flour} says
These look so tasty, my son would love them!
Russell at Chasing Delicious says
Ooh I’ve always wanted to make homemade peanut butter cups. Yum!
nancy says
Any idea how many calories per serving (1 cup I assume?)
mellissa @ ibreatheimhungry says
Gorgeous!!!!! Are the stevia drops necessary or can I just increase the erythritol because I’m sensitive to Stevia? Just wondering, will try these when I’m done with my Whole 30!
Carolyn says
Yes, you can increase the erythritol…maybe another tablespoon would do it.
claire @ the realistic nutritionist says
These look absolutely fabulous!! 🙂
Tina says
Hi,
I was reading the instruction and it said to add vanilla in the chocolate coating but it did not say how much. I noticed under the peanut butter filling so is it the same amount?
Carolyn says
So sorry, I hate when I to that. It’s all too easy to do when writing recipes. I’ve added the vanilla into the chocolate coating recipe. Thanks for letting me know!
Tina says
Thanks Carolyn, it turned out great in my peanut butter cup mold. Need to smooth the top alittle more. My husband likes it but my daughter does not like the taste of the unsweetened chocolate.
Liz says
Oh, wow, I think you’ve made many, many happy people with this delicious recipe! Peanut butter straight out of the jar doesn’t tempt me in the least, but I could probably eat many handfuls of your gorgeous pb cups!!! They look perfect!
Ann says
I made these this evening, and all I can say is…. OMG!
I didn’t have the smaller-size paper cups, so I used regular muffin papers and placed them in a muffin tin. I made eight peanut butter cups this way and figured that they each have 4.8 grams of effective carbohydrate. The peanut butter I have is a bit drier than it should be, so I added a tablespoon of water to it and then pressed the peanut butter into the chilled chocolate cups with my fingertips. That was fine, but a bit more water would have made the peanut butter a bit smoother. Usually, though, the plain unsalted, unsweetened peanut butter should be great without added moisture. Mine may not have been stirred adequately when I used it to make a peanut butter loaf recently.
Anyway… I will definitely be keeping these on hand. They’re a very satisfying way to satisfy a craving.
Thanks, Carolyn!
Balvinder says
These are cute looking treats. Can I use same amount of sugar in place of erythritol?
Carolyn says
Absolutely.
Emily @ Life on Food says
I can stay away from peanut butter for the most part, not that I try, but when mixed with chocolate there is no stopping me. These look delicious. I don’t know if I made a batch I would be able to stop from eating the whole she-bang.
Roxana | Roxana's Home Baking says
Peanut butter and chocolate is a hard to resist combo. Loving your guilt free cups!
Dawn says
I’m currently making a batch of these — in silicon mini-muffin cups! The ingredients are enough to make exactly 16 of this size. Looking forward to trying them!
Carolyn says
The muffin cups should work perfectly!
Dawn says
They did, and I’m pretty happy with the results. (Yum!) I think I might have put too much butter in the chocolate mixture because it starts melting on one’s fingers right away when they come out of the fridge, so I’m thinking of trying coconut oil next time instead. Obviously there will be a next time.
Carolyn says
They are pretty melty. Otherwise, the chocolate is too hard. But mine didn’t melt at the first touch, so maybe coconut oil or one less tbsp butter?
Donna says
What brand of peanut butter do you use?
Scott says
what is the saturated fat in the peanut butter cups?
Carolyn says
Not sure, probably pretty high. You should enter the ingredients into myfitnesspal, it will tell you. Please keep in mind, saturated fat is NOT the enemy it’s been made out to be.
Michelle H says
I made these yesterday. I used Splenda instead of erythritol (which I normally do). The filling was really good. The chocolate was still too bitter. I did use unsweetened cocoa powder, so wonder if that had something to do with it. They were decent, but I think next time I’ll use a 75% dark chocolate and adjust the sweetener as necessary. Pretty easy to make, just a lot of down time between steps. Thanks for sharing the recipe!
Michelle H says
To add as well, I used a mini muffin tin with mini muffin paper cups and it worked fine. That was one thing I wasn’t sure would work.
Carolyn says
Thanks for the tip!
Carolyn says
Hi Michelle…I think it’s the Splenda, personally. It just doesn’t mix well with Chocolate in my experience. It’s part of the reason I stopped using any sucralose. But yes, try a slightly sweetened chocolate for the coating and it may help if you’re using Splenda.
Michelle H says
I could try something else, but given that Swerve and other erythritols aren’t available at my local grocery store, I went with the Splenda which I already had, and is available.
Eileen s Thomas says
Thank you so much for making it so easy for me to stay on my lo-carb plan. I made these they are so good I used nectresse they were so good.
Carolyn says
Glad to hear it!
Common Sense says
Finally had a chance to try these – wonderful! I used my silicone mini peanut butter cup mold which worked perfectly. I also used pumpkin seed butter and Hershey’s Special Dark cocoa powder so mine were even lower in carbs. Easy, but a bit labor intensive carefully coating the cups with chocolate, etc.
The recipe made 28 mini cups with the following nutritional values from the Sparkpeople calculator:
Calories – 60
Total Fat – 5.83
Saturated Fat – 2.45
Cholesterol – 4.425
Sodium – 30
Total Carbohydrate – 1.7
Dietary Fiber – .93
NET CARBS = .77 per cup
Sugars – .046
Protein – 1.34
Thanks so much for the recipe!
Carolyn says
Great info, thanks!
Lisa W says
Hey, LOVE LOVE LOVE these! I do have a question though. I used Liquid Stevia from Trader Joe’s. It left a bitter aftertaste. Is it the same thing? I added some stevia glycerite and it took that away and they were wonderful, but would love to use what you use. Still trying to make sense of all the sweeteners and the differences within them. Thank you for ALL of your recipes and information!
Carolyn says
I’ve used the liquid stevia from Trader Joe’s before and had no issues, but some people are really, really sensitive to the bitterness of stevia. You might be one of those people.
Jamie Walczynski says
Hello I was just wondering what everyone is using for peanut butter? Peanut butter in a jar is very high in carbs and I just dont know how the nutritional value for carbs can be so low with any random peanut butter. Any help would be great with this I am starting Keto and want a few treats to help out.
Carolyn says
I am not sure where you are getting that peanut butter is “very” high in carbs. A typical serving is 2 tbsp and is usually 6 or 7 g of carbs and 2 or 3 g of fiber. This recipe uses 1/2 cup so 4 servings of peanut butter. But the recipe makes 12 servings of peanut butter cups so every serving only has 1/3 of a serving of peanut butter. So it comes out to about 2 g of carbs and 1 g of fiber per serving. The rest is pretty much chocolate, which if you use unsweetened, is very low carb and very high fiber.
Rachel says
Could I use cacao butter in place or in addition to the butter??
Carolyn says
Don’t sub it altogether, I think it would taste a little strange and not have the right consistency. Try half butter, half cocoa butter.
Rachel says
Ok! I’ll try that, thanks! I’ve got a bunch of cacao butter;)
Wren Tidwell says
So what is the difference between cocoa butter and cacao butter?
Carolyn says
Not sure there is one. Maybe cacao is raw?
Lori says
I made these today but with 70% chocolate as that was all I had. They are really tasty, this is a keeper recipe!
Michael Romero says
Thanks Carolyn, these were absolutely the closest thing to the real deal. I did modify them slightly
by using almond butter and sugar free dark chocolate to make them. I added 2 Tbls of butter to the chocolate and added the vanilla and they came out great. Looking forward to making these again and again.
Kate says
I’m searching through your comments but haven’t seen exactly what I’m looking for, sorry if it’s been asked already!
Can I swap the butter for coconut oil and peanut butter for sunbutter?? My son is allergic to dairy & peanuts and I’m LCHF t1 diabetic! Looking for a shared treat :-P!
Carolyn says
yes and yes!
Faith Parent Hendrickson says
Thank you for this question/answer post! I want to make this with either sun butter or almond butter and NO dairy due to same allergies. <3
Wren Tidwell says
fabulous as always! Carolyn you have set yourself apart as THE go to person when I need a recipe for just about anything. I also used Almond Butter (Justin’s) because I believe the nutritional value of almonds is way better than peanuts. The addition of butter and vanilla just takes it over the top. So delicious!
Carolyn says
Thanks so much, Wren!
Harmonium guide says
These look awesome!!
Maria Bear says
Birthday cake idea … made for my 11 year old…. make recipe in a 9 by 13 pan,,, ist layer pb and second layer chocolate. Top with birthday candles! 🙂
Marie says
Thanks so much for adding in how to make the chocolate shell by hand if sugar free chocolate is not available, We live in a rural area. This recipe has added to my 9 year old son’s quality of life so very much dealing with the disease of childhood diabetes. He can eat this treat and no extra pokes for blood sugar or extra shot needed. Just great blood sugar control. God bless you!
Carolyn says
So glad to hear it, Marie. I hope you will read this post that I just put up for Diabetes Awareness Month! https://alldayidreamaboutfood.com/donating-diabetes-awareness-month/
Cass says
I made these the other day, and they were delicious! I used crunchy peanut butter, and couldn’t find cocoa butter so ended up using coconut butter. I bought some cocoa butter online today so I can follow the recipe precisely next time. With that said, it was delicious, and I have been trying sooo hard to save one to give to someone that I won’t see until Wednesday… I hope just one survives, they’ve been such a hit at home, who knows!
Carolyn says
These are SO delicious. I wanted to pass along though that the net carbs (if you use the ingredients you suggest; subtract fiber; do NOT subtract the erythritol) is actually close to 10g. Jsut worthy of noting for people counting their macros.
Thank you for the recipe!
Carolyn says
You should absolutely be subtracting the erythritol, since it doesn’t affect blood sugar at all for most people. I see this first hand since I test my blood sugar regularly. It’s the only sugar alcohol that has almost zero carb impact.
Christa says
These are a staple in my house – so yummy! I’m wondering if there’s a way to make the chocolate less dark and more ‘milk’ like? Perhaps more cacao butter and Swerve? Not everyone in the family is a fan of dark chocolate.
Christy says
I can’t use peanut butter, possibly bc of mold issues… but when I sub in cashew butter IT TASTES LIKE COOKIE DOUGH!!! I added a bit more of the dairy-free butter to soften it. (Dairy allergy too)
Thank you for these, treats help me stay the course!
Mallory Lanz says
So excited to find this recipe, now I can enjoy my favorite candy again without so much sugar!
Emily Hill says
I love making homemade peanut butter cups. They taste so much better!
Jaide says
I can’t wait to try this!
Kimberly says
Those look fabulous, I can’t wait to try them!
Kristyn Merkley says
These look so tasty and delicious!
Abeer Rizvi says
these look so darn addictive but hey! at least they are healthy 😉
Victoria Olson says
I’ve made this recipe about 10 times for my husband. It has evolved that I use Lily’s chocolate chips and I’ve stopped adding the cocoa butter. They were just too hard, even with half the cocoa butter. I bought/used the Wild brand. Without it, in the fridge, the cups still hold together well and the Lily’s chocolate is very firm, if not hard. We leave some out at room tmperature overnight, the chocolate softens, and has very nice texture which holds together well.
Crissy says
These are sooooo yummy. I followed recipe but ended up using 3 ounces more melted lily’s Chocolate chips and a little more cocoa butter to create the top layer. The flavor is amazing, Made these for my man and he’s super happy. Doesn’t want to share. Lol
Amanda L Grimes says
Absolutely love these!! Have made 3 times so far. I add 2 tsp of powdered peanut butter. I am making them tonight for a work potluck tomorrow! 🙂 Thank you Carolyn! You are truly my go-to for keto desserts!
Emily says
I don’t know what I did wrong! Maybe my muffin cups were too large. I did not have enough chocolate or filling for 12 cups and had to melt another 6 oz of Lily’s + cocoa butter. I made do with the lack of filling. They taste good though!
Carolyn says
How big are your cups??? Sounds like they are pretty big.
Theresa Jackson says
No more THRIVE pop up!!
Carolyn says
Yay!
Amanda says
These are AMAZING! I’ve been keeping them on hand for those crazy cravings 😋
Nicole-Marie C says
I am super excited to make these and use them in your fudgey brownie cupcake recipe!
I do have a question and I’m sorry if it’s been addressed but could I use coconut oil in place of cocoa butter?
Thank you!
Carolyn says
Not if you want them to be firm at room temp! Sorry but coconut oil is hard in the fridge but VERY melty at room temperature.
Pam says
I think I’m going to try Lily’s milk chocolate.
Judy says
Thank you again for a wonderful recipe. question for you though, can we substitute butter with Ghee?
Nadia says
Could someone use a fridge for a longer period of time to set the peanut butter cups, or does it have to be a freezer? My freezer has very little space right now.
Carolyn says
Yep, just takes a bit longer!