These easy Keto Peanut Butter Cups taste like peanut butter fudge with a decadent layer of chocolate. A sugar-free taste sensation! Another sneak peek recipe from my upcoming cookbook. Instructional video included.
Want to hear something funny? My upcoming keto cookbook, The Everyday Ketogenic Kitchen, has been hanging around in the top 3 New Releases in BAKING on Amazon. This says as much about you, my dear readers, as it does about me. Amazon tracks what readers are looking at and buying, and that’s partly how the algorithm decides on the appropriate categories. Of course, my book falls under low carb diet and ketogenic diet, and it’s doing very well there too. But the fact that it’s ranking so well among baking cookbooks tells me that many of you love baking as much as I do.
And yeah, these delicious and easy Keto Peanut Butter Cups are in the book!
Baking is my happy place and I know many of you share that sentiment. For people who love to bake, it is not simply a means to an end. As much as I love the treats that come out of the oven when the timer goes off (and I do, I really do!), it’s the process itself that makes it so enjoyable. Many people believe that living a low-carb, ketogenic lifestyle means you have to sacrifice the many joys of baking. This could not be further from the truth. What could be more satisfying than knowing you have baked something outrageously delicious, and never once strayed from your nutritional goals?!
That is what I set out to prove in The Everyday Ketogenic Kitchen. I have dedicated an entire section to baking, with tips, tricks, and of course mouthwatering recipes. All to help you flawlessly navigate your way through the crazy (and crazy fun!) world of low-carb, high-fat baking. 
Below is a sneak peek of The Everyday Ketogenic Kitchen baking section. And because I can never let you walk away empty handed, I am sharing one of my favourite easy recipes from the book too. Trust me, you want to run to your kitchen and make these Easy Keto Peanut Butter Cups. For all my fellow peanut butter lovers, check out this how-to video!
Ketogenic Baking Tips
- Use properly softened butter and cream cheese. Properly softened butter and cream cheese dent easily when you press into them, but they still maintain their overall shape without squishing all over the place. In a pinch? 10 seconds in the microwave is often enough.
- Don’t pack your ingredients unless specified. When measuring out almond flour or other low carb flours, use the scoop-and-level method. Use a measuring cup to scoop out the flour, and then level it off with a knife. Pressing the ingredients down into the measuring cup can significantly change the amount and throw of the proportions.
- Liberally grease your baking pans.Because ketogenic recipes lack gluten, they can sometimes stick a little bit more. I often “double grease” my pans, first with a coat of butter and then by them spraying coconut oil spray.
- No, you can’t swap almond flour for coconut flour.Well, you can, but you’d have to change the rest of the recipe too: less coconut flour, more eggs, more oil, more liquid. Substituting either of these makes for a completely different recipe and there is no good formula for subbing one for the other, in my opinion.
- Let things cool properly.I know, I know, it can be really hard to resist cutting into that cake or grabbing a cookie when it’s warm from the oven. But besides the risk of burning your tongue, the goodies in question may fall to pieces if you dig in too soon!
You can find all of my essential keto baking tips and “dos and don’ts” in my best-selling cookbook, The Everyday Ketogenic Kitchen.
Easy Peanut Butter Cups
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup peanut butter
- 1/4 cup butter
- 3 ounces cacao butter, chopped
- 1/3 cup powdered Swerve Sweetener
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 4 ounces sugar-free dark chocolate
Instructions
- Line a 12-cup muffin tin with parchment paper cupcake liners. Alternatively, you can use silicone muffin cups.
- Melt the peanut butter, butter, and cacao butter together in a medium saucepan over low heat, stirring until smooth. Stir in the sweetener and vanilla extract until well combined and no lumps remain.
- Divide the mixture among the prepared muffin cups and refrigerate until firm, about 1 hour.
- Set a heatproof bowl set over a pan of barely simmering water. Put the chocolate in the bowl and stir until melted and smooth. Drizzle about 1 teaspoon over each peanut butter cup and spread to the edges. Return the cups to the refrigerator until set, another 10 to 15 minutes.
- Store in the refrigerator. Keeps for up to a week.
Nutrition
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I only ended using half the sweetener, because peanut butter has its own natural sweetness. I had my hubby taste the liquid filling to check if it was sweet enough. He declared it was missing “something”. He added 1/4 teaspoon habanero pepper. I finished the recipe as is. It’s an interesting addition. It works I think.
I made these tonight. Sooo good! I used a 100% cocoa bar instead of a sweetened one. I found the peanut butter part sweet enough! I also made them smaller and ended up with a ton!
These PBC’s are delicious! They must have the highest yummy to effort ratio of any recipe you’ve ever come up with!
Congrats on the book launch.
Denise
Have been on a keto diet now for a few months and just getting into keto desserts…not sure what took me so long! I have to say, these are pretty tasty and my non-keto hub thought they were great too. I did add some liquid stevia to the chocolate layer though because it was just too bitter without it.
Omggggggg so good! I ordered cocoa butter the day I received this recipe in my email, cause it sounded so delicious! Just got my cocoa butter from
Amazon today (a little scary, I’ve never used it and it wasn’t the cheapest experimental ingredient!)
For some reason I decided to “ganache” my chocolate topping. Don’t think I’d do that again. Made it too thick and unpourable. I ended up just dolloping it on top, and it still flattened … mostly. I did add sweetener to the chocolate layer as well.
I sprinkled them all with sea salt at the end. They honestly taste just like Reese’s PB cups to me! I made 24 mini ones in foil cupcake liners and that worked great. I’m gonna have to send some to work with the hubs tomorrow, cause I can not be trusted!
Thanks so much for all your great work!
AMAZING!! You seriously have THE best recipes, I made these today and am not sure how I have lived without them.. I am so excited for your cookbook.
Thank you!
These are straight-up Delicious. Easy and Quick to Make. Everyone: GO! Make These Now. =))
Thank you!
I made these. I ordered the cacao butter from Amazon. They were pretty easy, but the chocolate part was too bitter. Next time I make them I’m going to add Swerve to the chocolate mixtures.
What brand of sugar-free chocolate did you use?
Made half a recipe because I was afraid I’d be too tempted with a whole recipe and THEY ARE DELICIOUS!!! Thanks for doing the hard work for us – really appreciate it!
Any plans for this to come out on ebook? I do love paperback cookbooks, but I plan menus often while at my kids’ many activities and ebooks travel so well! I’m planning to buy it either way, though.
Yes, it will be out on Kindle soon after the print version comes out. Almost right away, in fact.
Guess I know one of the things I’ll be doing tomorrow!!
Same question about Cavso Butter!
Hi! Thank you and I’ll try this for a potluck in August.
But I’ve noticed in your recipes that sometimes you use erythritol and sometimes you use “swerve’. With so many sweeteners out there, would you please consider just adding a ‘sugar equivalent’ to your recipes? Then whatever sweetener we are using, we can work it out ourselves if need be?
Swerve is not available in my shops, but I buy an erythritol/stevia sweetener at my bulk store that I can use 1:1 for sugar. So I’d need to know when you say ‘erythritol’ do you mean a 1:1 type or do you mean something different? I had to look up Swerve and I think it says it is used 1:1 as well, but please confirm.
Thank you! It would take a lot of confusion out if you’d do this. I also tend to move around the world for work, so even my own recipe books have the sugar equivalent in parentheses for when I need to switch sweeteners.
Almost all of my current recipes state Swerve. You can use straight erythritol but it’s not as sweet as Swerve (plain erythritol is only 70% as sweet as sugar) so you may need to add more or add 1/4 tsp liquid stevia extract. In my upcoming book, I have a sweetener equivalency choice. Remember, sweetness is a matter of preference too so you should be tasting and adding more sweetener as you see fit.
Where do you get cacao butter? I’ve never seen it
It’s ‘cocoa butter’ and it comes from the cacao plant where we also get chocolate. In addition, the cacao nibs that are becoming so popular finally in the US are just cocoa nibs. Again, the plant is called ‘cacao’ not the nibs. Easily confused I guess unless you are a botanist 😉
It says cacao butter in the ingredients, was that a mistake?
No, it’s not a mistake. The two terms can be use interchangeably.
Where will you find it at in the grocery store?
I’ve never seen it in a regular grocery store. I’ve seen it in health food stores and Whole Foods-type places. I order mine online, though. I buy a bag and break it in little pieces with a meat tenderizer mallet. It’s much cheaper than buying it in pastilles/wafers. https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B015JN6E66/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1501206618&sr=8-2-spons&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=cacao+butter+organic+raw&psc=1
Carolyn, you mentioned that you use salted peanut butter. What brand did you use, so that I can duplicate yours for the purpose of knowing the exact carb count? Thank you – they look absolutely outstanding.
I think I was finishing the last of a Trader Joe’s jar. I kind of hop around in my PB. I actually like Skippy Natural best, even though it has a little sugar in it (still comes to less g carbs per serving than most PB). I like Justin’s but there’s no salted kind.
These look yummy! Can you freeze them? Thanks.
Sure, they will freeze just fine.
I love your peanut butter cups and make them pretty much weekly. My husband (who eats low carb but not keto) asks for them all the time. I’m excited to try these out so that we have a similar treat that doesn’t have to stay in the fridge during them Summer.
They are good at room temperature but if it’s really hot out they will be melty…like any chocolate candy!
Question ….did you use salted or unsalted for the butter and peanut butter?
SALTED! 🙂 Definitely you want salted for the peanut butter. I like salt so I used salted for the butter too.
Carolyn, have seen that you prefer Justin’s peanut butter in another comment. Made these smashing treats last night. Used Smuckers; it came out of the jar soupy. All other ingredients according to recipe. The cups took forever to firm up and they soften up quickly out of the fridge. Another person mentioned Skippy – could that make a difference? Why not firm up the filling with a little coconut flour? I’m really enjoying your Everyday Ketogenic Kitchen – hard to choose where to start.
Last question: I rode on Holly’s coattails because it wasn’t clear how to post an original comment. What am I missing?
You can use skippy. I personally would not use coconut flour in this but that’s up to you.
My grandbaby (and his parents and me and the hubs) will LOVE these. So easy! And, as with many of your recipes, I already have the ingredients in my pantry. Bonus.
Thank you for sharing a glimpse of your new cookbook… can’t wait until it is solidly in my hands. =))
Thanks, Karen!
Hi Carolyn,
Can anything be used in place of the cacao butter?
No, it’s the only thing that gives these enough firmness so that they don’t become goo at room temperature.